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The future is green

Sworn into office just two days ago, all eyes are firmly focussed on Obama and what he will do to deliver the change that he has promised throughout his electoral campaign. In the midst of one of the world’s largest economic crisis, President Obama built his campaign on the promise of not only economic stimulus but also support for green technology.

Obama’s plans for a green tech economy are unlike any policies of the Bush administration. Rather than allowing the economy to overshadow and marginalise environmental concerns, the President wants to use environmental principles to help drive economic growth.

“A new energy economy is going to be part of what creates the millions of new jobs that we need," Obama said during a news conference last month.

Recently he selected alternative energy supporter and Nobel-prize winning physicist Steven Chu to head the Department of Energy and has also announced that he will invest $150bn dollars in green technology.

Although, many speculated that the financial crisis would but an end to green initiatives, but initial indications from the White House tell us otherwise.

However, it is not going to be easy to change attitudes and create the economic stimulus that he envisions in his own country. A green tech future, or a new energy economy as some prefer to call it, would certainly need global consensus and is unlikely to be achieved through national measures alone.

At home in the UK, the government assures us of its commitment of investing in a green future and creating a low carbon economy. It does this with measures such as targets to reduce carbon emissions by 80% before 2050, the creation of the new Department of Energy and Climate Change last October and the passing of the Climate Change Act last December. However, on the other hand gives the go ahead to build a new runaway and a sixth terminal at Heathrow Airport.

This decision makes me doubt how serious the government really are about creating a low carbon economy…We’ll have to wait and see if the future is really that green.

By Danielle Thomas

Obama for Change

Obama for change!

I’ve just witnessed history as Barak Obama – the US’s first African American leader sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America. Two hundred years after the abolition of slavery and around forty years after the Civil Rights moment, this was a day that was that people – including myself a 22 year Black Britain – never thought they’d ever see.

Barack to me is role model, a strong, family man, well educated a lawyer and a diplomat who throughout his campaign has promised change to a country with severe economic and social problems. Many are debating that is change will come about and Barack acknowledges that the challenges are real and that change will not be easily met, however I believe like many others do that change has already come in this the inauguration of the first black president of the United States!

By Danielle Thomas

Rubbish Resolutions

It seems that although 2009 is the year of money worries and high street hell, 2009 is also going to be the year of green.

Everywhere you look we are being encouraged snap out of the Christmas blues and recycle our festive rubbish that has been left over from 2008 or ‘swop’ presents to maximize their usefulness. We should do something about the un-eaten food that we eventually throw out, and make sure we recycle our Christmas trees. British households chucked out more than three million tonnes of waste this Christmas, including cards, trees and food waste, according to Recycle Now.

Now I reckon that I am pretty good with recycling cans, bottles, paper etc through the kerbside collection but I thought I would have a quick search online to see what else we can do this year.
Well, for food waste there is the option to start your own compost (See here for tips). Otherwise, when food is sent to landfill doesn't break down into compost but releases harmful greenhouse gases instead - this is because it's buried and doesn't get any air. Composting is definitely something that I am looking to do this year.

Most councils prefer not to take Christmas cards because of the glittery and shiny bits, but a scheme run jointly by the Woodland Trust and Recycle Now means that you can take your cards to WH Smith, Marks & Spencer, Tesco or TK Maxx stores - all you have to do is look out for the special recycling bins. I tend to reuse my cards by cutting them up into funky designs and turning them into Christmas tags for the next year.

A number of people I spoke to got a new mobile phone for Christmas. The best thing to do with the old one is to either give it to someone who wants it or give it to an organisation who will send it to a less economically developed country for reuse www.envirofone.com. Getting rid of your old phone safely helps helps reduce the amount of toxic chemicals (like mercury) and reusable elements (like gold, silver and nickel) being sent to landfill.

And what about other new presents like cameras or gadgets - it is really important to recycle the old ones rather than throw them in the bin. At www.recyclenow.com, you can find out which electricals you can recycle in your postcode, or which retailers near you will take back your old electrical appliances in store. Alternatively, there is Freecycle, an online forum where people give items away for free, in a bid to re-use and recycle unwanted goods.

