While the issue of food miles illustrates the ridiculous over-production of carbon emissions in the way we distribute food in the world, the issue of food waste is a scandal that is too little regarded.

Every now and then an article crops up on the mainstream media pointing out the amount of food – particularly bread – that is thrown away by the average British household. In January even the Daily Mail was shocked by a report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers that around half the food produced in the world never gets eaten.

The report, Global Food – Waste Not Want Not, said: “Today, we produce about four billion metric tonnes of food per annum. Yet due to poor practices in harvesting, storage and transportation, as well as market and consumer wastage, it is estimated that 30–50% (or 1.2–2 billion tonnes) of all food produced never reaches a human stomach. Furthermore, this figure does not reflect the fact that large amounts of land, energy, fertilisers and water have also been lost in the production of foodstuffs which simply end up as waste. This level of wastage is a tragedy that cannot continue if we are to succeed in the challenge of sustainably meeting our future food demands.”

The issue of sick building syndrome cropped up in conversation last week. In the late 1980s and 1990s the idea that symptoms of ill health could be associated with presence in a building – often a workplace – was common. The term itself seems to have dropped out of use but it is less clear why.

The issue was raised by a fellow participant in a seminar at Greenbuild Expo in Manchester. The general topic concerned the idea that green building was more than just an end in itself. The built environment affects us in all our doings and beings, so to speak. Thus, greener workplaces have been seen to improve productivity and lower absenteeism, while research at the University of Exeter has indicated that greener open spaces in cities lead to feelings of wellbeing among the inhabitants.

There is a caveat. The online newsletter Science Omega quotes the leader of the research, Dr Matthew White of the university’s European Centre for Environment and Human Health as saying: “We cannot tell from those studies whether green space improves mental health or if people with better mental health – perhaps because they are richer or have more stable personalities – tend to move to greener areas.”

Fracking is in the news again – this time following an adjudication by the Advertising Standards Authority that a leaflet produced by shale gas extraction company Cuadrilla and posted through thousands of doors in Lancashire last year contained elements that breached its guidelines in respect of claims that can and cannot be made in advertising materials.

In all, the ASA upheld six of the complaints made by the anti-fracking group Refraktion; another was partly upheld.

The issue was the same as any involving extravagant claims of quality for any product or service – it has to be true, demonstrably true and not contain any exaggeration (legal, decent, honest and truthful, as the slogan used to run).

Everybody in the construction and associated industries these days is talking about the Green Deal. In particular, there is a clamour to become assessors for the scheme, which claims to be a sure-fire way of recouping the cost of installing environmentally-friendly heating and insulation by savings on your energy bill.

There is no money-back guarantee, of course. Launching the scheme on 28 January, Cleggie said: "The Green Deal will help thousands of homes stay warm for less. Those people will benefit from energy saving improvements – and their energy bills will fall."

There is a group of people who are guaranteed to make money from the scheme – just as they do with all such initiatives. Suddenly, from out of the woodwork has sprung a forest of people offering to train the assessors and all the other operatives involved in the scheme. At around a grand-and-a-half for the three-day course to become and assessor, there is no shortage of people wanting to take up the offer.