You know electric cars are serious when even Rolls Royce is considering ditching fossil fuel for electrons. The maker of luxury cars renowned the world over for their opulence is seriously considering having an electric version of its luxo-bargo Phantom on the road as early as next year… just in time for the 2012 Olympics being held in its native London.

But will an electric Rolls work?

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How do Brits like to be green, and what green behaviors do they still avoid?

That’s what a new survey by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), and the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) is showing us by examining the environmental actions and preferences of 100,000 British people from 40,000 households.

The findings presented below are the first from a new annual household survey in Britain named Understanding Society. The environmental topics are one subset of the whole survey, which also examines the “working lives, relationships, health, finances, neighbourhoods, education, transport and more” of Brits.

What are the main findings thus far?

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A new report ranks ten leading world cities on their greenhouse gas emissions. It also examines how and why the emissions differ.

As the report says, over 50% of the world’s population lives in urban areas. Leading cities of the world, global cities, are the places where greenhouse gas emissions really need to be cut. The greenest city from the study is Barcelona and the worst is Denver.

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London Mayor Boris Johnson has announced plans to create Britain’s first “hydrogen highway” by building a network of hydrogen filling stations throughout the capital.

As part of the scheme, a pilot fleet of around 150 hydrogen cars, five buses and 20 black taxis will be assembled in the run-up to the 2012 London Olympics.

The flamboyant mayor has gone on record as saying that he wants Britain to become a world leader in fuel cell technology and his team have made the ambitious claim that, within twenty years, up to one in three of the 31m cars in Britain could be fuelled by hydrogen.

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On the same day that a loophole in endangered species trade law was closed, officers from the Metropolitan Police Wildlife Crime and Chinatown Units raided a TCM shop.

Approximately 200 products made from endangered tiger, leopard, and musk deer were seized from a “traditional Asian medicine” shop in London’s Chinatown area - a productive raid on the first day that an amended wildlife trade law came into effect.

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London’s mayor announced a new 2 million tree plan to help fight climate change and keep Londoners cool.

The plan is designed to counteract the “urban heat island effect” in which urban areas absorb and release more heat than surrounding areas, due to having more pavement, traffic and power demand.

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A new series of wildlife-rich ponds and marshlands will attract frogs, toads, water voles, great crested newts and dragonflies to London’s city center.

The habitat will be found in Paddington Recreation Ground, and it will be made readily accessible to the public via a network of decking pathways and a wooden “dipping” platform to allow school children to take part in pond-dipping and to learn about the variety of animals that live in the water.

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Last year, 300 folks across North America turned in their car keys for a month as part of the 2008 Zipcar Low-Car Diet. And, in addition to cutting congestion, they also walked 85% more, biked 136% more and decreased their miles driven by 71%. Pretty impressive, eh? Starting July 15, a new crop of participants from all Zipcar cities worldwide* will begin the 2009 Low-Car Diet: one full month of living without a primary car.

Zipcar will be selecting 30 participants in each Zipcar metro to take part in the 2009 Low-Car Diet. Zipcar and its partners are committed to providing all participants with the necessary tools for creating transportation nirvana, including:

• Bike rentals
• Transit passes
• Complimentary meals at participating restaurants
• Discounts at local retailers
• And, of course, a 1-year Zipcar membership with some driving credit to get started

There will be a number of applicants for only 30 spaces, and Zipcar would like to make sure they’re the best. If you think you’d like to try an unconventional diet just fill out this short survey.

*Zipcar cities include Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, London, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver, and Washington, DC.

Photo Courtesy tvol via Flickr under Creative Commons license.

Disclaimer: Gas2.0 parent company Virgance is participating in the Low-Car Diet.

Earlier this week, London launched Britain’s first ever electric car hire scheme.  The initiative, run by Streetcar, the country’s largest pay-as-you-go car-sharing club, will offer members a specially adapted Toyota Prius at rates starting from £5.95 (just under $10) an hour.

If the trial proves a hit with club members, Streetcar plans to roll out extra electric cars throughout the capital to meet rising demand.

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A new hydrogen-powered car, whose designs will be “open source” and posted for free use on the web, was unveiled today in London. The company behind the Riversimple urban car claim the new model proves hydrogen automotive technology is ready for roll-out now rather than in 10 years’ time.

The open-source approach means entrepreneurs around the world could download the designs and manufacture the two-seater prototype locally for free.

