Calling time

The largest ever annual emissions of carbon, published today in the Guardian, put mankind dangerously close a pathway that will lead to temperature rises of drastic scale.

Lord Nick Stern: "These figures indicate that [emissions] are now close to being back on a 'business as usual' path. According to the [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's] projections, such a path ... would mean around a 50% chance of a rise in global average temperature of more than 4C by 2100," he said.

"Such warming would disrupt the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people across the planet, leading to widespread mass migration and conflict. That is a risk any sane person would seek to drastically reduce."

Faith Birol, Chair of the International Energy Agency said disaster could yet be averted, if governments heed the warning. "If we have bold, decisive and urgent action, very soon, we still have a chance of succeeding," he said.

Let's call time on fear and procrastination. It's time to kick into gear. Get the first 1% of your employees up to speed by the end of this year, and double it next. Douse them with innovation juice, then stand back.

Telegraph article on Hay Festival eco happenings

Geofferey Lean is the Daily Telegraph's environment correspondent, and for the next 10 days, he's esconsced in the Green Room at the Hay Festival, reporting on all things green and eco that are happening on the festival site and across Wales.

He wrote a good article on Saturday with a lovely headline "For the greenest nation, look west"

The Telegraph's equivalent of the Guardian's comment is free has the predictable range of neocons, deniers and voices of reason, some of whom are more than happy to dismiss the stories in Lean's article as insignificant - small though they may be, many of them are positive starts to something bigger and more worthwhile.

The Green Dragon's Den is running Tuesday-Friday at the Hay Festival, insterspersed with some excellent music and comdey.

Sedum ho

Kayaking sedum grower Tim Riley from Riley Growers recently helped lift the last rolls of sedum matting onto our outbuildings, completing a multicoloured green, living layer of roof that's already a popular roost for a Barn Owl that's been hanging out there.

Pictures of the roof here

Closing the loop on waste

Over the next couple of months, I've have the pleasure of working with the folks from InterfaceFLOR on two events that aspire to recalibrate innovation, creativity and conviction for action with insights from nature and biomimicry. 

On June 8, Net Impact are hosting a workshop on 'Tomorrow's Natural Business', that I'm speaking at with Ramon Arratia, Sustainability Director at Interface,  Atos Origin's Global Director of Sustainability Solutions, Giles Hutchins and BCI team member Louise Carver. Further details from Net Impact.

A month later, on July 5th, Tomorrow's Company are hosting a senior level workshop on Tomorrow's Natural Business, with BCI's Denise DeLuca, key players from Interface, co-chaired by Atos' Giles Hutchins and Tomorrow's Company's Tony Manwaring. If you're interested in taking part in this event, contact me.

Final Hay on Earth short list

Projects selected for the 2011 Hay on Earth Green Dragon's Den are listed below; the Hay Festival site is buzzing and there's already a high level of excitement about the forthcoming workshops and competition. For the Green Dragon's Den entrants who didn't get through, commiserations as well as congratulations are in order as every single project submitted had clear sustainability benefits; a few lacked the spark of innovation that was needed, a few lacked the leadership asked for and a couple, racing for the extended deadline places, were simply too late to be considered.

The Welsh Government's new Minister for Environment & Sustainability, John Griffiths, visited Friday's Sustainable Development Charter workshop, and we're hoping to see him back at Hay this Friday to congratulate the winners. 

The short listed projects are:

Clever Stuff (31 May)

Sustain IT (The ARC Project)
Rebound Books (L’Arche Brecon)
Packet In (Bron Afon)
Cleanstream (Cleanstream Carpets)
The Wood Shed (Crucorney Energy Group)
Zero waste in a box (Cwm Harry Land Trust)

Food to fork (1 June)

Revolution Forks (Bridgend)
Riverside Mobile Shop (Riverside)       
Food for the Future (Blaenau Gwent)
ACE Rainwater (Ashfield Community Enterprise)
FEAST (This is Rubbish)

Home and hearth (2 June)

Low Carbon Communities (Sustainable Wales)
Informed Energy Descent (EcoBro)        
Watery Heat Snake (Llangattock Green Valleys)   
Tŷ = Welsh Tree Squared (Coed Cymru)   
The One Million Person Sharing Plan for Wales (Bid and Borrow)
                       
Connecting Communities (3 June)

Blaen Afon Flower Gardens (Bron Afon Housing Assn)     
Making Litter Pay (Llangattock Green Valleys)  
Living Diaries (Kirsty Morris)
Open Swansea (ThinkARK/Wales Coop)
Pots, tubs, troughs and tucker (Co-operative group)