carbonneutraltourism.co.uk

The Shadow Chancellor George Osbourne has unveiled plans for a new ‘green Isa’.  If the investment is approved as a ‘green investment’ savers would be able to save more than the current £7,000 tax free sum in a stocks and shares Isa.  The former Chief Executive of Norwich Union Patrick Snowball will held up a working group to investigate the opportunity.

There’s been some recent coverage in the UK press about BP’s ‘Alternative Energy‘ business which focuses on wind power, hydrogen and solar manufacturing ventures. Chief Executive Tony Hayward has plans to develop the Alternative Energy unit. Though BP has to demonstrate the renewable energy unit can generate a return for BP shareholders.

The National Trust are using the 29th of February as their ‘Great Green Leap Day’, whereby staff are being given the opportunity to spend the day ‘greening’ their home or local community.

STC-10 - Turks & Caicos Islands April 28-May 1, 2008

Dear Caribbean Tourism Business Partner:

You are invited to register now for the 10th annual Caribbean Tourism Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development (STC-10) scheduled to be held April 28 to May 1, on Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands. Against the backdrop of 2008 being designated the International Year of the Reef, the theme for the Conference is “Sustaining the Caribbean Coastal Product”.

STC-10 will, in addition to examining the issues of coral reef protection and management, examine a number of related costal tourism development issues, including climate change, cruise tourism, natural disasters, the dive market and strategies for managing marine sites and attractions.

The Conference will also provide an opportunity for the emulation of best practices and the Turks and Caicos Islands promises exciting study tours which will serve to demonstrate pitfalls as well as successes in coastal tourism development.

We have an impressive line-up of speakers committed to participating in the program, including world renowned environmentalist, David Suzuki, to Keynote the conference.

Please log on to www.onecaribbean.org for registration, sponsorship and additional information on STC-10. Pay particular attention to the Hotel reservation form. Rooms are limited, so hurry!

Lakeland Camping Barns provides a great way of staying in the beautiful countryside throughout Cumbria and the Lake District.  Camping barns offer simple accommodation in former farm buildings which each have their own individual character.  Importantly they can accommodate groups of walkers.  To book a barn click here.

The team have also launched campingbarns.net which is a new website promoting alternative accommodation.

Would you like to visit a place that retains its rich cultural and environmental heritages? A place where you can live alongside Tibetan families or wander into the high desert? How about a yak ride through the mountains and visits to ancient Buddhist monasteries? And most importantly, what would it be like to engage in these activities with the knowledge that your stay has a positive impact on the community that you visit?!

Visit the Spiti Valley in the Indian Himalayas and allow Ecosphere to host you. Ecosphere focuses on reestablishing the link between the native custodians of Spiti’s resources and the consumer. Through a product line that includes travel, organics, and health, Ecosphere aims to create sustainable livelihoods that are linked to conservation. For example, one of Ecosphere’s trips called Exploring the Trans-Himalayan Desert initiates visitors through homestays with local Spitian families where you might enjoy tasty local momos while reducing your environmental impact by using traditional dry toilets. A five day trek ensues that might include glimpses of Blue Sheep and the oldest temple in the area as well as lunch at the high mountain Dhankhar Lake. One your final day, you are treated to a chance to wander about this area abounding with Buddhist monasteries and sample the “Wonder Berry” Seabuckthorn products harvested and processed by local women.

To promote its core philosophy of enabling culture and nature conservation, Ecosphere sets aside 5% of all income generated from the travel products for conservation-based activities. With Spiti undergoing a transition phase it is imperative that efforts are made now to preserve the traditional practices and livelihoods. Ecosphere is a small attempt to bridge the gap between the traditional and the modern, to ensure the development of sustainable livelihoods for the inhabitants of this unique cultural and ecological microcosm.

Glyndebourne, the well know opera destination, is proposing to install a wind turbine. The 70m wind turbine would be located near the site of a former windmill and could help reduce Glyndebourne’s CO2 emissions by 71%. To find out more please click here.

Yesterday Virgin Atlantic ran its first flight using bio-fuel on a Boeing 747 flying  from London Heathrow to Amsterdam.  The bio-fuel powered one of the four engines on this test flight.

