Jeremy Williams's Blog, page 112

Building of the week: zero carbon McDonalds

This week McDonalds completed what they’re calling a “new global flagship”, their first zero carbon “restaurant”. Located near Disneyland in Florida, it’s the first net zero fast food outlet in the United States, and it will serve as a test bed for future McDonalds sites.

The low carbon footprint of the building is achieved by generating all its annual energy needs on site, thanks to a large solar canopy that will produce an estimated 600,000 kilowatt hours of electricity a year. A further 70,00...

Infographic: why recycling is not enough

I don’t normally post infographics, but I was sent a set of them from Surfrider Foundation Europe last week. I thought they were unusually detailed and clear presentations of some of the problems around plastic, especially the false solutions that keep cropping up as people become more aware of plastic. False solution number one is recycling – obviously useful, but obviously not enough when you do the maths.

If you like it, let me know and I can post the others ones in future.

I’ve slightly sh...

A zero carbon world will need everyone

A few years ago I was at a residential conference with the Royal Society, where we were discussing sustainable future technologies. During a coffee break I was loitering near the pastries (obviously), and struck up some awkward conference small-talk with a fellow attendee. We exchanged observations on the last session, and then I saw his eyes flick down to my name badge. There was an intake of breath, and he sidled away without a word.

My badge had my name, and the old name for this website: Mak...

Deep Branch: turning CO2 into animal feed

CO2 is a greenhouse gas and the main culprit in climate change, but it’s also a gas with industrial uses. As climate change sharpens our resolve to do something about emissions, all kinds of new uses for CO2 have been emerging. There are companies that are tapping waste gas streams to make building materials, fertiliser or plastic. Here’s another. Deep Branch is a biotech company that makes CO2 into protein.

The process uses gas fermentation. Microbes are fed a diet of CO2 and hydrogen from an e...

Four books about race

As I’ve been researching climate and race over the last couple of years, I’ve read a lot about both topics. As this is a sustainability blog, I’ve reviewed the climate books and not the race ones. Since there’s a lot of interest in the topic at the moment and some of those books are currently bestsellers, I thought I’d pass on a handful of recommendations.

How to be An Anti-Racist, by Ibram X Kendi

Kendi argues that there is no neutral ground when it comes to racism – no option to be simply ‘not...

What we learned this week

Having holidayed out that way this year, I was interested to hear about Wild East, a new campaign to rewild the East of England. England is one of the most nature-deficient countries in the world and really needs this kind of big thinking.

Britain’s first Community Municipal Investment went live this week, meaning you can invest in renewable energy through West Berkshire council. I hope to see more of these in future, including locally.

Tyres and brake pads are a major source of ocean micro-plas...

Building of the week: Triodos’ circular economy office

You may be familiar with Triodos, the ethical banking group. I have savings with them and get their occasional magazine, and the latest edition features their new headquarters near Utrecht in the Netherlands.

The building is set in an area of woodland and looks out on mature trees. It is made entirely of wood, sourced from forests in Germany and storing over a million kilos of carbon in its structure. It has a green roof and ponds to encourage wildlife, and a rainwater harvesting system provides...

How Covid-19 damaged the idea of growth

For decades more thoughtful economists have warned that GDP growth is a grossly inadequate measure of progress, and we’d be better off making wellbeing our priority instead. Alternative measures of progress are plentiful, though none of them have dethroned GDP as the one metric to rule them all.

However, the coronavirus crisis may have dealt GDP a significant blow – not just in reducing growth, but in putting GDP itself in its place.

When the government was trying to make up its mind about lockd...

Britain’s awareness of climate justice

Just before I went on holiday, some useful survey results came in from Christian Aid. They are currently researching attitudes around climate and race, and they commmissioned a poll asking people if they thought climate change disproportionately affected people of colour.

Here’s what they found:

26% of Brits think that Black, Asian and Arab people are the most vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change, such as droughts, floods, more intense storms, food insecurity and poor air qualit...

Book review: Bunker, by Bradley Garrett

‘Shelter in place’ is a phrase the world is unexpectedly familiar with, something Bradley Garrett could not have predicted when he began his book on “the architecture of dread”. It turns out to be strangely timely.

Garrett is a social geographer and explorer, best known for the (often legally dubious) urban exploration that he photographs and documents on his website. He is also a geography professor and academic, and his new book combines the thrill of getting into unusual places with cultural ...