Generous Updates: News, Blogs, and Actions

News: On yer bike

2010-07-30T07:31:44Z

A new bike hire scheme has begun in central London.

Already, more than 11,000 people have signed up to the idea, far outstripping the 5,000 bicycles which will be available today at special docking stations. And more than 12,450 keys have been handed out to Londoners – enabling them to unlock bikes left at 330 docking points across the city.

A bit of detail
The keys cost £3 and the cost of using the cycles varies from £1 for an hour to £50 for 24 hours. TfL and operator Serco expect to roll out the scheme to casual users after a month. The 23kg bikes with three gears do not come with locks and TfL said this was done to deter people from keeping the cycles for long periods.

News: Our energy future: costs or savings?

2010-07-28T06:08:17Z

The Telegraph is today reporting that the Government is saying that ‘Householders face a £300-a-year rise in their gas and electricity bills and significant cuts in how much energy they use if Britain is to “keep the lights on” and meet its climate change targets.’

But this sort of lead coverage isn’t exactly helpful or Generous-spirited. It faces one truth: energy will undoubtedly have to cost more in the future. But it relegates talk about the ways in which households can work to greatly reduce their energy needs and consumption going forward. Something we’re very switched onto here at Generous.

Admittedly, the Telegraph article does go on to talk about the imperative of energy-saving initiatives, but its thrust remains cost. ‘This would make the average family’s annual energy bill of £1,100, £300 more expensive.’

To read more about Energy Secretary Chris Huhne’s 32 separate proposed measures to cut the UK’s carbon emissions by 80 per cent within the next 40 years, click here.

And to join the debate about what sort of mix of energy generation you think fits the Generous ticket, sign in and leave your comments below this story. Tell us what you think.

Flickr photosource – thanks phault

News: Glastonbury teams up with Triodos

2010-07-27T08:25:19Z

Now that the 175,000 festivalgoers have gone home and the stages have been dismantled, work is starting at Worthy Farm – home to Glastonbury festival – on a major solar-power project, financed by an ethical bank’s savers.

Bristol-based Triodos Bank has granted a £500,000 loan to Michael Eavis to help pay for the installation of what will be Britain’s biggest solar roof. The bank says it is a good example of the type of green project that savers who put their cash in its climate change bonds are supporting.

The solar-panel system will be on the roof of the “Mootel” – the barns that are home to the farm’s herd while the festival is on. And, on a clear, sunny day, it is expected that the 1,100 panels will generate around 200kW (kilowatts) of power.

You can read more about the loan, how Triodos works and what the new roof might achieve here.

Related actions

Go Ethical With Some of your Savings

Flickr photosource – thanks hidden shine

News: Plastic bottle boat sails the Pacific

2010-07-26T11:45:49Z

The Plastiki and crew have reached the end of their epic voyage which has taken them through the Pacific Ocean on an 8,000 nautical mile adventure lasting over 130 days! The team arrived midday today at Sydney’s Australian National Maritime Museum, Darling Harbour to an excited crowd of friends, family and supporters.

Plastiki’s mission has been to highlight just how polluted the Pacific is becoming – not least with plastic bottles. The crew are determined to protect our oceans and beat our waste.

Check out Plastiki’s amazing voyage here.

Related Generous actions

News: National Transplant Week

2010-07-14T12:50:24Z

As National Transplant Week draws to a close it’s not too late for you to register your name online. Organised by the charity Transplants in Mind, this year’s appeal had the tag line ‘What are you waiting for?’. It’s a Generous question, if ever we heard one.

It’s a Generous action already – and it would be great to have more of committing to it (the link to the online sign-up form can be found through the Generous action page).

You can read more about Transplant Week here.

News: Green and Godly

2010-07-12T12:57:59Z

Involved with a church, mosque, temple or synagogue? Might want to let them know how to save a fortune on their utility bills and save tonnes of carbon emissions.

According to a survey from British Gas, places of worship in the UK could make £29m a year from solar panels by generating “green” energy through solar panels on their roofs.

On top of that churches, mosques, temples and synagogues could save a further £5m a year by no longer having to buy their own electricity.
’Faith groups would be able to make significant contributions to their coffers by claiming Feed-In Tariffs, a Government scheme that pays households and organisations for the energy they generate for the national grid from renewable sources.

British Gas estimates that if all religious buildings installed solar panels, they would save up to 42,000 tonnes of carbon emissions – the same amount as emitted by 500 transatlantic flights.’
Phil Bentley, Managing Director of British Gas, told The Daily Telegraph, “These potential savings are great news for the UK’s religious buildings and their congregations, and give them the opportunity to lead their communities in tackling climate change and helping Britain move towards a low carbon society.

“Religious buildings are particularly well suited to solar power as they tend to have large south-facing roofs which receive direct sunlight for the main part of the day.
“The Government’s Feed-In Tariff scheme is the key to unlocking the potential of solar power in Britain. As Britain’s energy company, we at British Gas are committed to helping households, business and community and faith groups make the most of this opportunity to cut their carbon footprint and earn money for the electricity they generate.”

