Environmental Articles

Thinking of the environment and being environmentally conscious needn’t stop when taking a holiday.

Many hotels and leisure complexes are leading the way in the environmental stakes by lowering their carbon footprint.

Many businesses are looking at ways in which to be more environmentally aware green. One such way is by applying for the ISO14001 accreditation. The ISO14001 proves a company’s environmental credentials which in this day and age enhances the corporate image and actually saves the company or organisation money by reducing energy consumption.

The hotel and leisure industry is notorious for its energy consumption. From the hot water and laundry to the on-site facilities such as heated swimming pools, saunas, and Jacuzzis. All are energy intensive and contribute significantly to a hotel’s energy demand and carbon footprint.

The Lake District is seeing an increase in tourism related businesses taking a more serious look at their energy consumption and resulting carbon footprint and are taking action. The larger 4 star Lake District hotels and leisure complexes obviously have the most to do but there is help in the form of CBEN, the Cumbria Business Environment Network and supporting tourism partnerships. This area is a haven for walkers and many visitors take a very keen interest in environmental issues.

There are a huge number of ways hotels in the Lake District can improve their carbon footprint. The introduction of alternative, renewable energy generation technologies onsite is one of the biggest but most beneficial to both the environment and the energy bills of the business. In the current climate of rising energy prices, it is beneficial for both. Biomass energy production is being implemented in the area for example in the village of Eskdale and as the location of many Lake District hotels are amongst large managed woodland areas, there is potential availability of raw materials. Installing a biomass burner can save a large hotel up to £35,000 per year on their energy ill although this is dependent on future LPG prices.

Other ways in which a 4 star hotel in the Lake District can implement changes is by installing a charcoal oven, Installing low energy light fittings, minimization of waste and the creation of recycling schemes, solar power, hydro power and new, efficient LPG boilers.

All this action can then be used for marketing purposes. There is not a news bulletin that goes by without an environment story somewhere. A tourism business which has implemented changes such as any of the above have a real unique selling point. They can recoup the costs of installing these alternative energy sources but increase their visitor numbers at the same time so benefitting the environment, the hotel’s profit and the guest’s conscience.

Before starting to build what we thought was a consumer friendly and driven website specifically for solar and renewable energies, we studied the market place in great detail. We studied the search terms that was driving traffic to sites. We looked at the sites that were paying for clicks and Google adds and with very few exceptions these were what we defined as quote farms. Selling leads to a great number of companies competing for business online. We also looked at the companies online that were doing the installations themselves and trying to get the enquirer to contact them direct. We noticed a big difference on the approach to the consumer from both types of company.

All the online traffic was telling us about the demand but also that there were very different types of consumer. So with the help of some really learned researchers from a world renowned institute, we studied some great result about the consumer and type of consumer that is creating the boom in solar installations. There are two main types of system that consumers are aware of and this is recognized in the study. Both systems are Solar Thermal (ST) and Solar Photovoltaic (PV). What the study does not take into account is the Feed in Tariff or (FIT) which is helping driving the demand for solar approved installers.

So what type of consumer are you?  A late or early majority, an early  adopter, an innovator or laggard. See how many different new descriptions you can identify for the type of consumer and energies you use, want or need. Happy reading, we know from the research data that the demographic, the solar companies and quote farms are targeting should be reading this.

Solar systems can raise a householder’s awareness of energy consumption by means of a monitoring facility provided with the installation. This enhanced awareness of energy use could encourage further energy efficiency. Truffer et al (2001) define this type of efficiency as using ‘negawatts’; units of energy never used, perhaps due to intervention by an energy efficient product or more efficient behaviour arising from changing attitudes towards energy use. This type of behavioural change is advantageous to the adoption of solar as it increases the compatibility of the systems with current energy consumption trends. An example can be seen in hot water consumption trends in Denmark, where the average daily hot water demand has dropped from 250 litres per day to 100 litres per day, which matches the daily hot water production of a ST system (Knudsen 2002).

Not all individuals follow the innovation-decision process or adopt an innovation at the same time. To reflect this, diffusion theory identifies five adopter categories as the diffusion sequence unfolds (Rogers 1995). The categorisation is based on consumer personality and behaviour, values and attitudes. Figure 1 shows that adopters are categorised into (a) ‘innovators’ (2.5% of adopters), (b) early adopters (12.5%), (c) early majority(35%), (d) late majority (35%) and (e) laggards (15%).

