Fight Climate Change

Patio heaters are in line to be banned if the latest reports from Sky News are to be believed. Euro MPs are currently debating putting a ban on the sale of goods with low energy-efficiency rating, and that includes the patio heater.

Some experts believe that the impact of Patio Heaters on the environment is minimal, and that more CO2 is emitted from Plasma TVs. However, to compound a bad week for the Patio Heater, B & Q have announced that they are to stop selling patio heaters. This follows similar steps from Notcutts and Wyevale. All three companies, according to the Green Building Press, will now focus on “outdoor heating solutions such as chimneas and fire pits”.

All these moves have been welcomed by Friends of the Earth. FOE campaigner Ed Matthews explains that “These carbon- belching monstrosities waste energy and cause needless damage to our environment. We are delighted that B&Q has decided to stop selling these products. But the Government must now act and ban patio heaters. It’s time to get tough on tackling climate change.”!

Honda are launching a marketing campaign to help promote their eco-friendly hybrid car. A brand new website called The Problem Playground provides information about the car plus offers visitors the chance to win a car. Just place a piece of the jigsaw into the site (which fully officially kicks off on February 4th) and leave them your details to enter the competition. Unfortunately you won’t know until March 2009 if you’ve won the car.

If you’ve never considered a hybrid car before then there’s plenty of information on the Honda website about how the car works and the advantages of owning one. As well as the obvious savings on petrol the road tax of a hybrid car is just £15 a year. There’s more of those kind of useful facts at The Problem Playground plus there’s even a short video of Honda F1 driver Jenson Button to watch too (although FCC questions whether using an F1 driver, through the sport and lifestyle must have a huge carbon footprint, is a wise thing to do?).

Despite all the savings in fuel and road tax, plus of course the knowledge you’re helping the environment, the big stumbling block for hybrid cars is the cost. The basic Honda Hybrid starts at around £17000 and this is not going to encourage car drivers to consider changing. Another issue to consider for would-be buyers is the Honda Hydrogen FCX. The hydrogen fuel cell car is widely expected to be released for sale in the US in 2008.

Still, it’s all a step in the right direction!

Congratulations too Nigel’s Eco Store who have won a Yahoo’s Finds of the Year 2007 in the Shopping category. The popular eco store beat off fierce competition from The Bag Lady, Eco Weddings, Go Goblin and Art Flock to take the award. There’s also still a chance of further glory in the People’s Choice Award too.

The judges thought that “the idea (of Nigel’s Eco Store) really unique and engaging”. They “also loved the layout of the site and felt it was distinctive in concept and differed from other shopping sites. In fact, this was one of the favourite sites overall fitting perfectly with a shopping site’s goal and society’s ecological outlook”.

To find out what all the fuss is about, and to shop online at one of the best eco-friendly stores around, take a trip now to Nigel’s Eco Store.

EDF Energy have launched a campaign to promote their efforts in fighting climate change. The advert features recycled film clips from cartoons (including The Incredible Hulk, The Wombles and Thunderbirds) as well what we guess are 50s TV adverts. The advert strapline is ‘Save Today, Save Tomorrow’ as EDF pledge to reduce their CO2 emissions by 60% by 2020. You can see the advert below.

According to the blurb on YouTube attached to the video the soudtrack for the advert is “It’s Not Easy Being Green”. Apparently it has been adapted from the original Kermit the Frog Sesame Street song!

Whilst the sentiment from the advert, which is cleverly executed, is noble the question is will consumers take note. In a week when nPower increased prices by around 15% due to rising energy costs, adverts from energy suppliers about their fight climate changes efforts may not run well – even more so if EDF follow nPower’s lead and put up costs.

“It’s not easy being green” – that’s true – but it’s also not easy hearing that message when your fuel bill is rising as profits of the energy companies grow!

E.ON (who have taken over Powergen) are targetting new customers with their green energy offers and energy saving tips. So if your New Year’s resolution is to be ‘greener’ and help fight climate change then you might want to take their energy saving challenge – you can also help The Woodland Trust too

The challenge will take about 15 minutes to complete. Once completed, E.ON will give you a personalised report of how much money you could save from their range of energy saving ideas. They will ask you questions, such as date of birth and whether you’re on benefits, as you may be eligible for discounted energy efficiency products and services.

The good part of all this is that E.ON will then donate £2 to the Woodland Trust when you complete the challenge. E.ON will donate up to £30000 to the Woodland Trust as part of this promotion.