This Week: The sad decline of Envolve, getting B&NES to sign up for new powers, US election fallout, eco-burgers and tamed tornados…
END OF ERA AS ENVOLVE WOUND UP
Bath sustainability partnership Envolve, who began life on George Street as the Bath Environment Centre, has been wound up. The Ethical Property Company is to take over the management of Green Park Station from Envolve, marking the end of an era.
Most of Envolve's services will continue, but have been taken over by different agencies in a massive restructuring program. Envolve's Education Team for example, has been taken over by another company, Resource Futures, who are based in Bristol at the CREATE Centre. The Education Team staff, Jane Talbot, Chris Townsend and Sue Cameron will still be based at Green Park Station. Envolve’s director Chris Head has joined Community Action, who work with Bath & North East Somerset, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire councils to improve public services to people in rural areas.
The Ethical Property Company has a great deal of experience in managing property in an ethical and sustainable way and told greenbath that they hoped to hold sustainability events at Green park Station while keeping its essential nature unchanged.
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES ACT CAMPAIGN
Transition Bath wants B&NES to sign up to the Sustainable Communities Act. The 2007 Act allows councils to make social, economic or environmental proposals to the Government rather than having proposals imposed on them – but to use the radical new bottom-up powers councils must first opt in. You can download a letter urging your councillor to get behind the act here.
BRISTOL TOP OF SUSTAINABLE LEAGUE
Bristol has topped a green league table of Britain’s twenty largest cities. It has more work to do on transport, though. According to Helen Clarkson, director of the sustainable development organisation Forum of the Future: "People said public transport was a joke and a lot of people would much rather cycle because of the price of bus fares and the congestion.”
http://tinyurl.com/6rp2sr
POUND STRETCHER
A possible stocking filler for you: the story of Bristol’s Kath Kelly, who made it her mission to survive on a quid a day for year. An inspirational tale, comprehensive directory of organisations and websites and practical guide that will get you blackberry picking and more, ‘How I Lived a Year on Just a Pound a Day’ is published by Redcliffe Press priced £6.99.
BARRAGE LECTURE
Neil Crumpton of FoE Cymru and the Department of Energy's Seven Tidal Study Environmental Assessment steering group is presenting a lecture on the controversial Severn Barrage project at 7.30pm on Tuesday 25th November at the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution, 16 Queen Square. FoE Cymru prefer offshore lagoons...
FUNGI FORAY
Do you know your Beefsteak Fungus from your Shaggy Scale Cap? Well there’s a great chance to find out on the morning of Sunday 16 November, when local mycologist Justin Smith leads a Fungi Foray in Carrs Woodland in Twerton. To book your place, telephone Miriam on 01225 477612. More details on greenbath.org’s packed events pages…
RECESSION WATCH: UK TRAFFIC DOWN
In ews from further afield, traffic on Britain's roads is decreasing significantly for the first time since the three-day week of the early 1970s.
http://tinyurl.com/59hyd6
LONDON GARDENING TO GO THROUGH ROOF
Londoners will be encouraged to turn flat roofs into vegetable plots under plans unveiled by Boris Johnson.
http://tinyurl.com/6f9nuw
US ELECTION
Not content to rest on his laurels as head of one of the most anti-environmental and pro-industry administrations in recent US history, in one of the last acts of his presidency George Bush is posed to relax regulations on uranium mining, mountaintop coalmining and air pollution in some of his country’s most pristine regions. Sniff! We’ll miss you, Dubbya!
http://tinyurl.com/64e2qv
Seven of 12 congressmen known as the "Dirty Dozen" for consistently voting against clean energy and conservation lost their seats in the election, leaving US environmentalists hoping Obama will bring their country into the "international fold".
http://tinyurl.com/5mj54c
Sounding a note of caution, the Telegraph’s environment editor Charles Clover warns that Obama’s task is daunting given that half of America’s voters “seem to have some doubts that man-made global warming exists”.
http://tinyurl.com/5snq4d
GREENWASH OF THE WEEK
In a bizarre new race to attract environmentally conscious customers, American chain stores are about to roll out scores of ready-designed ‘eco-outlets’. McDonalds are especially pleased with their low-flow toilets and urinals, which use less water without “the usual clogging”.
http://tinyurl.com/6aapck
GREEN INVENTION OF THE WEEK
We love this one. Canadian engineer Louis Michaud reckons his bonkers “atmospheric vortex engine” can create mile-high, 100mph tornados and make them spin indefinitely, generating a cheap, virtually limitless source of energy. Nothing can possibly go wrong.
http://tinyurl.com/6mapaj
This week's Green Digest was compiled by Gideon Kibblewhite and Madeline Kelly.
Let Gideon know if you've seen a story you think he should cover. This
digest appears every Tuesday, except when it's a bit late. To subscribe
visit greenbath.org/og, create a user id if you don't already have one, and subscribe to Bath Green News.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
greenbath.org is sponsored by Ace Energy, your local renewable energy experts. Call 01225 729005 to find out how you could cut your carbon footprint and save money.
