Eco Labels

Making your product more environmentally friendly is surprisingly easy—all it takes are a few simple choices.

Use a Refillable Packaging Solution

Your product packaging doesn’t have to get thrown away. Take it back to the milkman model with reusable packaging, like Ronnybrook Dairy. Customers return used milk bottles to the store from which they purchased and claim a reimbursement. Ronnybrook then picks up the empty bottles and refills them, reducing the total number of bottles they need to produce.

Use recycled packaging.

It’s pretty well known that you can package your products in recyclable cardboard and plastic—over 50% of corrugated cartons are recycled in the US. Many don’t know, though, that using non-recyclable adhesives on recyclable packaging can hinder their ability to be reused. Make sure you opt for 100% biodegradable tape or adhesive to close your packaging.

Use eco labels:

Eco labels are one of the easiest ways to make your product more environmentally friendly. An important practice to keep in mind when printing product labels is paper conservation. Many label suppliers offer adhesive papers comprised of up to 100% post-consumer waste. Yet, some companies have begun to cut trees out of the equation altogether by employing paper made entirely of stone. These stone papers have half the carbon footprint of recycled paper because each ton of stone paper saves 20 trees, 7,480 gallons of water, and 236 pounds of chemical emissions (californiagreensolutions.com). Stone paper is water resistant and tear-proof. Many environmentally conscious product manufacturers have used it for their eco labels.

When making product labels, you also want to keep in mind that some inks are more earth-friendly than others. Derived from soy bean oil, Soy ink has become a common alternative to petroleum-based inks because they release only 1/5^th the volatile organic compounds into the atmosphere (soya.be). Not only does soy ink spread 15% further, but because of its natural clarity, brighter colors can be derived from less pigment. This lowers not only the cost, but the amount of ink needed for each label job. Since its debut in 1987, almost 25% of commercial printers – and over 95% of daily newspapers—have moved to soy ink.

Reduce Packaging:

You can eliminate packaging altogether and print your label literally on the product. Screen printing allows you to use ink designed to adhere directly to glass. This is the type of printing you see on perfume and wine bottles. A more practical way to reduce the environmental impact of a given product, however, is to avoid excessive packaging. Ribbons, bows, and overly elaborate packaging often simply generate more waste. Although some products are packaged for aesthetic effect, learning how to incorporate a more sensible use of material does not always take away from the visual presentation of the product. Furthermore, labels should be printed to relate the most vital information about the product. They do not need to be enormous to convey this information, nor do they require harmful inks. Many colors and special label effects can be also achieved by using environmentally friendly inks.

Bank Customers Embracing Mobile Banking

The Financial Brand today reports that we are embracing the digital age and utilising mobile banking:-

Tablets, smartphones and mobile devices will increasingly become the primary tools used to access online banking services, and young adults are the most likely to carry their bank in their pockets — but a growing number of other age groups are likely to join them in the very near future.

Those are among the findings of Intuit Financial Services Fourth Annual Financial Management Survey, a study fielded in October 2011 involving 1,000 participants across the United States.

Where the US starts, others follow, so I guess the UK would show a similar trend if surveyed. This comes as a boost to the banks looking to increase the number of people utilising internet banking.

The article continues:-

Two out of every five participants in the study said they own a smartphone, but only one in five said they use it to check balances, transactions, make payments, etc. 17% said they plan to try it in 2012.

Gen-Y is a different story. They live — and bank — on mobile devices. 70% of Gen-Y respondents said they own a smartphone, and half use it for banking compared to only 23% of the general population. The research revealed that 18-32 year olds are three times more likely to adopt mobile banking than Gen-X, baby boomers and seniors.

More than half of Gen-Y uses more than one device per week to access their online banking information, while nearly everyone else sticks with just one. Another Intuit study encompassing more than 50,000 mobile banking customers showed that people tend to interact, on average, 45% more often with their financial institutions when using online and mobile solutions in combination, as opposed to online alone.

This trend has also led to people who are online more to have more bank accounts than people who do not use digital devices. The main reason for people not using mobile banking services, apart from not owning a device capable of utilising this technology, is that they simply prefer to use their laptop/ desktop pc.

Despite the increasing use of online banking services, 45% of people still  do not use online services at the moment, which is surprising, but the number is bound to decrease as time goes on.

Etihad’s Bid to Cut Fuel Consumption

In a bid to boost efficiency, Etihad Airways is planning to upgrade over half of of its A330 engines in the next two years.

