Can renewables sustain our future?

Sustainability is the latest fashion, a key concept in decision making at all levels and an increasingly important feature of Government policy. There is, therefore, a clear opportunity to turn the environmental needs of society and communities into job opportunities and employment, thereby combining government aims for sustainability and job creation. Professor Robert Jackson and Andrew Upton discuss the current and future challenges confronting sustainable development in the UK.

The Government’s Sustainable Development Strategy ‘Better Quality of Life’, based upon 150 indicators focusing on scientific issues and providing a framework for action, infers a growing need to consider the integration of recycling and minimisation into future demand strategies. Even though the EU and UK have aspirational legislation, which is often difficult to translate into action, the majority of indicators show a positive trend. For example, society in general is making better use of resources with environmental quality improving and having a positive effect on species and habitats. However, for energy use, the trend is in the wrong direction and this suggests a business opportunity.

In 1996, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated “the observed warming trend is unlikely to be entirely natural in origin …….. and the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate”. From 1995 to 1997 Friends of the Earth set out a methodology for the assessment of sustainable development in Europe which required countries to reduce the amount of resources used per capita. This implied a model, generated by climatic shift, of economic development which put resource and energy efficiency at the top of the agenda.
Economic development is necessarily at the core of the sustainability agenda. It is imperative that sustainable economic success is created to reverse population trends and economic decline where these occur in certain regions. Moreover, the individual and collective roles and responsibilities of SME’s, manufacturers, fabricators, installers and end users of emerging green technologies will dictate the level of success.

Water and energy lend themselves to closer scrutiny. The domestic sector has historically made little real progress in reducing its water and energy consumption with both seen as cheap, readily available commodities in inexhaustible supply. It is significant, therefore, that domestic users now have increasing recognition that the reduction of water and energy consumption is a necessary component of good environmental practice. It is now acknowledged that new construction should no longer consider these simply as utilities but should embrace them as part of the project environmental assessment.
Legislation can sometimes stifle innovation but having become a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change in 1998, so limiting its contribution to greenhouse gases and setting in place its obligation to reduce CO2 emissions, the UK needs to identify business opportunities borne out of compliance. Until the industrial revolution carbon dioxide accounted for 275 ppm of the atmosphere which has now risen to 330 ppm through human activities adding an extra 5 billion tonnes to the atmosphere each year. The concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is increasing at the rate of 0.4% per year, and if present trends continue the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will be double its natural level by 2020.

As a result of global warming coastal erosion in the UK will accelerate with environmental dangers becoming more real each year with wetter winters and more frequent storms. Sea levels have risen by 100-250 millimetres over the past 100 years and there are signs of more variable and extreme weather patterns of a severity which should only occur once in 100 years. A further increase in air temperature over the next 50 years of between 1-3 degrees centigrade will raise sea levels through thermal expansion by between 100-500 millimetres. The UK insurance industry has a role in pointing out that predictable risks must be mitigated rather than ignored. A need for a changing lifestyle is the keynote. Denial is a perilous attitude.
Within the UK, business and domestic premises are increasingly at risk as weather and climate patterns change and world-wide insurance industry data suggests that there were three times as many major natural catastrophes in the 1990’s compared to the 1960’s. The industry faced a 15 fold increase in costs over the same period and can expect an escalating number of costly “natural“ disasters.

