The thin green bottom line

A timely reminder from Lord Stern, via Businessgreen.com that businesses ignore the threat of increasing carbon legislation and increasing energy prices at their peril. It has long been my contention that one's personal view on the existence of climate change and the extent to which it is - or isn't - created by humans is irrelevant. The indisputable facts are that:

1. governments are legislating to reduce carbon emissions which makes increasing taxation on emissions as inevitable as, well, death and taxes
2. fossil fuels are no longer being made and will therefore run out, so we need to find alternative energy sources if we wish to retain all the trappings of society to which we have become accustomed
3. scarcity of said fossil fuels will drive price escalation on an epic scale
4. industrialisation and urbanisation of developing countries escalates these issues by increasing demand for energy and consumer goods
5. world population is growing at a rate which will increase competition for food and water to unsustainable levels

Any company that is not planning for these eventualities will not be fit for purpose in the commercial environment of the future. Resource-efficient operation is not an act of altruism, it's a commercial imperative.

Innovative water purifier

Appropriately on World Water Day, I learned of the Midomo - a water filtration and storage system powered by the kinetic energy produced by its wheels. The device was a hit with the Dragons' Den investors three years ago but talks about funding broke down. Undeterred, inventors Amanda Jones and James Brown raised £200k of private investment and the first 50 units have now been delivered to villages in Zimbabwe and Kenya.

Currently, funds for additional units are being raised through sales of a limited edition silver bracelet designed by Alex Monroe. Each £275 bracelet covers the entire cost of sending a Midomo to an African community. And they're gorgeous!

Playpumps

In many developing countries, children walk for miles to collect water - often before and sometimes instead of going to school. What should be play time becomes chore time while they carry out this vital task. Play Pumps International neatly addresses both these problems, with a novel design that combines a playground merry-go-round with a pump to draw water from underground and store it in a water tower where it can be drawn off as required. An added twist is the use of the sides of the water tank for advertising, generating revenue that can be used to fund maintenance of the system.

My son, who's 9, thinks this is the coolest thing - and wants to know whether they can also make one that's a see-saw. I think he has a point.

Water from thin air

A new office water cooler uses technology developed by the American military for the desert to draw moisture from the air and turn it into drinking water. The O2 water cooler was developed by 1st4thirst in Slough to offer an alternative to bottled water in locations where a mains water supply isn’t available for a plumbed-in unit.

The units are being trialled at a factory in Slough, where they are able to be moved to any point in the production line on demand.

Shame on Starbucks

Funny how things happen. I was sitting on the tube, reading John Grant's appraisal of Starbucks' Welcome to Evergreen campaign in The Green Marketing Manifesto when I looked up and saw the headline of the newspaper being read across the aisle. The lead story was about Starbucks wasting millions of gallons of water every day by leaving taps running as policy in its coffee shops. Worse still, staff don't seem to be aware of the reason why this should be necessary - which is allegedly something to do with preventing a build-up of bacteria in the tap.

How can a big brand like Starbucks make such a massive misjudgement, that risks undermining all the other apparently credible social and environmental projects it's undertaking? Its a perfect example of how the activities of one department can conflict with those of another if care is not taken to ensure that policies on key issues are not communicated clearly and consistently throughout an organisation.