Ford Motor Company plans to design out waste during the construction of a new $1 billion purpose-built manufacturing facility in India. The factory at Sanand in Gujarat, which will make vehicle and engine units, will be built using recycled materials sourced locally where possible. The intention is also not to send any waste to landfill once it goes live. It will also be equipped with energy efficient and natural lighting systems and replicate water conservation techniques used at its Chennai plant.
Helveta: supply chain software firm tackles deforestation by digitising trees
UK supply chain management software specialist Helveta is taking on a big sustainability challenge: that posed by illegal logging and deforestation. It is estimated that deforestation accounts for anywhere between a sixth and a quarter of global carbon emissions, yet the drive to make money and promote economic development continues to result in the loss of vast areas of forest around the world. Helveta’s solution: digitising trees so that timber can be tracked, and origins authenticated, from forest to market.
UK’s fourth busiest airport slashes water use by a third
London Stansted Airport (LAE) has reduced its water consumption by nearly 33% in just 12 months – saving about 205 million litres of water across its site. The works form part of the airport’s on-going water strategy, which saw it invest more than £500,000 last year to monitor, maintain and reduce leaks at the site. It achieved the saving in 2011 (against a 2010 baseline), and is planning on releasing its new five-year water strategy later this year.
Supreme Court rejects UK government’s feed-in tariff solar appeal
The Supreme Court has thrown out the government’s appeal against a previous ruling that deemed its controversial changes to solar feed-in tariff (FIT) incentives as unlawful. The decision brings to a close a long-running legal saga, and confirms that solar installations completed between 12 December last year and 4 March this year will receive the original 43p/kWh rate, rather than the 21p/kWh rate proposed by the government. The ruling ends months of uncertainty for the solar industry.
Affordable biofuels take flight with airline pledge
Boeing, Airbus and Embraer have joined forces in a bid to accelerate the development and roll out of affordable aviation biofuels. Signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) Aviation and Environment Summit in Geneva on 22nd March, the trio will collaborate lobby government, biofuel producers and other key stakeholders. It is hoped this will drum up support and accelerate the availability of sustainable new jet fuel sources.
Gamesa picks Scotland for £125 million turbine manufacturing plant
Spanish wind turbine manufacturer Gamesa has announced its intention to set up a £125 million wind turbine manufacturing plant in the Port of Leith, Scotland. The announcement follows a UK search of locations suitable to establish the factory, which will produce Gamesa’s giant offshore wind turbines and the generator units that go with them. It is expected to create 1,000 direct jobs and many more in the supply chain.
Renewable energy sources will struggle to replace coal and gas-fired power stations as long as energy consumption continues to rise and fossil fuel subsidies remain in place, a new study has found. Based on a study of electricity used in around 130 countries over the past 50 years, University of Oregon sociologist Richard York found that rising demand means it can require between four and ten units of electricity produced from nuclear, hydropower, geothermal, wind, biomass or solar to displace a single unit of fossil fuel-generated electricity.
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