To help address these issues, the Environmental Solutions Unit at Liverpool John Moores University is playing its part in the development of new industries on Merseyside through imaginative research projects using science and technology as the foundation of new business. The Unit is advising industry on the use of water and wastewater treatment, domestic waste recycling and solar power and increasing the incorporation of clean sustainable technologies into infrastructure projects.
One such project comprises a £12.5 million solar powered housing estate, partly funded by the European Regional Development Fund, and under construction in Childwall, Liverpool for Liverpool Housing Action Trust and Anchor Trust. Of the total solar energy currently reaching the earth, 30% is reflected by the atmosphere; 47% is absorbed by the atmosphere, land and seas; 23% evaporates water and drives the water cycle; 1% drives winds and currents; and 0.02% is used in photosynthesis and ultimately locked into fossil fuels. The level of solar energy presently harnessed is therefore small and the Childwall “green” estate will include 36 houses and an 80 bed residential block, and communal laundry, built with water saving technology and electricity generating photovoltaic solar panels. Current levels of water savings identified range from 25% for houses to 40% for the block accommodation thus allowing the installation of a smaller water meter and a corresponding reduction in standing charge for water services. The project is instrumented for long term monitoring and evaluation with a view to developing a new approach to sustainable construction and sustainable living, thereby providing a blueprint for energy and water conservation through increased social acceptance and the demonstration of good practice.

Within the UK, 40% of total water use is within the domestic sector and hence urban water re-use through water recycling is a particularly attractive option to help meet future predicted increases in population and per capita demand. However, to date, houses have not generally been designed with water conservation in mind. Overall demand for water has fallen in the last five years, although much of this can be explained by the reduction in heavy industry consumption throughout the UK. In aggregate, therefore, there is plenty of water but there are areas where resources are already stretched during times of peak domestic demand and there remains the requirement for water to be used sensibly and efficiently.
The Environment Agency’s Consultation Document for Water Resources Strategies issued in October 1999 ‘Sustainable Water Resources for the Future: Values and Challenges’ indicated options for change as part of the management of an integrated and sustainable environment. In view of the need to conserve water, the Government, in its consultation document ‘Taking Water Responsibly’, is planning to manage water resources in a more sustainable way and there is a need to think carefully about how water might be preserved.

With this in mind, the low levels of microbiological contamination within rainwater make it suitable through re-use as a source of non-potable water. Water recycling processes are required to protect public health and must function properly if re-use water quality is to meet acceptable standards. Equally, within an urban housing development, water re-use is best achieved where it affords advantages in cost, design and operation perhaps via communal recycling systems. Nevertheless, the re-use of water has tremendous potential for safely conserving the water resource and easily enhancing community commitment to sustainable development; the use of rainwater fed washing machines is now permitting advances in other forms of technology including the development of more environmentally friendly detergents. Similarly, the efficient application of techniques for the production of refuse derived fuels or industrial scale composting have a place in urban development.
The Childwall project provides definitive monitoring data on grey and rainwater re-use enabling future designers to select appropriate systems, best suited to occupants’ needs. The work also addresses issues surrounding the social acceptance of communal water re-use systems drawing comparisons with other developments including the Integer housing scheme for Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council in the West Midlands.

The Environmental Solutions Unit at JMU continues to advise local businesses looking to develop sustainable products and services, which embrace environmentally clean technologies and satisfy market needs, and in conjunction with CDS Housing is formulating a “Green Business” Feasibilty Study for the Government Office North West to carry the urban and industrial renaissance of Liverpool and Merseyside ever forward. Two businesses which have benefited from advice regarding market penetration are Solartwin Ltd of Chester and IGS a division of The Newton Instrument Company Limited of Wirral. The former has developed an innovative new process for solar water heating. This comprises a 100% solar capability which is freeze tolerant, can typically provide between 30 and 70% of a standard household’s annual hot water demand and has recently been installed in non-domestic guise at the Centre for Alternative Technology, Machynlleth. At the same time, IGS is developing an exciting rainwater/greywater hybrid recycling system comprising innovative pumping and disinfection technologies. Both companies benefit from having gained much hands-on experience and are recognised as having identified distinct business opportunities which should lead to sustainable industrial development by pursuing responsible growth.
It is recognised that the Unit at JMU will continue to have an important environmental role, offering independent advice to businesses wishing to manage their environmental responsibilities in a much broader way. Improving the quality of the environment is crucial in its own right and the UK has made considerable progress in this respect over the last decade, but there is a need to look further and ask whether these improvements are sustainable, and economically sustainable, in the widest sense. A system which ensures that assets are maintained by profits is essential for sustainability.
Robert Jackson / Andrew Upton