Turning iron into greenery

This post, somewhat strangely, was influenced by a recent episode of BBC Gardeners World....

This was not about some nice cottage garden in Wiltshire, or the grand expanse outside a stately home, but rather an old factory. In Germany.

Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord is in North Rhine Westphalia. Judging by the photos of it now, it is hard to believe that in early 1985, this place was still a working ironworks.

One of the old bunkers converted into a garden (Wikimedia Commons)

In April 1985, the Thyssen ironworks closed down, and it lay dormant for several years. But then in 1991, Peter Latz and partners won a contract to design a new landscaped park on the site. Unlike others, Latz decided to keep and fully incorporate the old buildings on this 180ha site, preserving as much as he possibly could. 

He even went as far as designing in the retention of all the polluted soils. Rather than excavating and replacing them, they were filled with plants that could achieve phytoremediation, that is, using plants called hyperaccumulators to clean the soil! Such plants include many from the mustard and cabbage family; the bioaccelerate, degrade or render harmless, many contaminants including heavy metals and organic pollutants.

The ironworks structures were turned into features of the park, and the site was divided into separate areas which were then joined together by a thread of pathways and waterways, using the old railway and sewage systems for guidance. The park opened in 1994, and now regularly gets around a million visitors a year. The Guardian newspaper, here in the UK, added it to its list of the ten most beautiful urban oases in the world.

The frames of the old ironworks buildings stand out, but have been softened as nature regains old ground (Wikimedia Commons)

Some of the ingenious design features include;

• Old ore bunkers turned into intimate spaces, such as alpine gardens.
• An old gas tank used as a massive pool for scuba divers.
• The old concrete walls retained for use by rock climbers.
• The middle of the steel mill is now the grand central piazza.
• The Casthouse has a high-ropes course set-up.
• The blast furnace has had a viewing tower added to it.
• For the kids - a massive tube slide goes through two of the bunkers; and there is also a children's farm and multiple play areas.

The site has around 700 plant species contained there, and it is now a popular site for artists, dog walkers, cyclists, architecture students and more.

This is a great story about, in essence, recycling and reusing, but just on a grand scale. The sustainable impact of such a place is huge - no mass displacement of waste or polluted soil, not much virgin material added, hectares of new woodland and gardens, all wrapped up in something that has become a vital community resource.

But such an urban park is not the first, nor is it the only one - although it may be one of the more impressive ones.

And now, London is set to become the first so-called National Park City. The National Park City Foundation is a registered charity that has worked with the Salzburg Global Seminar and World Urban Parks to formulate a Universal Charter of National Park Cities - which aims to provide a framework and key principles to work by. The Charter says a National Park City is;

"A place, a vision and a city-wide community that is acting together to make life better for people, wildlife and nature. A defining feature is the widespread commitment to act so people, culture and nature work together to provide a better foundation for life.
It is a timely cultural choice, a commitment to a sense of place and way of life that sustains people and nature in cities and beyond.
People and cities around the world can draw from the goals, principles and aspirations of this Universal Charter for National Park Cities."

London launched this status with a festival last month, with 300 events across the city to help people with a 'free celebration of the great outdoors.' Dr Cecily Maller says of this initiative in London;

"In the past, cities have been considered impoverished forms of nature compared to places such as national parks, but this is changing."

This change is necessary, as the UN predicts that almost two-thirds of the world's population will live in cities by 2050. Other urban rewilding comes with 'wildlife gardening'; that is, removing some of the weed plants that choke native species, adding in water features, adding / retaining trees, and re-introducing more native species. This can create 'safe spots' for wildlife to survive in, such as the brush turkeys that returned to Brisbane in the 1970s, because residents planted the rainforest plants that they like. Maller adds;

"Research has shown that cities provide important habitats for a wide range of species, including those that might be endangered or under threat. We undervalue the richness of nature in urban areas by positioning nature and humanity as inherently separate." 