None of this seems too taxing, maybe going greener would be a good additional New Year resolution for 2009.

My Factory Visits

I spent a day last week in the cold and rainy North visiting a numbers of factories involved in the processing of the drinks can. It was a long day, but a great way to see the loop of how a can is made, filled and then recycled, to possibly become a can again.

The first stop was the Novelis recycling plant in Warrington. We saw the huge bales of cans, which were then melted down into a huge vat of molten liquid, that looked like something out of the Lord of the Rings. It was very important that we didn’t touch anything. We then saw how the aluminium was set into huge ingots, which were then transported to Germany by river for rolling.

Next was the Rexam factory, which makes the cans that supply the Coca-Cola Enterprise factory just next door in Wakefield – we actually saw the ‘hole in the wall’ that allows this to happen. The scale of production in both of these factories was immense and it incredible to see the number of cans in production.

All in all, a whistle stop tour, but actually being there made the whole process so much more vivid and easier to comprehend (and the hats and goggles that we had to wear were so attractive!).

Bold and fair

There is no escaping or denying the fact that Britain has now entered a recession.

The newspapers report daily about job cuts and repossessions. And strapped for cash we are spending less, forcing high street stores such as Marks and Spencer and Debenhams to hold regular pre-Christmas sales in order to avoid the fate of stores such as Woolworths and MFI.

I attended the Labour Progress Annual Conference on Saturday where I listened to Ed Miliband MP defend the government’s recent economic decisions announced in the Chancellor’s recent pre-budget report. Bold and fair were the key words of his address:

“New Labour was always about a commitment to boldness and fairness”

“Labour showed once again its ability to be bold, to be fair”

“We have shown a sense of boldness and fairness and told a distinctive New Labour Story about how we can solve the economic problems”

At the state opening of Parliament this week, Gordon Brown made ‘fairness’ the theme of the Queen’s Speech.

We are all aware that the government has made bold decisions with its emergency mini-budget to help the effects of the year-long international financial crisis. They include slashing VAT by 2.5%. However, the jury is still out on how fair these measures are.

“My Government is committed to helping families and businesses through difficult times.” announced the Queen.

But can these bold economic reforms ever be fair for all, families and business alike?

By Danielle Thomas

Is PR good for you?

This week I attended an event at the University of Westminster entitled ‘Is PR good for you?’ targeted towards PR professionals and students I was intrigued to attend and see if the outcome of this debate could possibly be negative i.e. conclude that PR is bad for society.

The conclusion of the debate was far from a surprise; the verdict was that PR was indeed good for a society. The persuasive industry is a fundamental instrument of democracy and the right to persuade and influence a democratic right. This is the reason therefore in large democracies such as the US and the UK the PR industry is well established, in emerging markets/transitional countries there is a fascination with PR and in totalitarian states PR is absent.

I concluded on leaving the event that the findings were all very obvious for someone like myself and the other attendees who work in the persuasive industry … so what was the need for this event. Then I reflected I had just been PR –ed. This seminar had been an opportunity to PR, plug, promote, call it what you may the speaker’s new book on the discipline.

So is PR Good for you – yes it is. This event demonstrated the true power of PR…the art of influence and persuasion through increasingly more strategic means which brings your cause, concern or product to the public’s attention … no matter how intelligent they consider themselves to be…

By Danielle Thomas

Blog Action Day - E-marginalised

Today October 15th is Blog Action Day. Bloggers everywhere will unite (from sports blogs and tech blogs, to entertainment and cooking blogs) and publish posts that discuss poverty in some way. So I’ve chosen to raise awareness about an emerging type of poverty - digital exclusion.

Can you imagine life without your computer, blackberry, or iphone? And I’m not talking about just a day or a week, but what if you had never owned a computer, had internet access on your phone or even in your home? However, could you possibly live without this technology now in 2008?