The theory suggests that the distribution of these categories follows a normal distribution curve, with the first 50% of eventual consumers being in the first three adopter categories. Rogers (1995) proposes general profiles for each adopter category, based on socioeconomic, personality and communication behaviour characteristics. The ‘innovators’ and ‘Early Adopters’, display characteristics such as more years of education, and a greater knowledge about the technology. Sultan and Winer (1993) challenge the profile of adopters as proposed by Rogers (1995) arguing that there is inconsistency in behaviour across products; that is to say, an ‘innovator’ for one product may be a ‘laggard’ for another, suggesting that innovativeness is a relative phenomenon.

Particular recommendations to arise from this study are that:

• Suppliers and manufacturers should work closely with the ‘early adopters’ to develop the operational, economic and aesthetic aspects of the products;
• Suppliers should seek to achieve greater understanding of what customers’ perceptions actually are, in order for them to develop products that meet their needs;
• Financial assessments of solar power products should be undertaken, as well as determination of the optimal level at which domestic solar products become attractive to current householders;
• As more solar systems are fitted, further work could determine the differences between the two solar technologies, and types of product within them, such as roof integrated, replacement tiles, or laminate systems:
• Further work should be carried out to develop a sound theoretical base for the concept of the ‘chasm’

There is much more detailed stats in the research but for yawnability sakes we are keeping this to what you see and read. Who would want to be called a laggard? I don’t mind it myself. However the majority of the demographic will be based in the North West and in particular Lancashire and North Cheshire as well as the London and South East.

I dare say most people remember the fuss that was made when Barack Obama referred to BP as British Petroleum after the Gulf of Mexico oil spill –  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10303619

Well let’s play spot the difference with these 2 screen shots from the BBC website Following the Shell leak in a North Sea pipeline.

The 1st was from 13th August 08:59 and the 2nd from 13th August 16:48

For those who didn’t spot the difference
In the 1st article they are referred as Royal Dutch Shell, whilst in the 2nd article just a few hours later they are just Shell

From what I can gather the Gannet Alpha platform where the leak took place is operated by Shell U.K. Limited on behalf of itself, Esso Exploration and Production UK Limited.

One of the UK’s much loved mammals, the Otter, a large member of the Weasel family.

There are 13 Otter species worldwide, mostly seen in the UK is the Eurasian Otter, also known as the Lutra Lutra, they are fully protected under both the UK and European legislation, as they are still widely hunted for their pelts. Otter numbers have fallen dramatically over the last 30 years. The Lutra Lutra Otter has distinctive features which make it easy to identify, with its brown coat and white under belly and neck they are well adapted to aquatic life with its waterproof fur coat, webbed feet and powerful tail and of core their whiskers. Found along coats, estuaries, lakes, streams and fresh water habitats with suitable cover. They can reproduce up to 3 ‘cubs’ per year with the mother will nurture for up to 3 months.

Another popular species is the Sea Otter found along the coats of the Pacific Ocean, these mammals do literally everything in the water, they eat, sleep, mate and give birth in the sea, once again highly adapted to their habitat.

The Giant River Otter, the names says it all, the worlds largest Otter at 6 feet long, these magnificent creatures are native to South America living in the river and creeks of the Amazon. They live in family groups and small communities, once making a den in the river banks, establishing a territory hat they will aggressively protect if needed.

Otters are extremely intelligent, they have been using tools such as rocks to open shells for food, they also know how to have a good time, the Eurasian Otter in particular are highly playful and have been seen many times climbing up banks and sliding back down on their backs!

Their diet consists mostly of fish, frogs, eels, rabbits and birds, depending on their habitat, they eat up to 25% of their body weight daily sometimes more, spending at least 5 hours a day hunting.

These endangered species can only adapt so much, the disturbance of new housing developments, roads and general human disruption are resulting in loss of inhabitants. Pollution of waterways are destroying their food chain and pesticides, mercury and oil found in water are severely damaging on their health, more of these cases are being noticed all over Europe.

Lets help these Otters survive many more generations to come. You can contact your local wildlife trust, they may be involved in otter conservation projects.

Article provided Saffra Hale writing on behalf of www.pjcconsultancy.com