Research:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landschaftspark_Duisburg-Nord 

https://www.landschaftspark.de/en/

https://www.london.gov.uk/what-we-do/environment/parks-green-spaces-and-biodiversity/london-national-park-city

http://www.nationalparkcity.london/national-park-city-foundation

https://npc-universal-charter.netlify.com/

Transform Magazine: 'Into the wild' -May 2019

The need to change is now!

So, sitting in my study at the end of a day spent in London when it was at least 32­°C and not all that much lower several hours later, brings my mind back to some of the stuff I was looking at when I first thought about this blog.

Back at the end of last year, the UK Met Office released its first set of climate predictions in almost 10 years; the UK Climate Projections 2018 (UKCP18). These look at four potential climate scenarios in the UK, and how they would pan out over the coming decades. 

This report is useful for planning purposes, and has become even more pertinent given the government legislating for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, to try and do our part in keeping global temperature rises down to around 1.5°C. Also, there has been the rise in prominence of things like Extinction Rebellion, climate emergencies and student activism through people such as Greta Thunberg.

As some background, the report shows some interesting observations for where we find ourselves at the moment, including;

• Average temperature over the decade up to 2017 was 0.3°C warmer than 1981-2010 average, and 0.8°C warmer than 1961-1990
• 9 of the 10 warmest years in the UK have happened since 2002
• In 1961-1990, the average hottest day was 26°C. 
• In the last decade the average was 0.8°C warmer
• Average rainfall, especially in Scotland, has increased over the last two decades.
• There has been a 4% increase in Scotland against the 1981-2010 average
• 2008-2017 – UK summers were an average 17% wetter than 1981-2010, and 20% wetter than 1961-1990
• Mean sea level on the UK coast has risen 16cm (6.3 in) since the start of the 20^th century 

UKCP18 maps out 4 nattily titled Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) to demonstrate the potential effects. We are starting to use this in our business as a means to demonstrate to senior management that there are likely to be quite severe risks (and maybe some opportunities) that need to be faced even when trying to do 'business as usual' - and the more prepared and flexible a business is, the more chance it has of staying in the game (and therefore be sustainable).

As a business, we have taken RCP2.6 - which assumes that loads of stuff is achieved, and we tackle much of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) problem, and RCP8.0 - which assumes almost nothing is done to tackle GHG's at all, completely out of the equation.

Instead we focus on the moderate projections of RCP4.5 and 6.0 (i.e. some actions will be taken, but probably not enough to meet the 1.5 - 2°C scenarios).

1. Moderate projections show that by mid-century, average summer temperatures will increase by around 2-3°C (and possibly 4°C in southern England), and by around 1-3°C in the winter.
2. Moderate projections show that by mid-century, average summer rainfall will decrease by around 10% in northern Scotland and up to 40% along the southern English coast, while increasing by up to 40% in parts of northern Scotland, and 10-30% elsewhere, in the winter.

So what?
There are still a frightening number of people who cannot connect the dots between scientific evidence, the changing weather patterns they have been witnessing over the last few decades, and the potential impacts these changes have, and may more frequently have in the future, on our lives. 

Even worse, there are those that see all of this, and choose to ignore it. There are more than a few politicians who fall into one or other of these camps, naming no orange-skinned, toupee wearing names in particular.

Even though we hear that many of the more catastrophic impacts will be felt elsewhere in the world (so no need to panic, eh) - it always seems to be the poorest people that bear the brunt of this - with increased likelihoods of tropical storms, severe flooding and prolonged drought periods. 

Here in the UK there will almost certainly still be some harsh impacts. Failure to take heed of these will cost us a lot of money (and probably quite a bit more than the cost of properly preparing ourselves), and ultimately, it may cost many lives as well!

How might it look to us?

