Blog Action Day: Water

I live in the country. I’m a lucky girl. I’m so lucky that we have a bore hole to pump water from the ground to the house. It’s what you do in the country, apparently. It’s wonderfully clean, fresh water. And none of those pesky water bills. Kind of ideal really.

Now before you get all carried away with the romance of taking it in turns to go pump the water by hand from the bore hole, I have to say that we do have electricity in the country. So the electric pump does all the hard work of getting the water up from the ground. I’m put to no more trouble than turning on the tap. Or shower. Or flushing the loo. We have all mod cons in the country.

Apart from when our local electricity supplier gets a problem and cuts us off, which has happened a fair few times. I don’t know whether that’s to do with being in the country or not, I just know it’s annoying. No lights. No fridge. No dinner. And, wait for it, no water. No water!!!! Arrgghhh!

So no water means no shower, no water to cook with, no water to drink, no water to flush the toilet. No water to clean clothes. No water to do anything with. The last time the bore hole pump packed in, we had to get water from the neighbour in plastic containers. That was sort of interesting. And heavy. And not too easy to deal with.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because it’s Blog Action Day when bloggers from around the world discuss one topic, and this year it is water.

So why am I telling you about my bore hole? Because when my bore hole pump stops working, and I have no water, I’m put in the same position as nearly 1 billion people across the world who do not have access to clean water. Whereas I know my water supply will be restored within a few hours, women living in Africa often have to walk miles with heavy containers to get the family’s water. Day after day, week after week, year after year.

It makes you think, doesn’t it?

My inconvenience of not having water is shocking to my friends. We take clean water for granted, attaching almost no value to it. If you are out of champers, orange juice and beer, you would be embarrassed to only be able to offer a guest a glass of water to drink. Yet in too many places in the world, the value of clean drinking water is immeasurable.

Read more about the problem of water and if nothing else, be thankful for the clean water you have.

Putting the boot in: sustainability

As I stood in the shoe repair shop on Saturday I realised that my boots are not sustainable. They were not sustainable from the moment I bought them, even though I love them to bits. Their total lack of sustainability comes from them requiring heeling every three or four weeks. You would have thought after the years I have been taking them to be heeled it might have dawned on me how impractical the boots were, but it did not. I have been walking around in un-sustainable boots.

Sustainability is being able to keep something in balance for the long term. When something is out of balance, sooner or later something will happen to attempt to regain the balance: just as we have seen with inflated consumer spending, the recent financial crisis and subsequent recession. As we are increasingly recognising the importance of climate change, the fragility of our environment, and how to generate clean energy, sustainability is a word we need to take more notice of.

My boots made me think of my other practices that are not particularly sustainable: using the printer a little more often than I should, trying the replicate the British Library in my office, etc. etc. There are more, but I will spare my (and your) blushes.

I doubt that I am the only person who is recognising that sustainability and balance are more important to us than ever before. I think sustainability is an idea whose time has come, not only in taking control of the planet’s future, but in taking control of our own personal and business future.

As consumers we have drastically cut our spending and reassessed priorities. As businesses we are digging in, cutting back and working hard to survive during difficult times. As societies we have become more aware of cause and effect, and thanks to the state of the economy we are being given long enough to reflect on sustainability for lasting changes to be made.

Sustainability is not always a simple concept – there is plenty of opportunity to push problems around. But it is a concept that is worthy of a great deal more thought than we have given it in the past, whatever the economy is doing.

Nuclear fusion - energy source for our children

As 192 nations prepare to debate What Should Be Done About Climate Change in Copenhagen, the world carries on burning coal, oil and gas and discussing targets that will not be met. Wind, wave and solar dominate the debate on renewables, unsurprising as those are the technologies we are currently working with. The future will need a better mix of energy sources and more creative thinking than we have applied in the past. The future will, however, need other technologies in addition to these renewables in order to replace the vast amounts of hydro-carbon based energy the world currently consumes.

Climate change is a long term issue, as the difficulty of weaning ourselves off carbon-based fuels is proving. It therefore seems only right that replacing the coal, oil and gas (which currently produce most of our electricity) needs a solution commensurate with the problem. France, for example, has low carbon emissions because of their high dependence on nuclear fission reactors. Whilst traditional nuclear power does not pollute the atmosphere with carbon, it does pollute the ground and oceans with radioactive waste that stays radioactive for centuries.

