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BIRMINGHAM City Council has published a draft plan setting out its vision for the future of transport in the city. Building on the existing Birmingham Connected transport strategy, the draft Birmingham Transport Plan contains a set of principles to guide future investment in transport. These measures are designed to reduce transport’s damaging impact on the environment, supporting Birmingham’s commitment to becoming carbon...

NESTLÉ has announced that it will invest up to CHF 2 billion (approx £1,582,000,000) to move away from virgin plastics and to speed up the development of innovative sustainable packaging solutions. Building on its 2018 commitment to make 100% of its packaging recyclable or reusable by 2025, Nestlé will reduce its use of virgin plastics by one third in the...

OXFORD city centre businesses are being invited to ask questions and share their views on proposals for the UK’s first city centre Zero Emission Zone at a forum later this month. Oxford City Council and Oxfordshire County Council have published final draft proposals on the Red Zone of the Zero Emission Zone in Oxford city centre, to be introduced later this year. Councillor...

IN order to tackle single-use plastics, Guildford Borough Council has installed its first water bottle refilling station. The refill station, located outside the public toilets at the junction of Ward Street and North Street, opposite Guildford Library, is jointly funded by the Council and Surrey Environment Partnership. It is part of the Refill App network, a smart phone app linked to...

A UNIQUE new contract will see up to 190,000 tonnes of black bag waste from five Scottish councils diverted from landfill and converted to low carbon energy on an annual basis. The £700 million, 25-year Clyde Valley Residual Waste Project between East Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire, North Ayrshire, North Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire Councils and Viridor started on 7 January. Councillor Billy Hendry,...

Major investment is planned for the country’s biggest waste water treatment works so it can serve the growing needs of Scotland’s capital city. Scottish Water will carry out improvements to the Seafield Waste Water Treatment Works in Edinburgh, which processes 300 million litres of waste water every day, to help improve operational resilience and mitigate potential odours at the facility...

EUROPE'S largest liquefied natural gas terminal has completed its busiest period since the start of operations in 2005. Over the last three months, 30 vessels have discharged their cargoes at National Grid’s Grain LNG terminal in Kent. Liquefied natural gas is natural gas in liquid form and occupies 600 times less space than it does in its gaseous form, making it...

A NEW 'state-of-the-art' energy centre providing sustainable heating has been opened in Newcastle. The District Energy Centre will save 30,000 tonnes of carbon over 40 years - enough to fill Wembley Stadium 15 times. Leader of Newcastle City Council, Cllr Nick Forbes, said: “Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet so it’s incumbent on all of us to do what...

PLAN to regenerate Longannet, the site of Scotland’s last coal-fuelled power station, have been given the go ahead. Fife Council approved proposals for the land put forward by Scottish Enterprise, the national economic development agency, in the hope of bringing hundreds of jobs and economic regeneration to the area. The site has already been named by Spanish train manufacturer Talgo as...

NEW 5.4km Humber Tunnel that will house a key gas pipeline has been completed. Construction of the tunnel began in April 2018 and it now stretches under the Humber estuary at a depth of up to 30m, with a diameter of 3.65m. Given this scale, the excavations involved were complex. Carried out by a tunnel boring machine affectionately named ‘Mary’ by the project teams,...