For many of us it’s hard to imagine and life without Facebook, Myspace or even ASOS…however the internet has many more important uses that we take for granted. The internet has become an indispensible tool in looking for jobs online; searching for housing and assisting children in their studies, however 39% are still not online. That’s more than 1,000,000 households with children without the use of the internet.

Some of these people do not use the net out of choice, but the majority are e-marginalised due to poverty.

Digital exclusion is a socio-economic problem and there is a clear link between digital and social exclusion – 75% of people that are socially excluded are also digitally excluded and 64% people living in social housing don’t use the internet. Research has proven that the internet significantly changes the quality of lives. In a project conducted by UK Online Centres shows 97%of families in poverty who were given computers said that their lives had improved after six months.

Connecting people to the internet can connect them to new or better jobs, new forms of social interaction, government services, education, information, consumer power….and much more.

Thankfully, the government has woken up to this as in April we saw Paul Murphy MP, Wales Minister appointed the first ever minister for Digital Inclusion and at Labour Party Conference, Gordon Brown revealed that Ed Balls would announce plans to fund over a million extra families to get online. The Government will publish their first Digital Inclusion Action Plan later this month – hopefully this will be part of the answer to an emerging 21st century problem.

By Danielle Thomas

Down and dirty state side

We are always being told how closely linked we are to the USA. ‘The special relationship’ is interpreted by some as evidence of all the things we have in common with Uncle Sam. First and foremost we have our history – two World Wars to be precise. And then of course we are speaking the same language - literally. We love sports (albeit different ones), they love our TV and we love theirs and we are both partial to a helping of burger and fries.

At first glance our political systems also appear closely linked. Both are two-party states, one party sitting just to the left and one on the right. However, once politicians either side of the Atlantic hit the campaign trail we tend to go our separate ways. Labour and the Conservatives entire general election budget would be hard pushed to fund two or three weeks of ‘Obama for President’. And in the States when the chips are down the gloves will come off and both candidates will clamber down into the gutter and slug it out. And that is exactly where we find ourselves now as the US Presidential campaign turns for home and heads down the final straight.

McCain being the one who is slipping behind in the polls has now given up all pretence of wanting to talk about the issues. He has worked out that the American people do not trust him with the economy and are increasingly questioning his judgement. Plan B for team McCain/Palin is to label Obama a friend of terrorists, an aid to paedophiles and a liar. And they are just getting warmed up.

However let us not get too ‘holier then thou’ about Obama. A number of blows have been levelled against McCain that would be hard pushed to be stood up in a school debate, let alone in a national political campaign in the UK. And if Obama was to suddenly find himself behind with a week to go he would come under intense pressure to get down and dirty as well. Whether you like this approach or not is down to the individual. What cannot be disputed is that if you like your politics to be more personal than political, head West. Because thankfully, unlike most things American, we have proved resistant to ‘gutter politics’. And long may that continue.

By Harry Watkinson

London 2012 - The 'cosy' games

This week I attended the first Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee after the Summer recess. As part of the committee’s ongoing inquiry into the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympics Games, they called upon Boris Johnson, Mayor of London and Lord Moynihan, Chairman of The British Olympic Association to give oral evidence. The session focused on preparations for the 2012 Games, lessons from the Beijing 2008 and elite sporting performance.

As I predicted, the cost of the London 2012 Olympic Games was a pertinent issue for the committee, especially in light of the current economic climate. In his manifesto, Boris Johnson highlighted the importance of cost control in the planning of the Games; in return the committee asked him if he still believed the cost of the Games could be contained. Boris was adamant that no further money was needed from the taxpayer and he was reluctant to see early spending of the contingency funds. Mr Johnson stressed that 25% of the budget had been spent, while only 2% of the contingency had been used.

The budget for the London 2012 Games is almost half of that of this year’s Olympics in Beijing, so Philip Davies MP rightly asked Boris how we avoid the London Games being considered as a ‘poor man’s Beijing’ and how we compete on a lower budget. Boris answered that we should not expect a carbon copy of the Beijing Games, according to him the London Games would be a more “cosier” affair with a greater sense of intimacy.

