On Thursday I went to a Green Alliance event which basically asked how can you make a low carbon economy sexy?

Green porn

There were groans of boredom when I told the office where I was going and it was suggested that the event would be more enlightening if you asked the question the other way around - how can you make sex low carbon? 

I have often thought that somebody should run a project to green the porn industry. The carbon footprint must be enormous given the amount of internet traffic and server space that it commands.

The event itself was brought to life by the always entertaining Mathew Taylor from the RSA. He was totally underprepared and magnificently off-message from the booklet he was helping to launch, which was arguing that we must create a positive message about the future rather than hark on about the climate threat.   

The counter-argument he used was that when the doctor tells you that your heavy drinking lifestyle is likely to lead to an early death, elderflower cordial becomes a compelling drink choice. If instead your doctor doesn’t tell you about your health risk but just starts talking about the benefits of elderflower cordial you might tell him where to get off. 

The problem the environmental movement faces is that the only people who can honestly tell us about the level of the climate risk we face is scientists, whose message is being undermined by a concerted lobbying campaign and their own ineptitude.      

Businesses 1,  Charities 0

On Tuesday, I went to a final meeting to assess the outcome of a project we ran with NCVO and the Green Alliance to help green four major charities. The results of which can be seen on an informative but slightly worthy video.

I really don’t know what compelled me to buy the Simon Cowell jumper I am wearing in the video – it hasn’t seen the light of day since.

Overall the charitable sector has been massively slow in embracing the climate change agenda – certainly if you compare it to the corporate sector.  There are a whole host of reasons for this. 

One is that it is harder for large charities to change quickly. If a CEO of a major company thinks it is time to change then they can drive change through the business very fast. Most charities have a huge number of volunteers who have their own reasons and values for supporting a charity. Encouraging them to change takes time.

I think charities are also less accountable than businesses. The larger ones receive funding from legacy income or members who tend to support them for the cause they are working on rather than the specific quality of the work they are delivering. This reduces a driver for change. Finally, many charitable boards tend to be very conservative in their outlook and climate change just isn’t on their agenda.

The charity sector has a huge amount of public trust and support. It is also very good at reaching people in diverse communities. Engaging them in the climate debate is crucially important but is currently a long way off.     

The Belfry Shopping Centre, Redhill

On a damp and bitterly cold Friday morning, I found myself on a train heading to the Belfry Shopping Centre, Redhill for the launch of the Tap into Savings initiative. 

This is a highly ambitious project led by Waterwise that is aiming to retrofit water and energy saving devices in 7,000 social housing properties. Our role is to run the behaviour change element of the project with the residents, ensuring that they use the new devices as efficiently as possible.

The project has much to commend it. Linking water and energy saving initiatives together causes minimal disruption to the household. Retrofitting devices helps to reduce the environmental impact of the existing household stock. Working with social housing providers helps those on a lower income to reduce their domestic bills and the behaviour change element ensures that people fully understand why the changes are being made in their homes.

Launching the event at a shopping centre was a bit weird. I struggle to understand why people would stop and listen to me at the best of times and this feeling was magnified as I started prattling away to bemused shoppers. Fortunately the local MP Peter Ainsworth was also talking and he took the whole thing calmly in his stride. 

Peter has long been a supporter of Global Action Plan and is a brilliant advocate for environmental issues. He has decided not to stand again at the next election and his presence will be sadly missed at the House of Commons.

Find out more about Tap into Savings.

Generation Green

On Tuesday lunchtime I went to the Terrace Bar at the House of Commons for the launch of the Generation Green Children’s Environmental Manifesto. 

Generation Green is the excellent school energy education programme sponsored by British Gas. We were heavily involved in the development of the programme which was initially chaotic and seemed to have the gestation period of an elephant. I lost count of the number of ‘creative agency’ meetings I went to in Soho. Why does having a giant game of jenga demonstrate your creativity?

The event itself was a chance for the children to present an environmental manifesto they had created to MPs. They had a mentor throughout the process and the manifesto they had developed was incredibly clear, passionately presented and thoughtful. It once again demonstrated how environmentally-articulate children are when given the right opportunity and are provided with high quality support.

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