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JOURNEYS on local roads, railways and motorways are promised to become smoother and safer after a multi-billion-pound infrastructure package was announced by Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. Hundreds of millions of pounds worth of upgrades have already been made to the nation’s road and rail networks during the lockdown period with more planned over the coming weeks and months. Drivers and cyclists...

A SOUTH Cumbria prison has become host to a special tree nursery where inmates approaching the end of their sentences are helping an ambitious project to restore endangered fauna and flora. HMP Haverigg is playing a key role in Back on Our Map (BOOM) mission, which aims to encourage communities to get involved in a far-reaching four-year reintroduction programme for...

A CONFECTIONERY company behind household brands such as Cadbury, Toblerone and Marabou has highlighted their progress towards achieving their 2025 sustainable and mindful snacking goals in a new report. The 2019 Snacking Made Right Report outlines Mondelēz International’s ongoing commitment to lead the future of snacking by leveraging its global scale to deliver positive change. As the world continues to manage...

ANGLIAN Water has become the first business outside of the emergency services to use a live-streaming technology to help engineers plan routine work during lockdown. ResponsEye, a live-streaming tool from Capita has previously been used by the emergency services to generate a live-feed from a caller’s phone as an incident unfolds, so the appropriate resources can be deployed to help. Anglian...

IN this series of four features, Nigel Cornwall is taking us on a journey over the 30-year history of GB Electricity Market. Nigel Cornwall is a well-known energy industry commentator and founder of Cornwall Insight. His latest venture is New Anglia Energy, which is a company formed to support local energy markets in Norfolk and Suffolk. Its purpose is to demonstrate learning...

THE GOVERNMENT is seeking views on a proposal to defer increases on electricity suppliers' obligations under Contract for Difference rules due to impact of COVID-19. BEIS said the consultation is looking for comment on plans to defer the “2021 quarter 1 part” of the increase that “would otherwise be collected by Low Carbon Contracts Company in July for the current...

NORTHERN Powergrid has published its Community Energy Engagement Strategy, detailing how it will foster the growth of community energy across its region. Across the UK, community energy projects generated 168MW of electricity in 2018, enough to supply 64,000 homes. At least 21 of these organisations currently operate within Northern Powergrid’s region, not just generating renewable energy to address the climate emergency...

A NEW generation of wearable devices could be powered by human sweat instead of conventional, environmentally-unfriendly batteries, scientists say. In a new paper published in the journal Advanced Materials, engineers from the Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies (BEST) group at the University of Glasgow describe how working up a sweat could be enough to generate power for exercise monitors and...

CHARITIES that support vulnerable energy consumers can now apply for the latest funding round of the Ofgem Energy Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme (Energy Redress Scheme.) The seventh round of the scheme includes four different funding streams including a new Crisis Fund, introduced to help address the impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable households. Managed and delivered by the Energy Saving Trust, the...

BRE has launched version 6 of BREEAM In-Use, which builds upon standards for driving environmental performance and occupant health and well-being, with added emphasis on resilience to climate change, social value and circular economy principles. BREEAM is an international scheme that provides independent third party certification of the assessment of the sustainability performance of individual buildings, communities and infrastructure projects. Assessment...