Roadmap for Zero Carbon Britain

A recently published report by the UK Centre for Alternative Technology suggests that the UK could become carbon-free by 2030. This means that in 20 years, the UK could reduce its carbon emissions by 90 % and offset the remaining 10 % of the emissions.

The report provides a road map for achieving the goal of a carbon-free society. To this end, adopting environmental technologies, reducing fossil fuel use, increasing resource efficiency and significant societal behaviour changes are all necessary. The report offers a variety of actions that make zero carbon society seem possible, at the same time creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs and addressing environmental challenges.

Individuals and communities must play their part in decreasing carbon emissions. Here, the key is to promote new technologies, eco-design and foster new environmentally friendly social norms. Most importantly, however, the report states a international climate agreement is needed.

More information: Environmental Technologies Action Plan.
Read the Zero Carbon Britain report.

European Green Capitals for 2012, 2013 awarded

The environmental issues in Europe will be most likely solved in cities, if they are to be solved at all. Some cities are definitely greener than others. This time, the cities of Vitoria-Gasteiz and Nantes have been announced to be the European Green Capitals for 2012 and 2013 in the ceremony organised in the present Green Capital Stockholm.

From the winning cities, Nantes in France has a climate action plan with the aim of decreasing CO2 emissions by 25% by year 2020 (ref. 1990). The climate action plan was approved by the city council already in 2007 and since, the aim has been to integrate all public policies in the climate work and to quantify CO2 emission in all projects in the city.

Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain excels especially in the high proportion of green public areas in the city, ensuring its entire population live within 300 metres of an open green space.

More information: European Green Capital

Mapping global ecological footprint

A recently published Living Planet 2010 report by WWF shows that the Earth's population is using the equivalent of 1.5 planets' worth of natural resources and that biodiversity has fallen nearly 60% in low-income countries in less than 40 years. The report also states that carbon now accounts for over half the global ecological footprint. This somewhat depressing information should encourage us to find solutions and tools to halt the biodiversity loss and diminish our carbon footprint.

Luckily there are some good news, too. In non-tropical parts of the world, there’s actually been an increase in species numbers, by around 30% on average. This is due to greater conservation efforts and pollution control.

In this Ecological Footprint Index below you are able to search footprints by country.


The global average of the ecological footprint is three hectares, meaning the area required to provide the resources consumed by the population or average person in a year. The consumption of natural resources in the rich countries is on average five times higher than in the poorest countries.

More information: WWF Living Planet Report 2010

Solutions local, together

On 31 January - 2 February 2011, the conference Solutions local, together will fill the city of Turku, Finland with enthusiastic people in search of sustainable local solutions. The Conference will concentrate on introducing practical solutions and inspiring participants to use them locally, together with other stakeholders.

The preliminary programme for the conference is out now and registration is open. During three days, the conference introduces high-profile speakers, interesting parallel sessions as well as a variety of praxis visits and sustainable side events.

What makes Solutions local, together extremely interesting is the fact that sustainability is a top priority in organising the conference and the conference aims to set a model example of a sustainable conference and develops new practices for sustainable way of event organisation. As part of the process, menus with 80% of locally produced food will be launched in several local restaurants during the conference. Also in CHAMP project we aim at managing the project in a sustainable way, concentrating especially on our carbon footprint. In low carbon project management, greening the way of organising events is crucial.

Register quickly, as places are limited and early-bird rate applies until the end of October! Take a closer look on the website: www.solutions2011.fi
Read more about low carbon project management in CHAMP here.

European cities acting for more sustainable transport

Sustainable transport is a question of fighting atmospheric pollution and noise but it also has a major role in improving the quality of life in urban areas.

European Mobility Week is an awareness raising campaign that aims to encourage public awareness of the need to act against pollution caused by the increase in motorised traffic in the urban environment. The campaign is encouraging European cities to promote public transport, cycling and walking and to invest in the new necessary infrastructures.

From 16 to 22 September 2010 the Mobility Week is the opportunity for European cities and towns to participate to the most widespread event on sustainable mobility. On 22 September, the Mobility Week is brought to a head by the Carfree day when everybody is encouraged to leave their car home for a day and use public transport, cycle or walk.

Almost 2000 cities and towns participate in the European Mobility Week. See what's happening in your city on the campaign website!

Picture by European Mobility Week. The Mobility Week in Requena, Spain, 2008.

On Saturday, we exceeded nature's budget

On August 21, it is Earth Overshoot Day: the day of the year in which human demand on the biosphere exceeds what it can regenerate. By last Saturday, humanity has demanded all the ecological services that nature can regenerate this year. For the rest of the year, we will be financing our consumption on credit.

"We know we are far from living within the means of one planet. The good news is, much of the technology we have to begin to address this problem is available and it is open source: things like compact urban design, energy-efficient housing, ecological tax reform, removal of resource subsidies, safe and affordable family planning, bicycles, low-meat diets, and life-cycle costing", said Global Footprint Network President Mathis Wackernagel.

Last year, the Overshoot Day occurred almost a month later on September 25th, and we also wrote about it here in this blog. See the entry here. At the time, we promised more information on how we plan to minimize the ecological footprint of the CHAMP project. Since, we have drafted guidelines on Low-carbon project management to our project stakeholders.

Creating a carbon neutral district in Copenhagen

Copenhagen has set a goal of becoming the first CO2 neutral city in 2025. To be able to achieve this, the city is planning to create a CO2 neutral city district as a model area.

Last year, as a part of the many projects developed in the municipality of Copenhagen in relation to the UN Climate Change Conference COP15, the city council carried out a case study to show how it would be possible to create a CO2 neutral neighbourhood. At the moment, the project is at the draft stage but it is being planned enthusiastically.

According to the plan, in the Amager Faelled city district, all buildings will be using less than 50 percent of the energy of standard buildings. A major percentage of the energy will come from wind turbines and buildings will also be equipped with solar cells and panels. In 2020, a resident of Amager Faelled Bykvarter will use 65 percent less energy than a Copenhagener consumed in 2008.

See the video introducing this interesting project!