Tag: sustainability

Say it with British flowers

Posted on February 14, 2018 by - Press release

A passion for sustainable supply chains and the desire to do something useful, brought Becky Swinn to Lancaster University.

Now her research project comparing the carbon footprint of British, Dutch and Kenyan cut flowers has won the prize for the Best Collaborative Project at the Lancaster Environment Centre. But, like many others, she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do when she finished her first degree. After spending two years doing a series of jobs she got asked to work on a project encouraging people to reduce the amount of food they throw away.

Workshop series brings together African researchers, businesses and policy maker

Posted on January 20, 2018 by - Press release

A series of workshops is bringing together African researchers, businesses and policy makers to explore how knowledge exchange could help provide safe, sustainable water.

Lancaster University staff delivered the first of five week-long Knowledge Exchange workshops, to initiate the start of the £7M RECIRCULATE project, supported by the UK Government’s Global Challenges Research Fund.

RECIRCULATE aims to build capacity within Africa to carry out and translate high quality research into the new products, processes and services needed to solve the continent’s water crisis.

Waitrose products will be black plastic packaging free by end of 2019

Posted on January 19, 2018 by - Press release

…And black plastic will not be used for Waitrose meat, fish, fruit and veg by end of this year.

Waitrose has pledged to not sell any own label food in black plastic beyond 2019 – this is the earliest date a supermarket has committed to removing black plastic from its shelves.

Reducing the use of plastics is a top priority for Waitrose, which has already removed 65% of black plastic from its fruit and vegetable packaging. The retailer will stop using black plastic for meat, fish, fruit and vegetables by the end of 2018.

Waitrose to Stop Selling Packs of Plastic Straws by September 2018 and Reduce Black Plastic Trays

Posted on January 17, 2018 by - Press release

© WaitroseThe supermarket Waitrose will remove black plastic trays from meat, fish and fruit and veg ranges by end of year.

The retailer has today announced that it will stop selling packs of disposable straws from September 2018. This builds on its track-record for being the first supermarket to stop selling items containing microbeads from September 2016 and switching exclusively to paper-stem cotton buds. Plastic straws will be replaced by non-plastic alternatives.

Iceland supermarket chain aims to be plastic free by 2023

Posted on January 16, 2018 by - Press clippings

Supermarket chain Iceland has said it will eliminate or drastically reduce plastic packaging of all its own-label products by the end of 2023.

Iceland says the move will affect more than a thousand own-label products.

New ranges will be packaged using a paper-based tray, rather than plastic.

It follows recent outcries over the packaging of cauliflower “steaks” and coconuts, and Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet programme, which showed vivid images of plastic pollution.

Read more at BBC.co.uk

Less chewing the cud, more greening the fuel

Posted on January 8, 2018 by - Press release

Making grasses more digestible promises improved feed for ruminants and better biomass for biofuel production, with economic and environmental benefits for both.

Plant biomass contains considerable calorific value but most of it makes up robust cell walls, an unappetising evolutionary advantage that helped grasses to survive foragers and prosper for more than 60 million years.

The trouble is that this robustness still makes them less digestible in the rumen of cows and sheep and difficult to process in bioenergy refineries for ethanol fuel.