Brown To Make Green Jobs A Reality

Thousands of loft insulators and draft-proofers are to be trained by the Government to help ease fuel poverty.

Speaking at an EU summit in Brussels in the wale of the highest UK unemployment figures since 1999 being announced, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said offering retraining programmes would be a key factor in helping people to find work.

Mr Brown revealed that helping people to become loft insulators would be one of the Government’s main training programmes, a move which is designed to support his recent commitment to ensure every home in the UK is fully insulated by 2020.

In September, it was announced that almost £1 billion was to be pumped into helping alleviate fuel poverty, much of which will be funded by levies paid by major energy companies, such as the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target.

Mr Brown said:

“We are expanding in a very radical way our insulation and draft-proofing central-heating provision for the elderly and other people in our country. We are training large numbers of additional people to do that work in insulation.

“That will be one of the employment programmes that will grow.”

According to statistics from the National Insulation Association, nine million homes in the UK have unfilled cavity walls and 15 million need more loft insulation.

The Prime Minister’s plans to get more people qualified to work in the insulation industry have been given a warm welcome by fuel poverty charity National Energy Action.

Their director of business development, Joanne Carr, said:

“Any action to support skills development and employment opportunities within the energy efficiency industry is extremely welcome and we look forward to receiving further details of the Prime Minister’s proposals.”

However, Chris Grayling, shadow work and pensions secretary for the Tories, ridiculed the plans.

Mr Grayling said:

“He (Mr Brown) has nothing substantial to offer. If training people to lag roofs is the best suggestion he can make, then it doesn’t say much for the challenges we face as a nation.”

(Image courtesy of www.freefoto.com)

CSEng raises profile of bio-based technologies in Cleantech

Peterborough-based sustainable technologies experts, the Centre for Sustainable Engineering, are shouting louder about the numerous environmental and commercial benefits of technologies which are based on biology.

The Centre for Sustainable Engineering (CSEng) is focused on accelerating of the development and commercialisation of sustainable technologies into markets, based on a strong knowledge base of what and where these technologies are. Now CSEng has refined its biology-based expertise into a package of services for entrepreneurs, investors, early adopters and public bodies.

“The demand for clean processes and renewable feedstocks for fuel and materials is very high with increasing concerns about climate change and security of fuel supply. Living organisms can be deployed to produce or convert materials and energy; biofeedstocks are excellent raw materials; and biostructures and processes can be used as design templates or inspiration for human engineered systems”, says Bianca Forte, Senior Bioscientist at CSEng, who has an intimate knowledge of what algae can offer the world.

“Bio-CleanTech can provide many functions truly sustainably: energy conversion and materials for various industrial processes and consumer products. Bio-CleanTech is very relevant for manufacturers and processors of fuel, materials, food, water and chemicals”, says Phil Sheppard, CSEng Intelligence Director and co-founder of the UK Biomimetics Network for Industrial Sustainability (BIONIS). Phil interprets technology and market intelligence in terms of business opportunities and manages accounts of companies looking for sustainable solutions or seeking to bring cleaner technologies to the market.

“For instance, biocatalytic processes are established in a number of industrial sectors such as chemical, pharmaceutical and textile”, says Bianca. “Until recently, biocatalysis in manufacturing has been based mainly on use of whole microorganisms or low cost enzymes. Current initiatives supported by the Government will enable a greater uptake of biocatalysis by industry and we want to accelerate the adoption of relevant technologies coming out of this.”

“At CSEng we are working with investors and early adopters around the world interested, for example, in algae technologies for carbon capture and production of renewable fuels and materials”, says Bianca. “In this particular field, we have advised potential investors and early adopters on the merits of these emerging technologies”. Bianca is also supporting the development of the newly formed La Wahie Foundation, an international consortium of organisations developing microalgae biorefineries.

“We recently lectured at the Algae Biofuel Summit 2008 in Delhi on the importance on systems integration for microalgae technologies. A number of business opportunities were identified at the event and we are currently talking to UK companies interested in developing algae fuels and other outputs. However, a word of caution: there is a lot of hype in this industry and potential investors should consider business development opportunities very carefully.”

CSEng offers its expertise in biofeedstocks, bioprocesses and biomimetics to companies interested in developing or adopting more sustainable products and processes. We welcome the opportunity to talk to biotech companies about the environmental benefits and state of development of their technologies.

The Centre also manages technology development projects, implements technologies in joint ventures and leverages finance for technology developers. Currently CSEng has opportunities to participate in grant-funded RD&D projects and is seeking partners. For an initial discussion please contact Bianca Forte on 01733 294523 or bianca.forte@cseng.org.uk.