millioneurosin90days

69 Days to go - Monday 8th October

This project is about Fairtrade and Environmental issues. Half the funds are going to Charities working in developing countries with the aim of supplying Fresh drinking Water and Sanitation. Today I discovered an interesting project that is up and running in India. It’s called the Barefoot College.

THE BAREFOOT APPROACH IN BHUTAN

 

Thirty women from Bhutan left their villages for the first time in August this year to travel to India, to become solar engineers. These Bhutanese women, between the ages of 20-40 years, will be trained at the Barefoot College to become barefoot solar engineers. On completion of their training, the women will be provided with solar units and equipment to establish rural electronic workshops, where repair and maintenance will be carried out. The Barefoot Solar Engineers will be paid by each community to maintain the solar units. Nearly 500 families in 28 villages will be slar-electrified by March 2008, when the Barefoot Solar Engineers return to their communities to install and maintain the solar power systems. Most of these remote, rural communities are 4- 5 hours walk from the nearest road, making it far too costly to solar electrify these communities by conventional grids. The Projects in Bhutan are funded by the Asian Development Bank. A similar scheme is now working in the Gambia, Africa.

 

 

CO2 Report - 10 miles travel by car

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The Weekend

I am working at my Caffe-Society store on Saturday, and then intend to relax on Sunday, by getting up very early to see if Lewis hamilton will succeed in scoring enough points to win the F1 championship for 2007.

Update- He has not, infact he did not finish, his tyres were so worn that he slid off going into the pits for new tyres. It is very sad, however, he can still do it because in 2 weeks they go to Brazil where the last race of the year will be held. Fingers crossed.

CO2 Report - 43 miles travel by car  

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66 Days to go - Friday 5 October

It has, I think been a good week. I have added some more companies to my sponsored list and added more websites to the home page. As we go into the weekend, I can feel confident that next week will be even better.

CO2 Report 28 miles travel by car

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67 Days to go - Thursday 4th October

Today I have been working partly at my Caffe-Society Fairtrader Store, then this afternoon, worked at home on the Millioneurosin90days project. I am spending the afternoon and evening contacting potential sponsors. I am updating the Blogs on the website. I feel very positive about the project, but I must admit there are times, albeit very few when I think, is this going to be a success, but then I snap out of it and move on. Yes it will be a success in many ways. To see how keep watching and reading

CO2 report on Travel - 32 miles by car

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68 Day to go - Wednesday 3rd Oct

I mentioned recently that I have visited France. On this occasion, because of a time element, I took a flight, from my local Airport- Southampton. The Airline I used is called Flyby, and they now claim to be one of the most environmentally friendly airlines around. After 2 years and a £2 billion investment, in 74 new environmentally sensitive aircraft, Flyby has become the world’s first airline to introduce an innovative ecolabelling scheme. With more people flying than ever before, whether for business, holiday or part of the jet to let boom, the flip side is that humn activity including aviation has an impact on the environment. The UK government’s response to talk of carbon footprints and climate change was to hit passengers in their pockets. Last year passenger duty was increased by £5-£10 ($8-$20) for short haul and up to £ 80 ($120) for long haul. But this does not solve the problem of the impact of air travel on the environment. That’s why Flyby has decided to take the initiative with measures designed to make a difference.

The ECO LABELLING SCHEME - Under the scheme which was subject to an assurance process by International Consultancy firm Deloitte, Flyby passengers booking via the internet will be provided with a detailed but user friendly breakdown of the fuel consumption, carbon emissions and noidse patterns of the aircraft type to be used on their journey. Each aircraft’s eco label is broken down onto three parts.

Local Environment which assesses the aircraft’s noise rating on an A (low) to F (high) rating and the levels of CO2 (carbon dioxide) and NOX (nitrogen oxide) emissions on a Landing and Take Off cycle basis.

Journey Environment which grades fuel consumption and CO2 emissions (kg/seat) on a range of typical European sector basis (500, 1000 and 1500 km) and also on an A (low) to F (high) grading.

Passenger Environment which contains information on minimum leg room and the number of seats.

The eco labelling scheme allows passengers to asses the environmental impact of their journey so they can decide, on an informed basis, whether they want to carbon offset that journey.

