Hill+Knowlton Strategies

This probably isn’t the first place you come for an art review, so imagine the surprise photographer Toby Smith is going to have when he investigates the latest link to his The Renewables Project and finds us here.

The Renewables Project is based on Toby’s hauntingly beautiful images of alternative energy sources in the Scottish Highlands – like this one (disclaimer: I don’t actually know what most of them are):

The little yellow dot is a bloke. It's that big. Whatever "it" is.

For a review of the exhibition I recommend Tom Jeffreys’ write-up over on Spoonfed, but if you live in or around London do yourself a favour and get along to see the real thing before it closes on 1 September.

I stumbled across a neat little initiative while perusing BusinessGreen during my lunch break – edible curtains.  Yes.  Not technically curtains, mind you, which was a little disappointing but I am still impressed.

Kyocera, the Japanese tech group, is pioneering the initiative at 20 manufacturing facilities in Japan, Thailand and Brazil. They basically created what I think we’d call “hedges” around their buildings to block direct sunlight in a bid to not only lessen the need for air conditioning, but provide a health snack for employees to nibble on.  They’ll also be used in the company cafeterias.  Nifty little energy saving initiative, I say.

Employees harvesting the curtains

For the sceptics out there, Kyocera has confirmed that the curtains lower wall temperatures, and “decrease temperature by as much as 15 degrees C”. Covering roughly 32,750 square feet (3,043 square meters), the curtains are expected to absorb an estimated 23,481 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions – the same amount that can be absorbed by 761 cedar trees.

The kind folk at Kyocera have set up a website where you can find more information on the curtains, as well as helpful tips on how readers can grow their own. I recommend checking out the “What is a Green Curtain” section for some cute (always important) graphics. 

Unfortunately, I don’t think we’re in the best location to grow our own edible curtain at 20 Soho Square, and my repeated requests to build a roof terrace where we could grow our own garden have been denied (something about health and safety…).  But if we could, I think I’d like to grow flowers so we could stop paying to have them brought in.  And some cherry tomatoes.

What would you grow?

Now if this was April 1st, I would have sworn that the story about the Volkswagen Beetle powered by human waste was an April Fools’ Day joke. However, it’s not April and this is not a joke. As reviewed by The Telegraph’s Harry Wallop, the clever people at GENeco, a Wessex Water subsidiary have converted a good old VW Beetle and made it run on biogas.

How we get and use fuel is an ever increasing hot topic with fuel companies looking at how wind and solar power can power our homes and car manufacturers looking at hybrid and electric engines. It seems we have become a nation obsessed with finding new ways of powering our homes and cars.

Personally, I think what we flush down the toilet is called waste for a reason and shouldn’t end up powering my car to the supermarket or the beach but you have to admit with an ever growing population – projections suggest UK population will exceed 65million by 2018 – it seems there will be an endless supply of ‘suitable materials’ that could be turned into biogas for many years to come.

I don’t usually travel by tube, but did earlier this week and found myself drawn to the E.ON Talking Energy ad whilst waiting for the westbound train to Shepherd’s Bush:

Talking Energy’s a great little interactive campaign, and nice to see that E.ON is helping to raise public awareness of what it calls the Energy Trilemma – i.e. how to balance security of supply, reduction of carbon emissions, and affordability.

The campaign’s all about encouraging consumers to use less energy, and E.ON hopes that by doing this it will help reduce household bills, engender loyalty and customer support, and ultimately drive long-term profit.

If you’re interested in this sort of thing take a look at the 2010 Energy Brief published by our client Doosan Power Systems earlier in the year (notably before the general election).  The brief reviewed the UK’s energy challenges, and looked forward to big issues and opportunities for future energy policy in the months and years ahead.