The promising work that is being done in nuclear fusion in the UK and elsewhere promises carbon-free power without the long-lived nuclear waste. It could be an excellent solution to a tricky problem. The only difficulty is that we haven’t got it to work yet – despite successful proof of concept work. The research needed to find answers to a host of practical problems with this difficult technology are proving time consuming and expensive.

Despite all the difficulties, there is a big prize to be scooped by a generation that has done little but use up fossil fuels as fast as they can. And it is a prize that more of us should be fighting for. We owe it to future generations who may not be able to enjoy the cheap energy that we have benefited from all our lives.

So why isn’t nuclear fusion higher on the politicians’ agendas? Why are we not thinking longer term about such important issues? Politicians may be re-elected every 4 years or so, but this beautiful world will still be here in 40, 400 or 4,000 years time. The global nuclear fusion project at Cadarache in the south of France called ITER is in its initial stages and deserves more bullish backing than we are currently giving it.

All managers know that hitting targets requires taking actions that have sufficient chance of being successful to be worth implementing. Nuclear fusion is a strong contender and needs a higher profile, more public debate, and more money.

For those with an interest in all things climate, energy and fusion, the New Scientist is giving away a free poster all about ITER this week. Getting informed about energy and climate change is surely the least we can do for the children who won’t have the vast natural reserves we have used up with hardly a thought.

Today is Blog Action Day where bloggers of the world unite to discuss a single topic and spark debate about issues of global importance. This year’s topic is Climate Change.

A Highland Helping Hand

Getting to Excellent has been a little quiet over the past week due to a marked change of scenery. The hustle and bustle of Reading was swapped for a couple of weeks away in the highlands of Scotland. The contrast was palpable.

Where my days are normally spent writing business plans and specifications, highland days are spent trying to figure out the best way to keep water out of, well, just about everything. Where busyness and productivity are normally the watch words, single track roads (traffic in both directions at the same time – yikes!) and activities planned around the weather meant a complete absence of rushing.

Watching the working day of a sea eagle or the common seal involves lots of standing around doing little else but watching. It is an absorbing activity that requires full concentration. It was also a massively refreshing activity that has helped lighten the load and gladden the soul before launching into a new quarter and a new season back at work.

E-mail follows wherever one travels, so it is perfectly possible to stay in touch, but somehow the urgency dies away the longer the highlands have to penetrate the soul. As a result I have come back with memories of stags standing on hillsides, inquisitive seals and a new energy for the months ahead.

Somehow I always manage to forget that holidays help rather than hinder, so today’s posting is a reminder: go smell the roses/heather/olive trees/cacti once in a while and come back with priorities realigned and purpose reinvigorated.

Sustainability in Action

Today exceeded all expectations.

I had long wanted to see Kinlochleven and its hydro electric plant. Built during the 1900’s it was one of the first of Scotland’s many hydro electric schemes. The small hydro electric plant originally powered British Alcan’s aluminium smelting works which was a major employer during its heyday. Out of a community of about 1000 people, over 800 were employed within its gates. It has been closed since June 2000, modern day economies of scale having relocated the smelting works elsewhere. But the hydro electric plant remains, and what a wonderful feat of engineering it is.

Starting at the power station the path follows the six vast water pipes upwards. The pipes appear to climb into the hills. Of course, they are not climbing, they are falling: six huge pipes, maybe three feet or more in diameter, falling 300 metres from the Blackwater dam to the electricity generator below. The pipes carry 20 tonnes of water a second, powering a 20 MW power station.

The climb is steep with the pipes in view, but what follows is every bit as remarkable. From the dam to the pipes is a conduit carrying the water some 5 miles down the valley. It is a long but pretty trudge amongst the beautiful Scottish hillsides until the dam is reached. Sitting beneath its vast and almost vertical wall one cannot help but speculate as to the havoc that would be wreaked if it failed to hold its powerful charge.

Close to the dam is a small graveyard remembering the navvies who lost their lives during its construction. It is poignant and atmospheric. In December 2008 the 100th anniversary of the deaths was remembered with flowers and wreaths. The unknown navvy, which in truth is many unknown navvies, is remembered lest we forget the price that was paid for this sustainable power.

