Arup director Peter Head outlines his vision for the "ecological age"

Juliet Heller hears Peter Head, director of Arup and chair of The Institute for Sustainability, outline his vision for the "ecological age".

Peter Head has recently undertaken a three-year global tour to explore policies and investments to achieve what he calls the “ecological age”, reducing CO2 by 80 percent by 2050.

His main findings are that sustainable green growth needs community involvement, and cities have to be transformed.

He summarised the approaches needed:
-linking up renewable energy in communities and enabling them to make money from it;
-expanding the use of electric vehicles;
-taking cars out of inner cities (eg Seoul, S Korea where a motorway has been converted to a river, replacing cars with boats for transport and China where 5 percent of GDP is invested in high speed rail);
-growing more food in cities – using any space available such as rooftops
-using large scale biogas digesters as in Stockholm
-learning from examples such as the eco-city in Wangzhung, China designed by Arup.

Peter’s main case study is one that is still in the development stage (perhaps this illustrates the problem we face in the UK – not enough large scale examples). The planned ‘Total Community Retrofit’ project is being developed by the Institute of Sustainability and Arup.

This will help accelerate the transition to a low carbon way of life, creating new jobs and boosting the economy. They will connect urban and rural areas, and retrofit 20,000 homes using a street-by-street approach, financed by pension funds. It aims to share learning by building a knowledge hub, encouraging the idea to be replicated at the regional level.

(Peter Head was speaking at the Ecobuild conference in London.)

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Sir David picks 12 photographers for sustainability prize

The shortlist for the Third Prix Pictet, the prize for photography and sustainability, was announced today. The theme for this year is 'Growth'. A preview of the shortlisted photographers' works is on show at Galerie Filles du Calvaire, Paris, until 29 November.

The winner will be announced by HE Kofi Annan at the award ceremony in Paris on 17 March 2011. The shortlist was chosen by an independent jury from submissions by over 450 photographers.

The eight-member jury is chaired by Professor Sir David King, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and Environment at Oxford and an Ashden Advocate. Today's statement said the jury looked for photographic series of the highest artistic merit

that also presented a convincing narrative about the critical issues of sustainability and in particular, the theme of Growth. Growth, which lifts countless millions out of poverty, also has a huge and potentially unsustainable environmental cost. It presents one of the great conundrums facing humanity in the early decades of the twenty-first century.

Sir David said, "Any one of these twelve artists would be a worthy winner."

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New website reports on how the arts in the UK are going green

The website Sustainable Ability is a new arts project that aims:

to help drive forward transformative responses to resource scarcity and climate change from individuals and organisations working in the arts.

It is intended as another point of connection in the growing network of support designed to help the UK’s cultural and creative sector.

Sustainable Ability has just launched a report by Hilary Jennings and Lucy Neal on the cultural sector's response to climate change, along with a Google map of activities, the findings of a survey, and a useful list of additional resources.

For organisations and websites in the UK working in this field, see also: Julie's Bicycle, Tipping Point, Cape Farewell, Arcola, Do The Green Thing and - closer to home - Ashdenizen. See also what the National Theatre is doing to reduce its energy consumption.

Arts institutions should note that the Ashden Awards 2011 welcomes applications from the public sector: from fire stations, hospitals and colleges to theatres, galleries and museums.

Pic: Lyttelton Flytower by Ackroyd and Harvey

Update: Science foundation provides $700,000 to theatre company for climate change play

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Andrew Marr says "We are three weeks away from a crucial conference"

Last night there was an excellent debate at the British Museum titled Conserving Biodiversity. Whose money? Whose rules?

Tonight our Senior Advisor, Anne Wheldon, gives a talk titled Stoking up a cookstove revolution: The secret weapon against poverty and climate change.

It's not hard to see the link between the two.

A significant driver of deforestation is the amount of trees cut down for open fire cooking. This leads to loss of habitat for animals, loss of native plants and soil erosion that increases risk of flooding.