As the athletic stadium in Stratford is set to hold 80,000 people only 11,000 less than the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing, I’m not yet convinced how intimate the London 2012 Olympics Games can really be.

By Danielle Thomas

New Energy and Climate Change Department

So the reshuffle has happened, and there is a new Energy and Climate Change Department, with Ed Miliband as the new Secretary of State, illustrating the importance of climate change now within the Cabinet. The new department has been set up due to power struggles between BERR and DEFRA – hopefully the new department will allow remove the difficulties of conflicting priorities, and allow change to happen.

The new department is going down well with the key green NGOs, and they seem to have high hopes of what is can achieve.

Greenpeace Executive Director John Sauven said: ‘For the last ten years this government has dithered on climate change, offering us inspiring rhetoric but little in the way of real action. Bringing energy and climate together at last reflects the urgency of the threat we face from climate change.’

Director of Campaigns at WWF-UK David Norman, said: 'It shows a clear recognition that the UK's chances of hitting its climate targets are inextricably linked to its energy policies.'

Friends of the Earth Executive Director Andy Atkins said: "The creation of a single department to oversee climate and energy policy is a big step forward. This is a golden opportunity to integrate the UK’s climate and energy policies – something which has been so obviously lacking in the past. We hope to see this new department, with a dynamic Secretary of State at the helm, lift our energy policy out of the dark ages to meet the challenges of the twenty first century.

So it looks like Brown may have increased his popularity with the green voters, but we will wait and see what policy changes happen as this new department progresses.

Cam the man with the plan

“I am man with a plan” appears most quoted line from David Cameron’s address to the Conservative Party at their conference on Wednesday.

Cameron has made it no secret that he plans to ‘Fix Britain’s broken society’ should he become PM, but yesterday he promised to be as radical in social reform as Thatcher was in economical reform.

In fact this was only one in a series of comments he made which evoked a Thatcherite spirit at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham.

Although I went to school in the generation of ‘Thatcher the milk snatcher’, I can still see how the comparison he has made between himself and the former first lady might entice voters. In his attempt to tackle Labour’s claim that he was a “novice” Cameron told his party that “Experience was the excuse of the incumbent down the ages”.

He spoke of James Callaghan, PM in 1979 who like our own PM had gained plenty of experience in various cabinet positions as home secretary, foreign secretary and chancellor, however was ‘swapped’ by Margaret Thatcher to the delight of many.

So is Cameron right? Does experience suggest you are implicated in the system that failed? If so, is a change of leadership is what we really need?

By Danielle Thomas

Still knocking

Cameron struck a sombre note at conference today in a speech designed to suggest he, novice or not, is the prime minister in waiting. Promising to work with the government, Cameron committed the Conservatives to collaborations now and recriminations later.

Sombe and considered, it was a good performance with a promise of explanation and an offer of solutions in his speech tomorrow.

The party faithful loved it, but we'll have to wait and see if this talk of political togetherness will really happen.

By Claire Levens

Paralysed or Smug - which are you?

Birmingham: Sunday night: Just finished my first environmental fringe at Conservative Conference. Like Labour last week, the fringe agenda is dominated by environmental debates. I’ve just been exploring how to create 2020 carbon citizens.

I was reminded of some research that we did about a year ago, which found that consumers were so confused about what it means to live a green lifestyle they took one of two options. Some were paralysed by the confusion, infused with a gloomy fatalism that all is for nothing in the face of impending doom. The second response, equally unhelpful was a misplaced smugness, engendered by the warm glow of a regular recycler, who believes that through recycling all personal environmental responsibilities have been discharged.

