This week the British Retail Consortium called for the introduction of a scheme similar to the car scrappage initiative but this time for white goods.

They argued that there would be environmental benefits in encouraging people to ditch equipment that is 10 years old or more for new energy efficient products. 

Unfortunately their timing was not great as it coincided with a DEFRA report stating that 1 in 4 electrical products are not as efficient as is claimed by their energy label. DEFRA reported that this lack of compliance was due to it being a low priority for trading standard officers and because fines for companies that mis-sold are incredibly low.

We are increasingly seeing organisations such as the British Retail Consortium using environmental reasoning as a thin veneer for trying to encourage people to buy more of their stuff. If the BRC was truly interested in environmental savings they would have called for higher penalties for mis-selling and a campaign to raise this issue higher up the agenda for trading standards alongside the proposed scrappage scheme.

The environment and recession

More evidence emerged this week on the impact of the recession on environmental issues. It does seem that economic pressures are encouraging people to change their habits to be more frugal. Councils are finding that the total amount of rubbish that people are throwing away is decreasing. 

For example, Birmingham City Council has calculated that the rubbish they are dealing with has dropped 8% this year. They conclude that this is because people are making do and mending rather than buying new. There is also a growth in use of sites that encourage people to swap or sell unwanted items.

On the downside the recession is hitting investment in much needed new green technology. For instance the growth in global investment in renewable energy in the second half of 2008 was 23% lower than a year earlier

When the economy picks up it will be interesting to see whether people stick to their changed habits or whether they revert back to more wasteful ways and also whether investment in green industries picks up rapidly.

Goodbye Jonathan

Jonathan Porritt has recently stood down from being the Chair of the excellent Sustainable Development Commission and has been featured in many articles reflecting on his time at the Government's environmental watchdog. 

When I joined Friends of the Earth he was the Director of the organisation and was a brilliant campaigner. He had an uncanny mixture of being both rebellious and at the same time accepted by the establishment. Brilliantly articulate, massively hard-working and somewhat unpredictable he was the perfect head for a lobby group.

His time within the mainstream has obviously been much harder. It was clearly difficult to strike a balance between the need to be critical and at the same time having to play the establishment games. 

His successor, William Day, will find it even harder. He is far less well known on the media and environmental circuits and he will be acutely aware that the Conservatives might not want to continue funding a sometimes prickly watchdog. Let us hope that he keeps Jonathan's campaigning principles but links them with a slightly more politically savvy approach.

Breton Bikes

I have just spent a week's holiday cycling in Brittany with a company called Breton Bikes. It was a fantastically relaxing break. The bikes and directions were provided and all we had to do was cycle on beautifully peaceful lanes and paths to fairly basic hotels that usually served excellent food. 

There have been numerous articles in the UK recently about cycling being the new cool but we really need to look to our French neighbours to see how proper planning and respect from car drivers can truly embed cycling into our culture.