paul
Guest Post: 120 days with a BMW i3
Transport
One of our customers and member of Climate Friendly Bradford on Avon shared his experience of driving an Electric Vehicle with us and we thought you might like to read it.
Things have moved on greatly since this blog started posting about EVs, not least Ecotricity’s national network of Electricity ‘Pumps’ – the Electric Highway – it’s great to read some real-world experiences of production cars.
Anyway, over to Adrian…
On Sunday I was listening to the relaxing hum of electricity filling my electric vehicle (EV) while thinking how much my motoring life had changed in the last 12 months. This time last year, I was standing at a petrol station in Canada filling my V8 Mustang with 60 litres of dirty fossil fuel. Now I am “filling” my car with green electricity at an Ecotricity fast charger. (more…)
Guest Blog: The Slow but Assured Death of UK Renewables
Energy
We’ve been a bit busy recently and haven’t been able to blog about this dire situation but Jonathon Porritt wrote this one, which pretty much sums up exactly how we feel about it. Reproduced here with his permission. Thanks Jonathon.
Things go from bad to worse on the renewable energy front.
1. Even those who are accustomed to George Osborne’s hostility to the renewables industry were astonished by his announcement in the Budget on Wednesday that renewable energy would no longer be exempt from the Climate Change Levy – this being one of the measures the Government uses to discourage the use of fossil fuels! This will cost the industry £3.9bn between now and 2018. Shares in renewable energy companies plunged.
In almost the same breath, Osborne confirmed further subsidies for oil and gas companies operating in the North Sea. And it is understood that there will soon be further measures to encourage the use of fracking. (more…)
Our 2030 Vision
Energy, Food, TransportIf you missed it the first time, you can watch Dale discuss Ecotricity’s 2030 Vision for a Green Britain with the Guardian’s Polly Toynbee.
You can view the 2030 Vision document along with the accompanying Cambridge Econometrics report over on the Ecotricity website.
Sweet potato and lentil curry
Food
Another classic from the Ecotricity design team for this week’s Meat Free Monday meal suggestion. This time it’s a child friendly curry from Angus.
Interesting fact – sweet potatoes have huge amounts of Vitamin A and also Beta Carotene (slightly more than carrots!).
Enjoy!
David – don’t break wind!
Energy
Just a quick post to share a couple of things we’ve been sent, firstly there’s this petition/campaign which is amusingly titled (borrowed for the title of this post) but is very serious and worth supporting : David Cameron: don’t break wind…support it!
Then along similar lines, there’s this letter to David Cameron penned by one of our customers. We really liked the tone and content and thought it would be worth sharing in case any of you would like to do something similar with your MP, or even to Mr Cameron.
It starts with a letter from our customer Chris to his MP David Cameron:
Vegan and/or organic debate – 2x guest blogs
Food
This year Ecotricity partnered with WOMAD – and helped turn ‘Molly’s Bar’ into ‘Molly’s Green Bar.
As part of the event, Ecotricity hosted a debate between Jasmijn De Boo of the Vegan Society and Aine Morris of the Sustainable Food Trust, which was chaired by John Drowley. Essentially – it was about whether animals have any role to play in sustainable agriculture, a topic we’ve touched upon before on here.
Both Aine and Jasmijn have kindly provided a summary of their main points here for your delectation – let us know who you think had the most convincing argument in the comments?
Cheers,
Paul
Guest Post: Dave and the Nemesis
Transport, Wind Car
Here’s a guest post for you from Ecotricity staffer Dave. He was recently asked to put the Nemesis to the test as a commuter vehicle! Here’s his thoughts:
A few weeks ago I was asked if I would mind driving the Nemisis for a few weeks. We apparently needed to get a few miles on it and test it in ‘normal’ daily use – whatever that means?
I work in the Ecotricity offices in Stroud and live in Worcestershire, a daily commute of about 51 miles in each direction, assuming that I take no detours on the way home. My normal mode of transport is either a diesel VW or a motorcycle that each do around 50mpg for the journey (over £12 per day in fuel).
Well, the chance to drive a car like the Nemisis was too good an opportunity to miss so of course I welcomed it with open arms, I mean the chance to drive a super car that would do 0-100mph in 8 seconds doesn’t present itself every day! (more…)
Dale on Guardian ‘You ask, they answer’
EnergyHiya all,
Just a quick heads-up – Dale is just about to take part in this week’s Guardian Environment ‘You ask, they answer’ Q&A session – could be interesting… If any of you fancy chipping in your 2 penneth, dive on in – the water’s lovely! 🙂
EDITED TO ADD: The Q&A session is now closed now but it’s still worth reading.
Nobody in their right minds would think EDF is Green or British – according to the ASA
Energy
You may have heard in the news (In the Guardian, Business Green, Campaign, Brand Republic) that the ASA have recently decided not to uphold the 149 complaints against EDF and their Green Britain campaign.
The ASA said:
” ..we considered that consumers were unlikely to infer from the ads that EDF was a ‘green’ company, we concluded that the ads were unlikely to mislead.”
“..we considered that consumers were unlikely to infer that EDF Energy was a British company. We therefore concluded that the ads were unlikely to mislead.”
EDF had this to say:
“EDF Energy welcomes the decision by the Advertising Standards Authority regarding our Green Britain Day and Team Green Britain advertising, in which neither challenge has been upheld by the authority… We are committed to leading the energy change to bring about a low carbon future and we have led the way among energy companies in making long-term commitments to the environment and to sustainability… EDF Energy is the UK’s largest generator of low carbon electricity.”
Dale had this to say in response: (more…)
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