I asked the panel how they would solve this problem, created through a morass of messaging. The most interesting answer was that given by Nick Hurd MP exercising his Chairman’s prerogative to answer the question. Nick highlighted a local initiative, funded and promoted by Kirklees council, which cuts through the clutter. Like every other battle of hearts and minds, creating carbon citizens will only result from a personalised invitation. This means a street by street, door to door campaign, providing localised, tailored independent advice about everything from recycling to insulation.

Undoubtedly expensive and utterly time consuming. But, perhaps it is the best use of time any money on the planet.

By Claire Levens

Political Top Trumps

This morning my colleagues returned to the office tanked up with stories of their adventures at the Labour Party Conference in Manchester. Sifting through their goodie bags full of promotional leaflets and useful contact details they showed me their most prized freebie; a set of Political Top Trumps. A special edition of the traditional card game Top Trumps, where each card represented some of the UK’s most influential politicians from the Gordon Brown, to David Miliband and Mayor of London Boris Johnson and contained data on marginality, expenses and value of memoirs.

The cards provoked some excitement amongst our team and we can’t wait until we get some free time to play them. However, I started to think in only a week’s time the information on these cards would become out of date as Gordon Brown is set to announce the reshuffle of his cabinet.

In his attempt to regain political momentum it is obvious that Gordon will have to make some significant changes. So who will become Gordon’s new top trumps?

Will Jacqui Smith remain as Home Secretary? Who will replace Ruth Kelly as she has now stepped down from her position as Transport Secretary?

It is speculated that rising stars Caroline Flint, Liam Byrne and Jim Murphy will move up the ranks while Des Browne and Geof Hoon may have their cards marked.

But the most pertinent move will be that of Foreign Secretary David Miliband. Will Brown keep his enemies close and promote Miliband or demote him even though he claims he is not a threat?

When the reshuffle is announced I believe the media will be most occupied with Miliband’s fate, however is hard to predict his new position in the cabinet as many like myself are not quite sure about the status of the relationship between Miliband and Brown.

We’ll have to keep our eyes peeled…

By Danielle Thomas

All about me

Vintage Brown. Here in Manchester Gordon has said loud and clear that ‘I know who I am and what I am about.’ Just for good measure he also laid out his vision to save the entire world from the global financial system and to care for the nations sick, poor and the elderly. Utterly a conviction politician, his Christian values blazing, Brown’s fight back begins right here, right now.

Perhaps his best sound bite “no time for a novice” was directed at both Davids, Cameron and Miliband. Initial reactions appear to give a thumbs-up for the PM. However, if he wants to see in the spring at Number 10 his actions will still need to speak much louder than his words here today. But at least it is a start.

By Claire Levens

Gordon: Glory or Gonner?

So, it's the night before the big speech, but if the press are to be believed, Gordon's speech was written months ago and nothing is going to change it. Funny then, to bump into a senior Minister in the bar tonight, who was on the hunt for one of the speech-writing team.... Seems that some third party endorsement had been recieved from a certain South African former elder-statesman, and the writing team were keen to include it.

So, if the speech contains reference to what the UK has done for Africa under a Labour administration we know it was subbed tonight. If not, well, maybe they just missed eachother in the madness of the Malvern bar...

Gordon knows he has a lot to do tomorrow - he needs to impress the party faithful, bruised and battered as they are by the recent events; needs to reassure the parliamentary party that their seats are safe with him. More than that, he needs to convince the cynical media that he has what it takes...and that is a challenge.

I hope he's sleeping well tonight, because tomorrow he earns the right to stay in the job, or start packing... lets see what the media judgement is....

By Claire Levens

Saints and Sinners?

Saints and Sinners? I really understand the need for certainty, it makes life easy, especially as it permits me to define myself in relationship to you - we are either the same or we are different. On a personal level, it's the way humanity has defined itself for all eternity. On a political level, it's short-sighted, damaging and fundamentally unhelpful.

I've been to two fringe meetings today, one on lottery funding and one on water foot printing. Some of the speakers, and many of the attendees were very quick to define charity and or not for profit as universally good, and anything, and possibly anyone connected with a corporation, or with profit -making as utterly bad. I wonder where this mindset comes from. When did some advocates of the NGO sector, get to determine the organisational morality, and translate that into personal morality.