• Increased flood events - remember the devastation of the flooding in the SW in 2014, or Storm Desmond the following year? Those kind of one in a hundred and one in a decade storms, are becoming much more frequent.
• More high winds - that equals more power lines down, building damage etc. (and then too dangerous conditions for anyone to fix them)
• Prolonged dry periods - will put pressure on water resources, will cause areas to become more prone to wildfires, and dry out soil leading to erosion and compacted ground (which in turn, increased the negative effects of flooding)
• Higher storm surges - leading to increased coastal erosion and damage
• Water scarcity = water rationing
• All of the above = disruption to movement of goods and services; so harder for our food and medicines to get to where they need to be, harder for emergency services to respond, harder for key staff to get into work to fix some of the problems that occur

If you look at the centre boxes to the left - you can get an idea of how summer precipitation may look by the latter part of the century, using the moderate projections.

It is showing a more than reasonable likelihood of rainfall decreasing by at least 10-20%, with areas of the south and south-west getting up towards 30-40% decreases.

While I have said to ignore the more extreme RCP8.5 scenario, you can very clearly see the potential result of doing little or nothing over the next few decades. Those dark brown splodges over the southern half of England indicate rainfall decreasing up to 80%!

And no one should be laughing, because even the places that get off 'lightly' will see rainfall decrease by around 40-50%.

There isn't much to laugh about when looking at the temperature either.

Again, look at the moderate projections for our summer temperatures by late this century. Most of the southern half of England is looking at possible mean temperature rises of maybe 4 or 5°C.

You may say, 'so what?' 
But that could mean your typical August day being 30° instead of 25°C - and a very hot day being 37°C instead of 32° (and I use that example, because it was at least 32° today)!

And like before, look at the possible implications for taking no action on climate change. The top right box (the most extreme of the probabilities) is almost off-the-chart dark red - showing potential mean temperature rises of 8°C or more across all of England, Wales and southern Scotland!










The accusation, and with a degree of truth, that has previously been made of climate scientists, is that there messages are always all 'doom and gloom', and that they aren't very good at discussing the subject in terms that people can, or want, to relate to.

This is fair - and five or ten years ago, we should have been talking less about apocalypses and catastrophes - and more about how the changes we need to make will also make for a world that is much more pleasant to live in (less air pollution, more trees, more green spaces etc.). 

And while that is all still largely a true reflection of what we could have if we get it right - because, to some degree, we didn't get the message across very well and it has been largely ignored - we are now really teetering on the edge of the precipice. 

Research:
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/collaboration/ukcp

Jeans to get designed for the better

The fashion industry is finally starting to come to the sustainability party! 

While it has long been seen as the bad boy of environmental good practice, there are signs that things are starting to change. The latest reflection of this, are the Jeans Redesign Guidelines, developed by the Ellen MacCarthur Foundation, through their Make Fashion Circular initiative.

These guidelines represent effort by fashion brands and manufacturers to transform how they produce jeans - which has long been one of the most toxic of all the clothing processes. The guidelines aim to tackle waste, pollution and harmful practices, and build on the C2C Gold Certificate that was a joint initiative between C&A and Fashion For Good.

They feature a minimum set of requirements covering durability, material health, recyclability and traceability, all based on the principles of circular economy (championed by the Ellen MacCarthur Foundation). Jeans made by using these guidelines will last longer, be easier to recycle, made in a way that is better for the environment, and for the better health of the garment workers.

Confirmed brands already involved include;

Arvind Limited, Bestseller, C&A, GAP, H&M, Hirdaramani, Lee Jeans, Mud Jeans, Outerknown and Tommy Hilfiger.

Clothing recycling specialist who have confirmed support include;

Recover, Circular Systems, HKRITA, Infinited Fiber Company, Tylon Biosciences LLC, Wolkat and Worn Again.

Francois Souchet from Make Fashion Circular, says;

"The way we produce jeans is causing huge problems with waste and pollution, but it doesn't have to be this way. By working together we can create jeans that last longer, that can be remade into new jeans at the end of their use, and are made in ways which are better for the environment and the people that make them."