On Saturday 3rd May 2008, Aylsham will become Norfolk’s first ‘Plastic Bag FREE’ town.

Today sees the start of the countdown to this big switch from plastic, with 10 weeks to go.

Plastic bags are an unnecessary waste of resources using up precious oil, creating litter and being disposed of in their millions in landfill where they are slow to breakdown. Less bags mean a better, more sustainable environment. With this backdrop Aylsham decided to ‘go for it’ and be the first town in Norfolk aiming to be ‘plastic bag free’.

After a couple of public meetings, an Aylsham ‘Plastic Bag FREE’ working group was formed with representatives from the traders, Cittaslow, Aylsham Town Council, Broadland District Council and Norfolk County Council.  The working group decided that they wanted Aylsham to be the first town and realised it was time to pick a date and work towards it.

The first step towards a plastic bag free town is encouraging traders in Aylsham to only supply alternatives to plastic bags to their customers.  Already over 30 traders have pledged to encourage their customers to bring their own shopping bags and where required use biodegradable bags.

Of course the most important traders to get involved are the main users and suppliers of plastic bags like supermarkets and food shops.  However support from other businesses is vital and the list of participating traders shows a good cross section.

Budgens, who probably use more bags than all the other traders in the town put together, have pledged to remove plastic bags from their store.  Neil, the store manager, says they already use paper bags for fruit and vegetables, so they are looking at removing the dependence on carrier bags at the tills.

Crawford, of G F White Traditional Family Butchers, has also pledged to remove plastic bags, despite being tightly constrained by the health and hygiene rules.  Of course putting a kilo of liver in a paper bag just isn’t an option, so Crawford is looking at alternative biodegradable bags for that type of produce.

J B Postle have different issues, as most people who visit their electrical store don’t have a shopping bag they can fit a toaster or kettle into.  Nikki and John are sure they can find a way to keep their customers happy and stop using plastic bags.

Other shops who have taken the pledge include Aylsham Post Office, Burebank Books, J Christian Jewellers, Break Charity Shop, Shoe Box and Celebrations card shop.  Hair dressers, beauticians, opticians, nurseries and an art gallery have all joined the scheme.  A full list of traders who have made the pledge to be involved are listed on the website www.aylshamplasticbagfree.co.uk

Naturally some traders have concerns and questions about going ‘Plastic Bag FREE’.  We’ve been reliant on plastic bags for so long now, that to switch appears expensive and most importantly a hassle.  On the website we’ve tried to answer trader’s questions and we expect to add and edit the site constantly between now and 3rd May to help the process as much as possible.  Cooperative buying of biodegradable alternatives to plastic bags is a possibility and traders are discussing the options.

Traders wanting to join the scheme are welcome to visit the website www.aylshamplasticbagfree.co.uk and download the letter of support.

The Rocco Forte Collection currently has luxury hotels in Berlin, Brussels, Edinburgh, Florence, Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Manchester, Munich, Rome and St Petersburg. New openings are planned in Abu Dhabi (2010), Marrakech (2010), Prague (2008) and Sicily (2009).

In terms of the environment the Rocco Forte Collection uses locally sourced produce as much as possible and controls its energy consumption with a ‘Building Management System’. The centrally controlled unit allows the hotels to function with the environment in mind, by controlling the corridor lighting and air conditioning and ensuring that water is only heated when needed. It is estimated that the Building Management System enables hotels to save between 12-18% consumption from the energy they use.

When building new hotels, the Rocco Forte Collection use green materials wherever possible - products such as polybutylene and polyethylene are recyclable and have a much lower impact than PVC, widely used in buildings, while organic paint and strains made from plant raised resins, oils and dyes are all renewable sources.

Other initiatives include under-floor heating which runs at about 35°C rather than 75°C of conventional radiators and, on a smaller scale, using soy-based ink for all printed materials and organic cotton for staff uniforms.

Each hotel within the Rocco Forte Collection can adopt their own individual policies too – at their new property in Sicily for example, there is room for an on-site farm.

Their aim ultimately is to reduce maintenance and replacement costs during the life of the building, conserve energy and improve employees health and productivity.

To find out more about the Rocco Forte Hotel Collection please click here.

Photos below are copyright: The Rocco Forte Collection.