It would be far more helpful for all parts of society if we each recognised that, even in the current economic climate, profit is the engine of money, that agent of change. Money may change situations for good or for ill. And granted, not all companies are responsible. However most people professionally engaged in the begetting of profit do not do so at the expense of all their principles and scruples. Likewise those engaged in advocacy and campaigning do not have the monopoly on appropriate / right responses.

Perhaps we can agree on this, at least. The social and economic issues we face, as a nation and as a planet will require our best thinking and best policymaking to manage, let alone solve. It's just possible that some solutions might be found from with the business community, and delivered by the NGO community. Perpetuating the myth that profit and business is entirely beyond redemption, and charity above scrutiny, may be comforting in it's clarity. Shame then that clarity alone, especially when mis-guided will hinder rather than help solve the big issues we face as a nation.

By Claire Levens

Party On

So the political circus has rumbled into Manchester this week. Everyone's here already, and it's only Sunday afternoon. The mood is good too, perhaps the sunshine has something to do with it, or perhaps it's very early in the week... but the coppers are in a good mood, and I've only been told off for going the wrong way twice in four hours! And, none of the food at the lunchtime fringe was deep-fried! Things are looking up.

More importantly, if the quality of the first fringe meeting I went to is anything to go by, we're in for a good conference. The Big Lottery Fund are about to consult on spending priorities for 2009 - 2015. They have some tough questions to think through, covering issues as diverse as whether they should fund the people in most need, or fund a geographical spread of projects throughout the land... Go on, think about it, to me they should fund the people most in need, but then who determines need, and on what basis. Add to this the reality that lottery tickets are disproportionately bought by the poor, but the lottery funding doesn't always reach those areas, and you get into some interesting political turf.

We have a client interest in sports funding, which, because of London 2012, is receiving significant amounts of lottery money at the expense of other arts and community projects. It was a contentious decision, but in my judgement the right one. But, here's the rub, as the glow fades on the British success as BOTH sets of Games this year the real funding challenge for sport, good causes and the arts, is how to secure long-term funding beyond 2012. Failure to do so, will make a mockery of the legacy promise and undermine all the sacrifices the arts community is making now.

We'll be making these, and other points to policymakers throughout the week.

Ahhhhh, Labour conference, where else would you want to be.....?

By Claire Levens

Team Paralympic GB outperform Olympic counterparts

Paralympic athletes returned home on the 17th September from the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, a month after the close of the Olympic Games.

Team Paralympic GB outstripped expectations in Beijing as they flew home with twice as many medals as their Olympic counterparts, 102 in total placing them second in the leader board for the third Paralympic Games in succession. Team Paralympic GB was behind host nation China and ahead of the USA and Australia.

With four gold medals and one silver, cyclist Darren Kenny was Britain’s most successful individual competitor, while swimmer David Roberts took his overall Paralympic medal haul to 11 with four golds in the Water Cube, and Lee Pearson won three more equestrian golds to take his personal tally to nine.

In my opinion, the Paralympic Games were very reminiscent of the Olympic Games in August. Team Paralympic GB rode to their victory collecting 12 out a possible 16 medals for cycling and excelled in the rowing and equestrian events, rather like their Olympian colleagues.

Furthermore, London Mayor Boris Johnson received the Paralympic flag in the closing ceremony at the Bird’s Nest stadium where we witnessed the reappearance of the red bus which was previously criticised by Chinese in closing ceremony of the Olympic Games.

The Paralympians will join the heroes parade in Central London on 16 October 2008, announced by Mayor Boris Johnson last month.

Boris Johnson was delighted with the performance;

“They have delivered for us – now we must deliver for them, and for all disabled Londoners and visitors. Our team have tremendous heart and ability. It is up to us to provide the infrastructure so that they can excel. I have no doubt we will.”

Both Olympic and Paralympic athletes have set the bar very high for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

By Danielle