The new guidelines include;

• Jeans must be able to stand up to at least 30 domestic washes
• They must have garment labels with clear information on product care
• They should be produced using cellulose fibres from regenerative, organic or transitional farming methods
• The cellulose fibres must make up at least 98% of the garment (by weight)
• Metal rivets should be designed out, or kept to an absolute minimum
• They must be made free from hazardous chemicals and conventional electroplating
• Stonefinishing, Potassium Permanganate and sandblasting are all prohibited

There should also be traceability - with information included relating to each element of these guideline requirements. Brands will then be eligible to use the Jeans Redesign Logo, but all organisations will be reassessed annually, based on their compliance with reporting requirements.

The first pairs of jeans to bear this logo are due on sale in 2020.

Research:
https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/news/make-fashion-circular-launches-the-jeans-redesign
https://circom.co.uk/jeans-redesign-ellen-macarthur-foundation-launches-new-circular-economy-guidelines/
https://fashionunited.uk/news/fashion/make-fashion-circular-launches-jeans-redesign/2019071744295

Climate and Carbon: where is the UK at?

The UK governments recent announcement that we will aim for net-zero with carbon emissions by 2050, and for it to be enshrined in law, is a big step forward. 

A recent climate conference in London pointed out that achieving this target would put us in line with the projected outcomes for a +1.5°C world (that is, of course, assuming the entire rest of the world took a similar stance), rather than the far worse +2 to +4°C scenarios.

This conference also pointed out several key things about the UK's carbon journey over the last few decades, and how it is shaping up for the next few (the squeamish might want to look away now);

• The Climate Change Act 2008 committed us to an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 - against a 1990 baseline.
• Unfortunately, in the almost 30 years since 1990, we have only achieved about 30% - meaning there is another 70% or so to find in the next 30 years!
• One good point is that it seems that financially it shouldn't cost much more to realise the 100% target instead of 80%.
• We are currently on a target for the +3°C scenario at our current rate of action.
• But - there is a lot we can achieve relatively quickly - with some willpower and a bit of cash.
• Speed up the rate of Electric Vehicle Charge Point (EVCP) installation to meet the growing demand (it is currently way behind schedule). 
• This would also instil the confidence in more people that the infrastructure will be properly available if they choose to buy an EV.
• Continue investment in alternative fuel vehicles, especially at the heavy (truck) end. 
• It currently seems to be very hard to see past diesel - biodiesel is seen to be more damaging to engine components; hydrogen has potential but is hard to get a hold of; the same with CNG (Compressed Natural Gas).
• EV trucks may not be such a pipe dream. 
• A lot of work is being done on things like wireless on-road charging - such as the electric rail under the carriageway that can charge a vehicle as it moves along the road (a 2km demo section was laid in Sweden - they say, at €1m per km, it is around 50 times cheaper than laying urban tram lines). 
• And the added bonus for trucks, is that this kind of technology would mean that battery sizes would be reduced - which is a current stumbling block for trucks at the moment.
• Upgrades of domestic boilers from gas to smart electric. 
• This issue will be time, willpower and coordination rather than cost.

So there clearly needs to be a lot of focus - by government, by business leaders, and by financial markets (who put pressure on both of the other two to make changes). They all need to start to work in tandem on this, and they need to start right around now.

This also has to be replicated around the world - if not the 3°C, or frighteningly, the 4°C are more likely without this global action.

As an example: many of you will be aware that coral reefs have been struggling over recent decades. Warming oceans ruin the symbiosis enjoyed between the coral polyps and the algae needed for their survival. If the world achieves its hoped for limiting of global warming to just 1.5°C by 2050 - the estimate is that up to 90% of all coral reefs will still die. If global warming hits the +2°C mark, that estimate is more like 99%!

***
Of course, all this is not to belittle all the smaller changes we can also make as individuals, as families, as businesses and as consumers.