The airline is also experiencing delays to its order of thirty five Boeing 787 Dreamliners. It is planning to upgrade fifteen of its fleet to Trent 700 engines, which will reduce its carbon footprint by over 10,000 tonnes per year and save more than one million gallons of fuel. Chief Operations Officer Richard Hill said in an email statement:

“This means less fuel burn which at current fuel prices should equate to fuel savings of approximately $170,000 per aircraft equivalent to $2.6m per annum for the retrofitted A330 fleet,”

Fuel costs continue to rise and airlines are also facing fines if they exceed EU carbon emissions, and this announcement by Etihad could be an indication that they are taking steps to minimise these effects on their business. They are on track to be in profit next year, despite the current financial situation.

The baths at Bath under ‘fracking’ threat…

Concerns were raised this week at one of England’s most important and well preserved historical sites, as the Bath and North East Somerset Council argued that a new licence granted to Eden Energy and UK Methane Ltd to begin test drilling in the area could cause contamination to the natural hot springs which feed the nearby Roman Baths.

A spokesperson for the local council suggested: “Bath and North East Somerset Council has obtained the very best expert advice on this matter and there is little to suggest that any thought has been given to the potential for damage to the deep water sources that supply the springs in Bath. Given the fact the hot springs are a crucial part of the tourist attraction that sustains thousands of jobs in the city, the Council must stand-up against these drilling proposals in the strongest possible terms”

The baths themselves have been an integral part of the town since their construction in 60-70AD. During the Roman occupation of Britain, the baths were built-up over a period of 300 years and may have originally been commissioned by the Emperor Claudius. In 1591 Queen Elizabeth I charged the town with preserving the natural hot springs; the royal charter has now been passed on to the Bath and North East Somerset Council.

The centre of the dispute revolves around a process known as ‘fracking’ – a technique used to investigate underground sources of methane gas, which involves drilling a bore hole and using either explosives or pumping water into the ground to obtain relevant data. Local planning permission must first be approved before the DECC will consent to further tests and drilling.

Should the United Kingdom switch to using Nuclear power?

Would switching to nuclear power be the right choice for the UK?

In recent months the UK government announced that it would go ahead and invest heavily in a new wave of nuclear power stations. As part of the coalitions’ UK energy roadmap, the government stated that it had confirmed a list of eight sites around the country which are deemed suitable for the construction of new power plants. The government and UK energy suppliers have suggested that the majority of the sites would be operational by 2025.

In a statement, RWE the corporate owner of npower, one of the UK’s leading electricty and gas suppliers, said: “As part of these ambitions, a joint venture between RWE and E.ON UK – called Horizon Nuclear Power – has secured land at Wylfa, on Anglesey, and Oldbury-on-Severn, in Gloucestershire, which was sold for nuclear development by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). Our objective through – the joint venture – is to deliver around 6GW of new nuclear build, with the first station coming online at around the end of the next decade.”

The recent events in France and Japan have caused concern over the building of new power plants, but in reality the debate over nuclear power has been waged for many years and the issue is not an easy one to untangle, as there are many ethical and political concerns involved. There are many advantages to using nuclear power, but there are also serious disadvantages to be considered. It is important to know the entire story and gather as much information as possible before making a decision, as it is a very complicated subject.

Here are the major arguments for and against nuclear power:

Advantages of Nuclear Power

Here are some the advantages of nuclear power that are argued by those who are in support of establishing nuclear power plants in the UK:

• Nuclear power produces almost no greenhouse gas emissions, making it very easy on the environment.

• The nuclear power plants can be situated almost everywhere, unlike other resources such as oil.

• The technology to build and run these plants is already available.

• A single nuclear power plant can generate a huge amount of electrical energy which can be used all throughout the UK.

• Nuclear power has the possibility for long term production because new reactors can be made when the old reactors wear down and need to be replaced. Oil reserves and other fossil fuels will not be replaceable in this way.

• An aircraft carrier running on nuclear fuel can circle the earth for 30 years without having to refuel. Compare this to a diesel fueled carrier which can only travel for 3000 miles before having to refuel.

Disadvantages of Nuclear Power

Here are some of the dangers of nuclear power that those who are opposed to the UK going nuclear state in their arguments

• Nuclear power generates a dangerous form of radiation, which can cause illness and even death in those who are infected with it.

• If a nuclear power plant experienced a spill, it would be very expensive and dangerous to clean up afterwards.

• A nuclear meltdown, such as the one recently witnessed at Fukushima Power Plant after the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, could possibly release an enormous amount of radiation into the atmosphere.

• Nuclear power plants produce a waste by-product which is very toxic to humans, and nuclear waste dumps have been known to explode without warning.

• Nuclear reactors also product plutonium which can be used to create incredibly destructive nuclear weapons.

• Nuclear power uses the natural resource of Uranium, which is estimated to only last for the next 3-6 decades.

• Nuclear power stations are very expensive to build and to safely dismantle afterwards.

Now that you have heard both sides of the story, what do you think? What is your opinion on whether the UK should go nuclear or not?