2010 is the international year of biodiversity. Yesterday a report was released that said one in five of the world's plants are under threat of extinction.

The issues of biodiversity, poverty, renewable energy and climate change are all bound up in the idea of sustainability. What's fascinating about hearing this debate at the British Museum is seeing sustainability treated - quite rightly - as both an environmental and a cultural issue.

Last night's discussion, part of the South Africa Landscape events programme (a joint venture with Kew), was chaired by the BBC's Andrew Marr.

"This is as big, if not bigger, than climate change," he said, reminding the audience that "We are three weeks away from a crucial conference in Japan."

Next month officials from 193 countries are meeting in Nagoya, Japan for the Conference of the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity. They will be taking vital decisions about the future of biodiversity in the world.

He added, "Up till now this issue hasn't had its Al Gore."

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Ringmer College Races Ahead with Green Initiatives

Ringmer Community College in Sussex has been busy since winning an award from us in June 2008. They were recently awarded with a 4th green flag for their impressive energy-saving activities in the College, led by the well-named eco coordinator Stephen Green. Other plans that include a sponsored green car race are making the school an inspiring model for others to follow.

Receiving green flag status is the highest Eco Schools accolade a British school can win, "This is the 4th year running for us. Our success was largely down to simple but effective measures like vigilant energy monitoring and energy saving around the school" says Stephen Green.

Thanks to prize money from the Ashden Awards, students can now closely track the energy use of the College’s ground source heat pump with an easy to view monitor in the Sixth Form building entrance and science labs.

The growing profile the college has enjoyed since winning the Award, has also helped Ringmer secure new support from the County Council which will enable them to install a new biomass boiler later this year. This will burn wood chip, a sustainable fuel. The college will then be able to boast yet another renewable energy source to add to its solar panel display, wind turbine and ground source heat pump.

The College was recently chosen as a pilot school by the County Council to work with researchers on new insulation measures. To make this crucial energy measure more engaging for the pupils, they plan to use Perspex panels in the ceiling to show different types of traditional and modern insulation – from sheep’s wool to high tech fabrics - and even use human hair from a sponsored hair cut!

On June 6th the College will hold a fun-packed Green Car Grand Prix with several local primary schools. Using electric cars supplied by Green Power Goblin Cars, the children will make and drive the cars themselves to test their endurance and technical prowess, and learn about fuel efficiency, efficient driving habits etc. Some of the Ashden prize money is going to this exciting event, with an Ashden trophy going to the winner.

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Solarcentury at Poznan

Solarcentury, who won an Ashden Award in 2007, joined with other solar companies and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at Poznan to encourage rapid expansion of the use of solar PV technology to combat climate change, as reported by Your Renewables News.

Their proposal included:

• Stringent, ambitious, international and national carbon regulation policies
• Enforceable renewables mandates with a solar carve out or credit multiplier for solar energy
• Near-term incentives that could include feed-in tariffs, partial rebates, tax credits and/or property-based loans
• Favorable net metering, interconnection, permitting and land-use policies.

Jeremy Leggett, Executive Chairman of Solarcentury, said: "As a European leader in building-integrated solar, Solarcentury expects to see buildings routinely becoming power plants in the years ahead, generating all their own electricity and heating needs in situ, and often more than they need, making them net exporters of energy. With the right partners in the construction industry, we can put up zero-emissions buildings in a matter of weeks: not the years that conventional power plants require. We are seeing some excellent progress with European support, particularly with the incentive of strong feed-in tariffs, but we need very much more."

Read the full story here.

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Sustainable housing awards 2008

Inside Housing has announced the 2008 winners of their Sustainable Housing awards. The categories range from biodiversity and social housing to water conservation and sustainable energy. Good Energy, a past Ashden Award winner, won the "Green energy supplier" award.

Full details on the winner projects are available on the Inside Housing website: Sustainable housing awards 2008

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