Agricultural practice has a huge impact on global carbon emissions, currently coming in at around 15% . And red meat, especially beef, is one of the big culprits;

• Producing beef takes 28 times more land, and uses 11 times more water, than pork
• Cutting out 1 beef meal a week (100g / 4oz) will reduce your carbon emissions by 1.3kg
• That's 67.6kg / person / year!
• If 1 million meat lovers did that - this would eliminate over 67,000 tonnes of carbon a year.

Other small things that make a difference if we all do them include;

• Switch off your IT equipment when not in use - monitors, printers etc. overnight
• Don't idle your car unnecessarily
• Consider public transport over your car whenever possible
• Recycle whatever you can - waste in landfill gives huge amounts of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) including CO2

So, while we need to focus on the BIG stuff - keep on doing the LITTLE stuff. As a certain supermarket says - 'every little helps'.

Research:
https://timeforchange.org/eat-less-meat-co2-emission-of-food
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/21/giving-up-beef-reduce-carbon-footprint-more-than-cars 
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/great-barrier-reef-faces-dire-threat-with-2c-global-warming-un-report-says

Did Glasto beat the plastic?

The official Glastonbury website, back in February this year, informed attendees that no single-use plastic bottles would be available at the festival this year, and that was to include backstage, catering and even dressing rooms. The message on the website was, "leave this beautiful countryside in the state that it deserves."

To encourage the use of reusable water bottles, 850 refill taps were to be available, additional Water Aid stations, as well as free tap water refills at all onsite bars.

If you go back to the previous festival in 2017, they processed a staggering 45 tonnes of aluminium cans onsite at the end of the weekend! And with vendors now going to be selling more canned soft drinks, this volume is expected to be much higher for 2019. But the ban on single-use bottles should lead to a significant reduction in plastic recycling, from the 40 tonnes they got through two years ago, when figures are known.

It's also worth noting that there was only wooden cutlery for food, paper plates, and even biodegradable confetti for the big bang stage effects! And to top it off, Sir David Attenborough appeared on the Pyramid Stage to reinforce the no plastic message, pointing out that one million fewer plastic bottles would be in circulation because of the site ban.

(Clean up begins - photo: Press Association)

Lucy Wagstaffe, reporting for Euronews, attended the weekend, and said that while the message was good, there was up to a 30 minute wait to get your free water refill, despite their being around 850 taps to choose from. Initial reports indicated that many more had heeded the request to take away tents, although an early figure of over 99% removal rate, has since been downgraded to more like 93% - either way this shows a drastic improvement on two years ago.

While there was a ban on plastics being sold inside, there were no moves to stop people bringing their own plastic in, and unfortunately many tonnes of the stuff still came in and was inextricably strewn across the massive site, despite an abundance of bins (around 15,000) and a recycling centre.

Now, a week after the festival ended, a clean-up crew of over 1,000 volunteers is well on the way to getting the site back to shape and ready to receive it's more normal clientele - cows. But it is expected that the full transformation may take up to six weeks in total, as they wade through mountains of discarded camping chairs, inflatable mattresses and flip flops!

It also turned out that the onsite Co-op store didn't get the eco-message for the weekend. They were still selling plenty of items in non-recyclable packaging. But overall, the BBC reported from the onsite recycling team, that they had confirmed 'a massive reduction in the amount of plastic on the site this year - the least ever seen, by a distance.'

Many news sites and papers were quick to jump on the before and after with the plastic story, and point out that despite the strong message from festival organisers, the mess was the same as ever and that this, somehow, ruined the festivals environmental message.

Fullfact.Org looked into this, and found that many of the post-festival litter strewn photos that have been shared in the last week or so on social media and the press, are in fact old ones. One common one they saw, was actually a Press Association photo from the 2015 festival. It has been pointed out that most of the big festivals now, use similar clean-up systems, and indeed there have been many other non-music events in recent years that also produce high levels of litter - Royal Ascot and the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge being mentioned, amongst others.