Kinlochleven’s hydro electric plant today looks more like a Victorian mill than a power station, but the splendour of its engineering, and the sustainable path it has cleared for others to follow, is a wonderful legacy for those who worked on it.

Perform better with better feedback

Do we perform better when we get clear feedback on how we are doing? You bet!

Some readers will know of my experiments with getting more miles out of my car, and the successes attained by becoming more aware of my driving. But I admit that I don’t always drive carefully, sometimes I just put my foot down and go.

At the beginning of the week I had the chance to drive the new Toyota Prius, with its full range of gadgetry designed to get the maximum miles out of every gallon. This car gives immediate feedback. When my foot presses on the accelerator, the mpg needle drops like a sulky teenager; when my foot eases off a bit, the needle rewards my good behaviour with measurements of 70, 80 or 90 mpg. It is very effective. It is almost impossible to drive irresponsibly in this car. That needle takes all the fun out of flooring it.

This is a wonderful demonstration of how behaviour alters when feedback is immediate, measureable, and appropriate. There are no ifs or buts because I know how I drive my own car when I have less feedback.

In business, therefore, we need to design feedback systems that are close to the desired behaviour and give timely feedback. We need systems that measure and reward behaviours that build towards company objectives, and lead to excellence in the business. Some of these systems may be for big, strategic things. Others may be hygiene factors that nonetheless impact on the efficient running of the business.

They key is to identify what is important, decide on what should be measured, and to make it visible. It is the visibility that makes the difference.

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Hypermiling for the environment

Nothing is so urgent or so
important that it cannot be done safely and with care to the environment.

I came across the American concept of Hypermiling the other day. With petrol prices rising again, getting more out of a tankful becomes slightly more than purely an academic exercise.

Hypermiling is the art of driving carefully so as to use the least amount of petrol possible – accelerating slowly and braking less often. It’s quite possible to do; it just requires concentration and not letting other road users’ impatience get to you.

Of course, both are an attitude of mind, but for me, at least, it’s the concentration element that is the hardest to do. Not because I can’t concentrate on driving carefully, because I can. It's more because I drive so often. As soon as my mind is onto “more important” things – like getting to a meeting on time, or getting home after a long day, I revert to my old ways.

I saw the slogan about the environment on someone’s T-Shirt at the supermarket. It applies to many, many things: perhaps most things. Driving, of course, is such a commonplace activity that there are big gains to be made for safety and the environment.

Despite the government putting yet more tax onto petrol, the cost is still not the overriding factor. Yes, savings are nice, but as with energy usage it is still perfectly affordable. So for the time being at least it has to be environmental considerations which change hearts and minds.

Could someone let the 4-wheel drive on my bumper know?

The future of UK coal

This year is the 25th Anniversary of the miners’ strike. Coal is a dirty business – prized for its high energy content but expensive and dangerous to extract. The 1984 strike was not the first industrial unrest; the country was also brought to a standstill by the General Strike in 1926.

Coal mining is an ancient and troubled industry. Coal has been mined since Roman times, even though most of us associate coal with the industrial revolution. Today it is carbon emissions that cause the most concern. Worries over CO2 emissions and the link with climate change has spearheaded a drive towards cleaner fuels.

Although the UK coal industry has dwindled, coal still provides about 40% of our electricity. We burn about 50m tonnes of coal every year, but only about 17m tonnes from UK coal mines. The future of the UK coal industry hangs in the balance – skills and expertise are being lost as we import the majority of our coal. Whilst better solutions are being sought to the CO2 emissions problem – such as carbon capture and storage – coal remains a cornerstone of UK energy policy. There are still plenty who remember when the lights actually did go out.

The miners’ strike is a distant memory, and today’s efficient society has raised awareness to environmental issues rather than continuity of supply. Whilst I am as keen as anyone on the pressing need to find alternative energy sources, it is worth sparing a thought for those who have the dirty and dangerous job of extracting coal.

As work continues to find sustainable energy sources it is easy to forget the contribution this ancient industry makes to our economy.

Dancing in the Dark

I’m a changed woman. Yes, I know I’ve put on a few pounds, but apart from that. I’ve changed my attitudes to lights and electric appliances. It happened pretty quickly, and now it’s stuck.

