Preparing your authority for a citizens’ assembly
Graham Smith, professor of politics at the University of Westminster, looks at how citizens’ assemblies should work with local authorities.
As increasing numbers of environmental and emissions targets are set by the Government and EU Commission, one company has claimed it can and is producing a truly sustainable biofuel.
This statement is in sharp contrast to comments made by George Monbiot who, writing in The Guardian this week, claimed apart from chip fat ‘there is no such thing as a sustainable biofuel’.
Regenatec who formed a partnership with CleanStar in October 2007 are quite convinced they can prove him and other sceptics wrong.
Quite simply the proof needed is of a working fuel system that works with existing vehicles and runs on fuel from plants grown ethically and sustainably, ideally on land that does not encroach on existing agricultural land.
This might seem like a tall order, but Regenatec director Mike Lawton, an engineer by trade was not deterred.
Mr Lawton was inspired to convert his car from a diesel to a pure plant oil car after numerous long distance journeys were costing him hundreds of pounds in fuel bills. He saved himself a substantial amount of money as well as reducing his carbon footprint by at least 80%, which is four times the government target for 2020.
Mr Lawton and his team at Regenatec, went on to develop the technology and applied it to trucks, buses and even boats. The technology can be fitted by one of Regenatec's approved fitting centres or, after training, can be fitted by a customer’s in-house mechanics. Regenatec also supply their commercial customers with bulk volumes of ethically sourced and sustainably produced plant oils such as rape seed oil and soya oil.
Using ethically sourced and sustainably produced soya and rape seed delivers significant benefits but they are still food crops. In October 2007 Regenatec joined forces with CleanStar, the producers of oil from a plant called Jatropha
The resultant organisation, known as RegenaStar, intends to be the first social, ethical and true sustainable biofuel business. RegenaStar combines the world class agro-biology skills of CleanStar with those of multi-award winning technology based Regenatec.
Shell is helping power the journey towards a circular paving industry with Shell Bitumen LT R, a new product for roads that uses plastics destined for landfill as part of the additives to make the bitumen.
Effective Energy Group is now offering its support to the 40 Local Authorities who have received a share of the £430m to deliver their projects on the ground by surveying properties and installing measures.
Dougie Belmore explains how one of the main interfaces between you and Bacs is about to change.
