Best Foot Forward

Last night Prince Charles held the Dimbleby lecture platform for 45 minutes with a well-crafted message entitled 'Facing the Future'. He set out some of the serious challenges that the world faces, and explored how some of these issues could be tackled in the years ahead.  He challenged the dominance of the empiricist economic system over social and environmental capital but showed that the shared language between all three highlight their interdependency. The ecological footprint, that many of BFF's studies include, gets a mention when he points out that by September each year we reach Earth Overshoot Day - when our consumption starts to draw on nature's capital reserves.

Recently the US House of Representatives passed an historic Bill (the American Clean Energy and Security Act) aimed at regulating US greenhouse gas emissions. Although the Bill has some way to go before becoming law it nonetheless represents a significant sea change in attitude towards carbon reduction in the States… Or does it?

BFF was delighted to be invited to exhibit Footprinter™ at the Technology Showcase at Venturefest 2009, one of the UK’s largest gatherings of high tech businesses, entrepreneurs and investors. Footprinter™ is the leading edge online carbon management tool developed by BFF for corporations and product assessments.

BFF client Sheppard Robson has been awarded the "Most Sustainable Practice" award from Architecture Journal. The award is sponsored by another BFF client InterfaceFlor. In 2008 Sheppard Robson commissioned BFF to assess the carbon and ecological footprints of their annual office activities in London and Manchester. The results from the study have enabled them to develop a strategy to monitor and reduce their footprint in the future.

Having completed a carbon and ecological footprint study of a Worksop school for Balfour Beatty's Transform Schools initiative, BFF were recently invited to present the results to the student council and facilitate a student workshop on how to best reduce the school's footprint. After some fantastic discussions and ideas the Portland School students came up with a wide range of possible actions including introducing a vegetarian day in the canteen, emailing newsletters rather than printing, encouraging staff to car share one day per week and switching from bus travel to walking or cycling. We look forward to catching up with the students of Portland School in the future to see how their actions are making a change.

BFF Principal Consultant Simon Miller was invited to chair and present a session on footprinting at Sustainable Business - the Event, held a couple of weeks ago at the NEC, Birmingham. A video of the session is available here, but unfortunately the slides aren’t shown so some of his points lack the supporting visuals. However, it is a rare chance to see Simon in a suit and tie...

The spirit behind the Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) legislation is laudable, but its introduction is baffling some UK organisations. The idea of legislation that not only puts a (low) price on carbon but also raises it to the board agenda through competitive public league tables is to be applauded. However, the piecemeal carbon legislative framework that we now have in the UK with the EU ETS, CCAs, and CCLs means the implementation of the new CRC risks causing additional confusion for environmental managers. As a result BFF is now advising more and more clients on CRC responsibilities, and on Thursday 4th June we are managing a high profile workshop covering practical examples of meeting CRC requirements, with extended reporting into a wider carbon management strategy. BFF has also developed our online carbon management tool called Footprinter™ to support CRC reporting.

Demand for BFF’s online footprint management system - Footprinter™ - is growing rapidly. As a result, we are now recruiting two people to join our Footprinter™ development team. Interested?

1. We are looking for a Business Manager to lead our partnership development work and marketing activities.
2. To bolster our techncial capabilities we are also looking to recruit a software Application Developer.

Details of both jobs are available here.

The basis of a good education, so they say, is the three R’s: reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmetic. A different set of R’s also crop up in the waste management hierarchy: reduce, reuse and recycle. We were reminded last week that if we are to conserve natural resources, and decarbonise our economy, the waste hierarchy also needs to be considered in the cold light of some robust ‘rithmetic. The occasion was a scientific media briefing to debunk some of the myths surrounding recycling which was organised by WRAP, the UK’s leading waste and resources programme.

BFF has been invited to open and chair a session called ‘Cutting the Carbon’ at the Sustainable Business Conference. As part of the Sustainabilitylive! exhibition at the NEC Birmingham, BFF’s Simon Miller will be presenting and answering questions on footprint methodologies and applications. The session starts at 10.30 on Thursday 21st May, with more information available here.