We are now running out of time, and the question now is not what is happening to the climate, but how bad will it be before the world, starts doing enough? - Jonathon Porritt (2007)
Climate change and sustainability is rapidly becoming the hottest topic ever. No one in the developed world today can be ignorant of the damage that is being inflicted upon the planet by the industrial nations of the world. This is all well known and documented, what is not, is the solution. Respected scientists are still arguing over the cause and effect of global warming, with one camp claiming it is all down to human activities, whilst others claim that mankind itself contributes less than one percent of the emissions into the atmosphere, with the bulk coming from rotting vegetation and methane emitted by the digestive process of cattle? Similarly it has been stated that if Britain cut its emissions to zero, the developing nation of China would make up the shortfall in a short space of time, so what is to be done?
We don't claim to know any better than the academia of the world, but we feel that mankind is contributing to this global crises, and we are obligated to look for ways of cutting our emissions and waste products. A chinese philosopher , Lao-tzu once said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step", and we feel that climate change is like this journey. Every little step from whatever source will help us towards the eventual goal.
We have just finalised our Environmental Policy Statement, a copy of which will be supplied to our clients as part of the comprehensive safety dossier we present before any event. We have also put together our initial Environmental action plan, which is a list of what we would like to do to help achieve our aim of becoming the most environmentally friendly funfair operators in the U.K. Much of what is contained in this action plan is easily achievable, and indeed we are already doing it. Small things like using only recycled paper and printer cartridges in our office, (we used approximately 15,000 sheets of paper last year), asking our clients to accept PDF documents, instead of hardcopy , we estimate that we saved an extra 30% use of paper last year and hope to double that this year.
Most of our events are for corporate clients rather than members of the public, but we do have a number of events that are run along the lines of traditional fairgrounds, and need to be promoted to attract people to them. We have redesigned our advertising strategy to use posters that are undated, allowing them to be recovered and reused. We have an in house vinyl graphics machine and make use of this to produce advertising material that can be altered quickly, inexpensively and in an environmentally friendly way.
Use of fossil fuels is probably one of the biggest topics regarding emissions. Many fairground vehicles are custom built systems incorporating built in games units, generating plant and sometimes rides. It isn't possible to just replace these with newer vehicles that have better emissions ratings. Indeed it wouldn't really be good for the environment as they tend to do relatively low mileage, and the raw materials used and emissions created by replacing them would outweigh any benefits gained.
Biofuels hold the promise of a more sustainable future, but they are not really the answer at the moment. It isn't possible with many engines to just replace the diesel fuel with a 100% biofuel equivalent. Most engines will run on a blend, and that is one avenue we are following. When our current agreement with our fuel card supplier expires, we intend to begin using the Rix Petroleum Green card. Rix have a number of service stations dispensing a biofuel blend, and if you have to use a station that doesn't stock this blend, you use normal fuel, and Rix then place an equivalent amount of bio blend into the system so you are in effect offsetting you use of fossil fuels to a degree.
We are also looking at a way to convert our generating plant to the use of biofuel. One possibility, depending on cost, is to purchase a micro biofuel production plant. These are available in versions that produce around 200 litres of fuel at a time. Not enough for our transport needs, but they would provide a blend that could reduce our use of fossil fuel, and if they work well enough the system could be expanded.
We already use a large number of wastebins at our events, so theoretically it should not be too difficult to have them set up for different types of waste, with the idea being to then separate the recyclable items and transport them to a plant that can make use of them, the left over litter would be disposed of as normal, but it should hopefully be less than it is at the moment.
The action plan we have put together is due to be reviewed every quarter, so as it becomes clear what is and isn't working we can adapt it to be more effective. Updates will be posted on this blog concerning both what we have and have not been able to do with the state of current technology.
Coupled with our recent Fairtrade initiative, we hope that we can help make a difference, no matter how small.
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