The Environmental Services Association (ESA), the voice of the UK’s waste and resource management industry, today welcomed the launch of HMRC’s consultation on Landfill Tax. ESA’s Director General, Barry Dennis said:

“We are pleased that Government has listened to ESA’s calls for a more objective regime for determining the tax liability of waste ‘fines’.

Nautricity, the renewable energy company, has been given the go-ahead to develop one of the UK’s first ‘next generation’ tidal energy schemes in waters off the Mull of Kintyre.

Marine Scotland has given consent for the deployment of the first Contra Rotating Marine Turbine (CoRMaT) device, capable of generating enough electricity to supply 400 homes, to be deployed in the Irish Sea, south of Machrihanish, Argyll.

The challenges facing humanity in the 21st century include climate change, population growth, overconsumption of resources, overproduction of waste and increasing energy demands. For construction practitioners, responding to these challenges means creating a built environment that provides accommodation and infrastructure with better whole-life performance using lower volumes of primary materials, less non-renewable energy, wasting less and causing fewer disturbances to the natural environment. Concrete is ubiquitous in the built environment. It is therefore essential that it is used in the most sustainable way so practitioners must become aware of the range of sustainable concrete solutions available for construction. While sustainable development has been embedded into engineering curricula, it can be difficult for students and academics to be fully aware of the innovations in sustainable construction that are developed by the industry. 

The scheme is currently catering for companies with high energy demands throughout various industry sectors along with a growing interest in the Agricultural sector.

With the support of RIOS, companies can develop their vacant roof space into solar power hubs, consuming all energy generated from the system and reducing their reliance on the national grid. Inclusive of this package, the company will partner with SAS to ensure maximum efficiency and output throughout the lifetime of the system.