The more I read and immerse myself in the issues of energy, fossil-fuels and the rate at which we are wearing them out and using them up, the more determined I get to keep the lights out.

It is summer, and it’s going to be a lot tougher in the winter, but I’m finding I really don’t need the vast pools of light with which I used to surround myself. My office has spotlights on the ceiling using 60W and my desk light has a 27W daylight bulb in it. All were previously on pretty much from when I arrived in the morning, to when I left at night - about 10 hours a day.

The monetary value of this little light-fest is about £20 a year. Whilst that amount of money isn’t sufficient for me to change my habits, it is a measure of some of the energy I am consuming. Of course it is only the lights – not my desktop computer, two large flat screen monitors, printer and assorted gadgetry. The two monitors, as it turns out, chuck out a good deal of light in their own right (250 cd/m2 each) so I’m hardly roughing it by turning the lights out.

So by changing my attitude I have found I can do without something I previously considered essential. Despite the title, I’m not actually working in the dark: I sit next to a large window and two bright computer monitors.

I confess to being shocked. Together with my other habits of turning off appliances that previously sat their whole lives on expensive stand-by I’m guessing I’m cutting electricity bills both at work and at home by a noticeable amount. Saving money is always welcome, but it also highlights how wasteful I have been. It is as if I have been leaving taps running the whole time or watering the garden with milk.

In the process I feel like I’m making some small effort to stem the flow of coal, oil and gas we are extracting at such alarming rates. As David MacKay would point out, it’s not much, but it is a little.

And I’m pleased to be doing it.

The Bentley Garage

My drive to work each morning takes me past a Bentley Garage. It is a thing of wonder: calm, polished and full of beautiful cars. Really beautiful cars.

As I queue with the rest of the traffic to get past the roundabout I watch their morning routine – the cars are slowly driven out onto the forecourt and lined up. Quietly, unhurried but in perfect alignment: simple and stylish.

When I drive past I always subconsciously think “ah – how the rich live…” but more recently I have been wondering who would actually buy a Bentley these days. They are lovely, but they do about 12mpg and chuck out over 3 times the emissions of my little car. Admittedly they get well over 3 times the admiring glances, but I wonder if that is likely to change.

I’ve heard that the waiting lists for the Toyota Prius is getting so long they will be delivering into next year. It has been massively popular in Japan, far exceeding Toyota’s expectations. I hope this is the way of the future – a leaner, 72 mpg car that cares for the environment, not just its sleek lines.

Am I passing a garage full of white elephants? Or will it take a great deal more to convince the wealthy to kick their oil-hungry habits?

From Material Girl to Eco Warrior

I am a child of the ‘60’s who still looks back on the ‘80’s as her glory days. I worked in London and for the advertising agency that worked on the BMW account (amongst other things). I used to joke, although it doesn’t sound so funny now, that I changed my car when it needed washing. We got a new one every six months. It seems impossible now, when I happily drive a car for 10 years, but back then it was part of a heady lifestyle that I took to like a duck to sparkling water.

I guess I’m a pretty unlikely eco-warrior.

But I have to admit I have become increasingly focused on environmental issues. To some degree it’s inescapable: the newspapers are full of it. Yet to many it’s still “someone else’s problem”. And perhaps to me too, after all it’s a big shift in thinking – moving away from the “I-can-use-up-and-wear-out-what-I-like-so-long-as-I-can-just-about-afford-it” mentality.

To be honest, my thinking is changing kind of slowly. My car is still too useful not to drive whenever I want. I am more aware of the price of petrol, and how many miles I can drive on a tankful, but as long as I can afford the petrol it is still pretty much an academic exercise. It’s only when I stop making semi-necessary journeys that I can really say that I am on the first rung of being a trainee eco-warrior.

I’m also slowly becoming more aware of the real cost of the stuff I buy. Changing my thinking away from just its price tag, to considering the raw materials that go into it, producing the thing, me using it and then disposing of it. Cars, computers, even my beloved books, all have energy costs to them that I wasn’t really aware of before.

The government publishes their strategy for moving us towards a low carbon economy today. Their introductory paragraph is heartening – they suggest that low carbon living might actually create a better kind of society, and a stronger, more sustainable economy. When compared to the throw-away lifestyles we have become used to, that has to make sense.

So Material Girl turns Eco Warrior ….