The car, which drove in to the launch event, is capable of a 50mph top speed, 0-30mph acceleration in 5.5 seconds, and has a 240 mile range. The car’s backers say it has greenhouse gas emissions of 30g/km CO2, less than a third of the latest hybrid petrol cars such as the Toyota Prius and Honda Insight.

The lightweight Smart car-size vehicle uses hydrogen in a modest 6kW fuel cell, and – in the case of this prototype – uses hydrogen converted from natural gas. Hydrogen can also be created from water using electrolysis and potentially even from bio-fuels.

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I’m simply smitten with the current issue of Coco Eco Magazine which features:

• the first yearly International Eco Couture issue.
• ways to stay safe in the sun, from eco-sunscreens to special skin treats!
• a sexy Leila Hafzi outdoor eco-fashion shoot by the shore.
• the hottest green fashion stars in London.
• awesome highlights from fashion designers in the Philippines that design clothing with their traditional pineapple fiber.
• the head of the Humane Society up close.
• a worldwide fair-trade section.
• a complementary guide to San Francisco.
• unique eco-retreat highlights.

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Fuel cell technology is a pollution-free electricity generation technology that is expected to compete with traditional methods of creating and distributing electricity. Fuel cells can be likened to a continuously fuelled battery that operates by using the chemical properties of hydrogen and oxygen to create useable electric current.

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]]> http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/22/fuel-cell-technology-in-the-uk/feed/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/03/london-plans-bicycle-sharing-program/ http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/03/london-plans-bicycle-sharing-program/#comments Sun, 03 May 2009 11:56:52 +0000 The Guardian Environment Network http://ecoworldly.com/2009/05/03/london-plans-bicycle-sharing-program/ London wants to allow cyclists to pick up one of 6,000 bikes at the 400 docking stations planned for the capital by 2010.

Londoners will soon be able to hire bikes in the centre of town for short journeys, under plans announced this week by the mayor, Boris Johnson.

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Some people feel that advertising is garbage. London based Curb advertises with garbage. And sea water. And snow.

Calling themselves “The Natural Media Company,” Curb create advertising based on natural elements, the most recent being for the London Aquarium utilizing “sea tagging,” which is using sea water and a stencil to create temporary ads on the sidewalk. Sea water evaporates more slowly then water, but being a completely natural substance, no permit is needed to do it.

Another water based innovation is what they call H2Show, where a waterfall is somehow able to be manipulated to display words, logos, and images, and even accept text messages to display different words.

Crop carving, once the province of aliens and pranksters, is now being put to use in  a smart way, as in their Shredded Wheat logo carved out of, yes, a wheat field.

In the clearest example of green marketing I’ve heard of,

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London mayor Boris Johnson announced today his intent to make the city the electric car capital of Europe. He said he wanted to introduce 100,000 electric cars to the capital’s streets and to build an infrastructure of 25,000 charging points in public streets, car parks and shops.

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Rani Jones is London’s hot new eco label created by design partners Lucy Jones and Rani Patel.

Their eco fashion line is constructed with hand tailored details such as:

• geometric patternmaking
• pleats and gathers
• draping and panelling
• creative double-zipping

Now they are sharing their lookbooks for the upcoming 2009 seasons, including Fall and Winter.

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The G20 will meet next week in London, and while police are bracing for clamoring anti-globalization and climate change protests, organizers say all the planned events will be peaceful.

While the failures of the banking system will take the forefront (get used to hearing the phrase “Bankers are wankers”), organizers have also planned protests to the G20’s response to climate change.

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About 100 activists from the group Climate Rush gathered at a five-star hotel and unfurled a banner reading “No New Coal Awards” before being hauled away by police.

Fifty officers prevented the activists from entering the ballroom itself, but the action disrupted the envent nonetheless. The activists came dressed to impress, wearing dresses and tuxedos just like the coal industry executives inside.

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EaKo’s Web site says:

EaKo is constantly thinking about waste. The instant we met the London Fire Brigade we fell in love with their old hose. Although we started in London, EaKo now collects hose across the UK and in order to thank Britain’s Brigades, 50% of our profits go back to the Fire Fighters Charity. We scrub away all the soot, grease, and everything else that builds up after 25 years of active duty, and in the process reveal a truly remarkable, truly green textile.

The company also reclaims waste coffee sacks, scrap sail cloth, used air-traffic control flight strips, repurposed sunglasses and optician’s boxes, pewter for our belt buckles, and decommissioned office furniture textiles.

Photo: EaKo