Lime Technology’s innovative pre-fabricated wall panel system, Hemclad®, has helped Kanes Foods deliver the highest standards of sustainability at its new 10,000m2 factory in Middle Littleton. To date, it is the largest factory anywhere in the UK to be built using this revolutionary, new cassette walling system.

Demonstrating the company’s commitment to sustainable practices, Kanes Foods began an investment programme that included the creation of a new, cutting edge facility that would incorporate the latest ‘green’ technologies. For the building’s facade, Lime Technology’s Hemclad® proved ideal offering high thermal inertia, low U-values and negative embodied carbon.

Leading Japanese Knotweed Management company, IVM Invasive Vegetation Mangement & Treatment Ltd, are now an active member of the National Symbiosis Program – NISP (www.nisp.org.co.uk).

The program supports central Goverment to reduce the carbon footprint for eradication of invasive plant species throught the United Kingdom.

IVM themselves have diverted in excess of 768,000 tonnes of material going to lanfill due to their insitu application of herbicide (IVM FAST "Foliage and Stem Treatment" System) to Japanese Knotweed. In their words, "this is not control, this is complete eradication".

• For more information on IVM Invasive Vegetation Mangement & Treatment Ltd visit their website www.knotweed-uk.com.

Leading environmental research organisation Earthwatch has announced a new five-year learning and research partnership with global financial services provider HSBC.

Part of the HSBC Water Programme, the partnership will see up to HSBC 100,000 employees worldwide engaged in online learning, ‘hands-on’ research days, and ongoing self-directed data collection.

Working with local conservation partners, Earthwatch will develop research projects in more than 20 of the world’s biggest cities, located near to major HSBC employment hubs.

European Union's 2010 greenhouse gas emissions rise of 2.4% blamed on cold winter and economic recovery in some areas.

Greenhouse gas emissions for the European Union increased in 2010, despite the economic recession and policies intended to tackle climate change.

The increase of 2.4% takes Europe further away from its international commitments to cut carbon dioxide by 2020, and runs counter to advice from climate scientists, who agree that global emissions must peak by 2020 if climate change is not to become catastrophic and irreversible.

More localised flooding could hit parts of southern and eastern England and Wales as another band of heavy rain sweeps in, the Environment Agency has warned.

The agency said the wettest April on record, which caused flooding in some areas last week, had left rivers high and soils saturated, and rain expected to spread across England and Wales in the next 24 hours could lead to localised flooding.

Forecasters say spells of persistent and heavy rain are expected, accompanied by winds of up to 50mph in some areas.

Hundreds of pleasure boats equipped with sophisticated miniature environmental sensors forming a monitoring network transmitting real-time data on the state of the oceans and coasts to scientists might sound like a sci-fi scenario, but it is actually the brain child of an international initiative with an exotic name, YachtGOOS.

YachtGOOS is a recreational Global Ocean Observing System involving yachtsmen and women in a number of countries. It enables real-time, automated monitoring of the marine environment and covers diverse regions of the coastal and open ocean, leading the way in the use of state-of-the-art technology and environmental policy.

On Tuesday 24 April, volunteers will be helping the Environment Agency and Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust with landscaping works on the River Chelt in Priors Norton, Gloucestershire.

Over the coming weeks the area will be landscaped, attracting more wildlife such as birds, bats, dragonflies and eels. Surplus wetland plants from the Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust’s Coombe Hill nature reserve and a section of the Stroudwater Navigation at Wallbridge, are being rehomed, thanks to volunteers. These local reeds, flag iris and purple loosetrife will give natural colonisation a helping hand.

The Environment Agency has declared official drought zones in a further 17 English counties and said the shortages could last until Christmas or beyond.

Environmental experts said dry weather over the past few months had left some rivers in England exceptionally low and had now extended the country's "drought map" into the Midlands and the South West.

Environment Agency officials stress that public water supplies are unlikely to be affected by the ongoing drought, but are reiterating calls from consumers to combat the dry conditions by using scarce water wisely.