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INVESTING in low emission vehicles and creating a more resilient transport system are among the initiatives benefiting from £74m of Welsh Government funding to provide more environmentally friendly transport. The funding, which has been announced in the Welsh Government’s budget, will 'take Wales further down the path to a clean, green transport network and help address the challenges of climate...

PETERBOROUGH City Council has teamed up with Aragon Direct Services, which manages its waste contract, to encourage residents to recycle over the festive period. Steve Cox, Peterborough City Council’s executive director of place and economy, said: “The amount of waste we choose to discard has a direct impact on our environment, as well as the council’s budget. "The city council could...

NATIONAL Grid has agreed a six-year contract with HOCHTIEF-Murphy Joint Venture to deliver the tunnelling and shaft work of the second phase of its London Power Tunnels project in a contract worth around £400m. The £1bn, eight-year project will see the construction of a 32.5km tunnel which will house electricity transmission cables 30m underground. Nicola Shaw, National Grid’s UK Executive Director,...

FIGURES released by DEFRA show that four south London boroughs have risen up the capital’s recycling performance table. The four boroughs, Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton, make up London’s first joint environmental services procurement, through the South London Waste Partnership. The latest DEFRA figures reveal that 46% of household waste was recycled across the four boroughs between April 2018 - March...

BIRMINGHAM Airport has launched a fully electric bus fleet to replace the current diesel vehicles in operation and becomes the first UK airport to run six ultra-low emission buses with a pantograph charging system. Operating as a free passenger service via all landside car park routes, the new fleet is made up of six 7900e single deck electric buses supplied...

Balfour Beatty  has been awarded a £90 million contract to deliver the British onshore civils works for the Viking Link Interconnector Project on behalf of joint venture delivery partners, National Grid and Energinet. As part of the four-year contract, Balfour Beatty will be responsible for the civil engineering and installation of 68 kilometres of high voltage cabling across Lincolnshire; connecting...

67 million meals will go to waste in Scotland this December and 84% of households will have leftover food from Christmas Day, according to Zero Waste Scotland. Festive favourites including turkey (56%), roast potatoes (34%) and Brussels sprouts (30%) are most likely to go uneaten. Iain Gulland, Chief Executive of Zero Waste Scotland, said: “As a nation, we will waste thousands...

DEPOTS and offices owned by Electricity North West are now being powered by renewable energy generated from Walney Wind Farm off the coast of Cumbria. The switch has helped Electricity North West take a significant step towards becoming carbon neutral itself, in line with its ‘Leading the North West to Zero Carbon’ plan. Helen Boyle, strategic decarbonisation manager, at Electricity North...

PLANS for a new housing estate with 35 carbon neutral homes in Pontardawe in the Swansea Valley in Wales have been approved by Neath Port Talbot Council’s Planning Committee. Zero carbon housebuilder Sero Homes aims to build the properties on land at Rhydyfro which has been allocated for housing in Neath Port Talbot's Local Development Plan. The scheme, known as Parc...

UNIVERSITY of Westminster researchers have found that bacteria in devices called Microbial Fuel Cells can generate enough electricity to light a Christmas tree. The cross-disciplinary collaborative research was undertaken by Dr Godfrey Kyazze from the School of Life Sciences and Professor Izzet Kale and Dr Volkan Turgul from the School of Computer Science and Engineering. Dr Kyazze commented on the development: “Microbial Fuel Cells have a bright...