The Welsh Government has reduced its carbon emissions by 11% in a single year, beating the 10:10 target to reduce emissions in key areas by 10%. In December 2009, the First Minister confirmed the Welsh Government's commitment to the 10:10 campaign, which asked organisations to reduce their emissions in certain areas by 10% within an ‘action year’ that started in 2010.

Mike Putnam will give this year’s JCT Povey Lecture on Tuesday, December 6. Mike is president and chief executive of Skanska UK, the UK’s greenest company, and also a member of the Green Construction Board.

Iron technology leader Saint-Gobain PAM UK, part of leading international materials company, Saint-Gobain, has further demonstrated its environmental commitment through several major investments at Holwell, near Melton Mowbray, including one which has seen CO2 emissions from its cupola furnace – the biggest of its kind in the UK – fall dramatically.

The previous installation of a dry bag filter system has meant particulate emissions have been reduced by 99 per cent from the cupola furnace. As a result, emissions are now less than 0.3kg per tonne of castings, while the company has reduced site water use by 63 per cent and electricity by 9 per cent, and completely eliminated the use of caustic soda previously employed for cleaning the wet filtration system. The move also brings a reduced risk to permitted drainage discharge points.

As a step towards a paperless office, Viridian Housing recently provided all members of their National Residents Forum (NRF) with Ipads. 

Chair of the NRF, Shaun Lansfield, said this green initiative is already revolutionising the way the forum work and interact.

“For many of us, internet access has been limited until now, so communication was difficult and time-consuming. We were all sending and receiving so many paper-based communications, and it became clear we needed a better system that would not harm any more trees,” said Shaun.