Quoting the Flyby In-flight magazine this month, October 2007 - The new eco-label is more than an energy rating. Flyby wanted to consider the effects on passenger and local environments as well as the planet and the three sections of the label reflect this. The local environment section is about how the areas around the airports are effected. This looks at take off and landing emissions of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, which can effect air quality and noise. The journey environment includes data for the entire flight. It shows the total fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Every label provides a rating for the journey environment for three lengths of flights: domestic, such as Birmingham to Edinburgh, near EU such as Birmingham to Bergerac and short haul such as Birmingham to Milan. The passenger environment consists of a number of seats and the seat pitch, which is the space between seats. This is about passenger comfort level, but it’s also relevant because some of the data on the eco-label is given in a per passenger measure. The same type of aircraft with different seat pitches will give a different per passenger measure. To ensure the ratings were an accurate comparison, we didn’t just look at the data from Flyby aircraft. We compared the data across a large population of aircraft used across all the UK airlines, from the smallest twin-turbo prop plane to a Boeing 747-400, and across a range of routes up to long haul. When designing the eco-label we wanted to make it easy to understand, so we based it on energy labels used in household appliances. However, unlike those, we decided not to produce an overall grade. That’s because one of the elements we wanted to make clear was the figure of carbon dioxide emissions so the passengers would be able to see exactly how much they’d need to offset, if they chose to do so.

VERIFIABLE LOW-COST CARBON OFFSET PROGRAMMES - To help passengers in carbon offsetting, Flyby Airline has appointed “PURE”, the Clean Planet trust, to operate verifiable carbon-offset schemes on behalf of its passengers- the first major UK low cost airline to offer such a scheme.

PURE will operate two schemes for Flyby:

A Carbon credits based scheme, under which carbon credits will be traded on the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS)

A grant scheme under which PURE will make direct contributions to a broad range of small scale carbon-reducing projects, for instance the installation of renewable energy in schools.

If you want to check your own carbon footprint, visit www.puretrust.org

CO2 Report - No Travel today, I worked from home

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69 Days to go- Tuesday 2nd October

I have been in my Caffe-Society Fairtrade Store this morning, and again I am surprised how many people do not know about Fairtrade.

What is Fairtrade? Many farmers and workers in developing countries struggle to provide for their families. Poor market access and unfair trade rules often mean that the price they get for their crop does not cover the cost of production. Fairtrade is a rapidly growing international movement which seeks to guarantee a better deal for farmers and workers in the developing world. A product that is Fairtrade certified carries a label The Fairtrade Mark.

Who is behind Fairtrade? The Fairtrade Foundation is the independent certification body in the UK, the US has Transfair. These bodies award the Fairtrade Mark to products which meet Fairtrade standards. The Foundation is part of an international network of 20 organisations that are members of the standards setting and certification body Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO).

Are all Fairtrade Products Organic? Some Fairtrade certified products also carry organic certification labels such as the Soil Association label. Many producers seek to use organic practices, but Fairtrade does not require them to do so. Under Fairtrade standards, producer groups are requested to minimise the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and implement environmental protection projects.

Where Can I buy them? You can find products carrying the FAIRTRADE Mark in supermarkets, local shops, in cafes, bars and restaurants, health food shops, and fair trade shops., from catering suppliers, by mail order and online.

Change to Fairtrade!

Try It - With over 2000 products available from single origin coffee to delicious chocolate and fashionable cotton T shirts, change your everyday products to Fairtrade today.

Promote It- Introduce your friends to a Fairtrade product, Say Thank you with a bunch of Fairtrade Flowers, bring a bottle of Fairtrade Wine to a dinner party or make a refreshing cup of Fairtrade tea.

Find out more! Visit the many companies who have websites, look under Google or other search engine providers, or take a look at my home page” Millioneurosin90days.com.

The Fairtrade Premium is the key. It allows us to plan for the future, the voice of a grower in Tanzania.

By changing to Fairtrade certified products you can make a real difference to the lives of workers and farmers in developing countries. As well as guaranteeing producer organisations a fair stable price for their products that covers the cost of production, they also receive a social premium, extra money that has to be spent on community projects. For instance, in Tanzania, tea pickers have chosen to spend the social premium to set up shop selling affordable food for their families. Now they want to invest in building materials to improve their homes.

CO2 Report - No Travel I worked from home

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