Labels: carbon neutral, design, housing

Sustainable Design: Renewable Energy and Low Carbon Buildings

A FREE event providing essential information, practical guidance and key contacts for renewable energy and building design professionals.

Policy and environmental drivers mean that low carbon design and on-site renewable energy generation will be integral to new build development. The UK and Welsh government have put in place key measures to ‘kick start’ sustainable design and renewable energy in low carbon buildings.

This free one day event will provide inspiration, information and key contacts to those involved in renewable energy systems and the specification and design of low carbon buildings. The event is aimed at building-linked renewable energy suppliers, manufacturers and installers, as well as housing professionals, architects, local authorities, housing associations and developers.

Labels: events

Carbon offsetting, the process by which carbon dioxide-producing activities can be offset by contributing to a scheme that reduces carbon dioxide production (or removes CO2 from the atmosphere) by the same amount, is an increasingly big business. Many voluntary offset schemes have seen their business increase 10-fold in the past year.

Questions remain about the validity of these schemes, involving some very basic issues - different schemes quote identical flights as producing very different levels of CO2, some schemes advertise "Offset your flight by as little as £1", the regulated CDM (Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Protocol) cost of Co2 is $8.50 per tonne, compared with the average unregulated voluntary offset price of $1.25

Many voluntary offset schemes are beginning to address some of these credibility issues (with a big reduction in tree-planting elements of the schemes. The independant Gold Standard organisation, which regulates projects in the mandatory sector is now checking them in the voluntary sector too. However only three schemes (and none UK-based) offer to offset flights with Gold Standard certified schemes.

Members of the Cluster tend to have a great deal of knowledge on these issues, so what do you think:

Are voluntary carbon offsetting schemes a credible mechanism for tackling climate change?

Yes - 18.2% (4 votes)

No   - 81.8% (18 votes)

Labels: carbon neutral, climate change

Labels: awards, funding

Labels: carbon neutral, climate change

Skills and Capability Exchange for the Energy Industry in Wales
Thursday February 15th 2007, Cardiff City Hall

Organised by the Department of Lifelong Learning and Skills, Welsh Assembly Government

The Skills and Capability Exchange will assess the skills requirements of the energy sector in Wales and the services offered by the providers of training. The intention is to identify:

* gaps in training provision
* issues of funding for training - including priority areas to fund (DELLS has responsibility for the Assembly's delivery of skills provision)
* opportunities for providers in Wales to supply the global market

The Exchange covers the whole of the energy industry - including utility-scale generation, oil and gas, but also specifically renewables. As renewable energy generation is expected to continue to grow significantly over the next ten years, we feel that the skills issues in this sector deserve particular attention (and indeed may benefit greatly from experiences in more "mature" industries), and DELLS have indicated that they are sympathetic to this view.

If you want to influence provision of funding and training for your sector, or if you want DELLS to be made aware of training you offer, see the flyer for more details.

Flyer (.pdf 1.1MB)

Labels: events, training

Labels: hydro