The final word goes to helper, Gillian Hodgson, talking to Somerset Live, who said that, "I picked up litter last year too, and there was far less this time around. People really made an effort this year.... The only things in our non-recyclable waste bags was the odd crisp packet and loads of fag ends. Dropping fag ends is the thing we would like people to stop doing. There were thousands of them on the ground each morning."  

From:
BBC News
Euronews.com
SomersetLive.co.uk
Glastonburyfestival.co.uk
EnergyLiveNews.com

Will the UK have enough places to charge your electric car?

Back in the days of Blair and Brown, diesel vehicles were king!

'Buy a diesel' they said - the carbon emissions are much lower than those horrible petrol cars, and you get a much higher mpg rate to boot. This, of course, is true, but we have come to see the major flaw with this policy - that of the horrible levels of particulate matter (PM) they produce, clogging up our urban atmospheres, and worst of all, our lungs!

A UK government report in 2017 on public health, estimated around 40,000 deaths a year in the UK may at least partly be attributable to the effects of air pollution. That puts a tremendous strain on the NHS and social care services, to the tune of £40 million or more!

So, when the next government realised that the diesel love-in couldn't continue, they had to make changes, but without wanting to label diesel drivers as bad people, so there was no talk of wholesale bans on diesel vehicles. And so the push to alternative fuel vehicles began, generally in the form of hybrids (identified as the key transition format) and ultimately, electric vehicles.

Then in 2017, the government announced that there would be a ban on the manufacture / sale of any new diesel and petrol cars and vans in the UK from 2040. This, and ever increasing road taxes on combustion engines, will hopefully propel the masses towards the electric vehicle (EV) market.

There is however, a slight issue....

As a survey by the Institute of the Motor Industry found in early 2017, many people like the idea of owning an EV, but about the same amount of them worry about where they are going to charge it. While battery technology is advancing rapidly, range remains relatively low, and the availability of places to re-charge are still limited (unlike petrol stations). Two years later, and there are now an estimated 210,000 EV's on the UK roads, but only around 14,000 publicly available Electric Vehicle Charge Points (EVCPs). A climate forum I attended recently, suggested this is something like 18,000 fewer than we should have by the end of 2020.

There are currently some generous grants available for the EV owner, for charging at home. The UK governments Electric Vehicle Homecharge Scheme (click here for more information) allows the user to get a grant of up to £500 for installation of a Smart EVCP - a smart charger is one that is 'able to be remotely accessed, and capable of receiving, interpreting and reacting to a signal. Smart charging can also reduce high peaks of electricity demands, minimising the cost of electric vehicles to the electricity system – and keeping costs down for consumers by encouraging off-peak charging.' 

Here's the kicker - a generous £4.5 million fund was made available to UK councils from 2016, to aid with the installation of new on-street charge points for as little as 25% of the usual cost. But take up has been disappointingly low. An article on Autovistagroup.com in early 2018, reported that only 5 out of 201 district authorities had taken advantage of the fund up to that point. Jack Cousens, Head of Roads Policy at the AA said, "Eight out of 10 drivers say that a lack of charging points is a reason why they will not currently buy an electric car, so the poor take-up of these seemingly generous grants is disappointing."

With EV sales going up by around 30% through 2017 and 18, the availability of these public charging facilities is falling well behind what is needed. The will of the people is there. The government assistance is also largely there (as well as the EVHS scheme mentioned above, there have also been Plug-In grants available to help customers make the switch to the admittedly, more costly EV alternatives). It is just the infrastructure that is failing. 

While EV sales are steadily increasing, they are still well behind the 9% by 2020 government target, but nonetheless it is estimated that by the time the combustion engine ban arrives in 2040, there will be over 30 million EVs on our roads! 

There are some huge leaps to be made over the next 20 years to match that ambition - and remember, this switch-over is an integral part of dealing with climate change and air pollution.