Read the whole of this article here, including news of a London church which has just finished covering its south-facing roof with solar panels – PV tiles – and is now using them to generate energy.

Flickr photosource – thanks wauter de tuinkabouter

News: 'Feelgood Downloading?'

2010-06-30T13:47:25Z

Download music ? Fairshare Music is a way to support a good cause every time you buy a new tune. Buy the new Arcade Fire or Scissors Sisters and donate to Amnesty or WWF or Oxfam without noticing.

Billed as the home of ‘feelgood downloads’, the new service carries 8.5 million tracks with prices from 79p per track. The only difference from other legal download sites is the generous one – for every track you download, Fairshare, donates half its profit to your chosen charity. The more you download, the more it donates.

And it’s refreshingly transparent about how the money breaks down.

‘For every track you download, we guarantee to donate at least 50% of our net profit to your chosen charity. You will always see the donation amount clearly at checkout and on your receipt. The actual amount in pounds and pence … can vary depending on the artist’s record label and type of track. Rest assured, we want you to feel good about your downloads so we work hard to ensure that our prices are the same as everywhere else.’

So if you downloading an album at £7.99, it breaks down like this:

’ £1.19 goes to the Tax Man as VAT

£5.75 goes to the record label and music publisher

26p goes to the bank to process your payment

… and 32p goes to your charity whatever our other costs are.’

Founding partners include Amnesty International, British Heart Foundation, British Red Cross, Centrepoint, Friends of the Earth, Great Ormond Street Hospital, NSPCC, Oxfam, Sue Ryder Care, Teenage Cancer Trust and WWF.

Open an account for free at Fairshare Music,

News: Painting The Mountains White

2010-06-29T09:59:07Z

Inventor Eduardo Gold is so concerned about global warming that he’s started painting the peaks of the Andes white in an attempt to reflect back the sun and combat climate change.

The technique, reports The Daily Telegraph, is scientifically plausible and, according to some scientists, may be the only method of lowering global temperatures in a crisis.

“A white surface reflects the sun’s rays back through the atmosphere and into space, in doing so it cools the area around it too,” said the 55-year-old activist. “In effect in creates a micro-climate, so we can say that the cold generates more cold, just as heat generates more heat.”

It is hoped the project will slow the melting of the glaciers. Four workmen are now painting three peaks, starting with Peru’s Chalon Sombrero peak, 4,756 metres above sea level, which has seen its glacier disappear within living memory.

The painters who have already completed two hectares of a planned 70 have been recruited from Licapa village, which depends on the run-off from the mountain for its water. They use an environmentally-friendly mix of lime, industrial egg white and water, which is known to have been used since Peru’s colonial times. The whitewash is slopped out on the slopes from jugs.

If the underlying theory – known as Solar Radiation Management – works the glacier should re-emerge in a cooler micro-climate.
Read the rest of this story here

Flickr photosource – thanks ‘Stuck in Customs’

News: Co-Operatives Fortnight is underway.

2010-06-19T07:21:27Z

For 14 days co-operatives are promoting their work, neighbours are working together, businesses are trying new things and people are talking about the co-operative alternative.

Co-Operatives, says one contributor on a new video released today, ‘Are about the value of people instead of the value of money’.

If you have a feeling they’re right about ‘a decline in community as people spend less and less time with their neighbours’, you might also agree that the co-operative movement is part of the solution.

They’ve even come up with a ‘scientific’ formula for co-operation based on the seven principles of the co-operative movement. ‘It determines the personal and group components of shared commitment, common interest and mutual trust needed for co-operation to occur in both an organisation and an individual.’

If that sounds a bit complex, why not set up a food co-operative instead.
Or start to buy things to co-own with neighbours – lawnmowers, solar panels, cars.
Or start a school.
Or open an account with The Co-Operative Bank.

A good place to get thinking is by checking out Co-Operatives Fortnight.

News: Recycling. But more exciting.

2010-06-08T12:02:54Z

If you’ve ever got a kick out of the thrill of smashing the bottles as you force them into the recycling bank, then you’ll be pleased to hear you’re not alone.

David Belt and co. Macro Sea have built a recycling bank that caters to those very same destructive instincts. It’s called Glassphemy and it works like this: recyclers stand on a high platform at one end of a 6m-long, 9m-tall box made out of bulletproof glass and steel and they chuck their bottles inside, watching them shatter at the bottom.

Not only that.

Lights hooked up to vibration sensors flash when a bottle impacts, and people on platforms around the cage can get a closer look at the whole violent process from behind the safety of a shield of bulletproof glass. Recyclers can even aim at the observers if they so desire.

“Recycling’s so boring,” Belt told the New York Times. “We tried to make it a little bit more exciting”.