Inspired by a whale shark’s wide mouth – which scoops up whatever is in front of it – Richard’s company Ran Marine created the WasteShark.
“I liken it to a Roomba for water. It’s an autonomous machine that scoops up pollution out of water on the surface level.”
“That pollution could be plastic or any debris or biomass like algae,” Richard adds.
Why is there a robot shark at Canary Wharf?
The Aqua Libra WasteShark was deployed in London’s Canary Wharf this week as part of a project to clean up the area and make it a healthier, more biodiverse environment.
Canary Wharf is a thriving financial district located on London’s River Thames. 120,000 people visit every day to work or shop there.
The Canary Wharf Group, which developed and manages the area, have done a lot to reduce single-use plastics. But the high footfall means it’s easy for coffee cups and lunch wrappers to end up in the water.
Currently, only 14 per cent of English rivers meet good ecological status. The country’s waterways are plagued by pollution from agriculture, sewage, roads and single-use plastics.
In fact, it is estimated that 8 million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans every year, much of it being swept from cities to the sea through rivers.
“The way we designed the WasteShark was that it was zero impact on the environment that it’s working in,” says Richard.
“You’ll see a lot of boats that go out and clean are normally diesel-powered or mechanically powered so there’s a bit of oil and pollution going back into the water while they’re cleaning,” he explains.
WasteShark is completely electric and is so quiet it doesn’t disturb wildlife, according to the Ran Marine CEO.
“Ducks and swans swim away from it. We’re not fast enough to catch fish. So it really is a low-impact solution to remove pollution out of the water.”
What can WasteShark do?
The WasteShark is battery-powered and travels up to 5km on one battery. That amounts to around 8-10 hours of cleaning time. A daily feed for the WasteShark is around 500kg of debris or the equivalent of guzzling roughly 21,000 plastic bottles.
Any rubbish collected in the robot’s belly is then brought back to shore, sorted and recycled or disposed of responsibly.
Whilst it’s filling up, the WasteShark also collects samples of the water.
“We’re collecting water quality data from all around the world and aggregating that [so we can see] what it looked like last week, last year. Is the water getting cleaner? Is it changing? Is there a potential algae bloom?” explains Richard.
“It’s kind of our dream to deploy these things around the world to clean up while we’re asleep, make a difference and hopefully make an impact on our environment.”
European energy giant Vattenfall and Swedish electric bike manufacturer Cake have teamed up to build an entirely “fossil-free” electric motorcycle using an innovative production process that will deliver “the cleanest dirt bike ever.”
The companies said they plan to use the project to highlight the climate impact of producing one of Cake’s Kalk OR electric off-roaders by presenting it in an 8.6 meter cube — creating a space equivalent to the CO2 emissions the bike will save.
According to the companies, the 8.6-meter cube reflects the volume of carbon emissions emitted during the production process, which comes to 637 cubic meters, equal to 1,186 kilograms of carbon dioxide, or the same amount of emissions produced from someone taking a flight from London to New York and back twice.
Vattenfall and Cake are teaming up to decarbonize the production process for Cake’s Kalk OR dirt bike. Image courtesy of Cake
In order to make the bike “fossil-free,” the companies said that they are exploring the use of alternative materials such as green aluminum, steel, plastic and rubber, as well as looking at how they can reduce the carbon emissions of the bike’s motor, battery, brakes, suspension and electronics.
Stefan Ytterborn, chief executive and founder at Cake, described “fossil-free” as a production process that has been fully decarbonized, regardless of the fuel that the bike will be running on.
“It’s unlikely that many companies are aware of the carbon footprint of their own products,” he said. “To understand and tackle our own impact, we have measured the emissions from our entire production chain for one Cake Kalk OR and started to decarbonize every step to a minimum by 2025. By doing so, our second most important contribution to the planet is to inspire other manufacturers to step up and do the same.”
Annika Ramsköld, head of corporate sustainability at Vattenfall, added that the partnership was in support of Vattenfall’s vision to enable fossil-free living within one generation, as well as showcasing its dedication to new partnerships that “inspire and break barriers.”
“This is one such project where our main contribution is the broad knowledge in fossil free solutions and electrification of industries we have acquired over decades from our own as well as other industries,” she said.
The partners said that they have been collaborating on the project since 2021 with a view to producing the first “fossil free” off-roader by 2025. They added that they have also been working with a consortium comprising Cake’s existing suppliers, as well as a number of innovative makers of alternative components and materials, which the companies said they hoped would offer the possibility of further emissions reductions.
Zureli, the global search engine for eco-friendly, green and sustainable products and services has been recognized as a Green Ambassador representing Sri Lanka by the London based Green Awards 2021 for having a real and positive impact on the adoption of green technology and services to businesses.
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At Zureli, we make it so easy to find and implement green solutions, so companies can make an immediate impact towards achieving their objectives. Whether the requirement is to reduce single-use plastics in a hotel or office, harness renewable energy, source green building materials and equipment, achieve zero waste or reduce your carbon emissions, we connect companies with the right solution from our ever-expanding database of more than 45,000 products lines and we add around 400 new companies to our database every month.
Zureli can help you integrate and partner with your procurement and operations teams to develop customised and dynamic product and supplier listings, featuring key purchasing information that covers areas from geographic relevance, green certifications, minimum order quantities and pricing, to the contact details of suppliers. Our team of expert researchers will work with you to uncover green solutions and empower your team to make the changes required to achieve your sustainability goals.
Webinars
To this end Zureli Sri Lanka in collaboration with GIZ Sri Lanka, one of the premier NGOs in Sri Lanka organized a series of webinars to help support the SME’s in the Sri Lankan hospitality sector to Go Green by introducing a number of sustainable products and services. These webinars were focused on the use of environmentally friendly products and services primarily targeting Small & Medium Hotels, Guesthouses and Restaurants.
Their goal was to help position the SME Hospitality Sector as an eco-tourism destination that addressed Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the individual business that drives new customers to your doorstep. This series of webinars targeted six key issues – Plastic Alternatives & Clean Water Solutions, Green Property Maintenance, Energy Solutions, Plant-Based Food & Vertical Farming, Waste Management and Green Marketing. This was one of their most successful programmes in their event calendar.
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A UK-backed research group unveiled a design for a liquid hydrogen-powered airliner theoretically capable of matching the performance of current midsize aircraft without producing carbon emissions.
The FlyZero concept envisions a plane carrying 279 passengers non-stop from London to San Francisco, or from London to Auckland with one stop, at the same speed and comfort as today, the Aerospace Technology Institute said in a statement. The group, a partnership between the UK government and industry, is meant to accelerate high-risk projects that will benefit home-grown firms.
Hydrogen propulsion is seen as one of the most promising technologies for achieving carbon-neutral commercial flights. However, it’s expensive and more challenging to store on board, and it will take years to develop the planes and build infrastructure such as airport refuelling capacity.
The UK, which hosted the COP26 climate summit last month, is funding new technologies to help create aerospace jobs while meeting its climate targets. The government has committed US$2.6 billion (NZ$3.8 billion) of funding to ATI since its start in 2013 through 2026, an amount to be matched by industry. The FlyZero concept received £15 million (NZ$30 million) in government funding.
“These designs could define the future of aerospace and aviation,” said Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng in the statement. “By working with industry, we are showing that truly carbon free flight could be possible, with hydrogen a frontrunner to replace conventional fossil fuels.”
ATI said it expects hydrogen aircraft to be operating from the mid-2030s offering better economics than conventional planes. By early next year, the FlyZero project will publish detailed concepts for regional, narrow-body and midsize aircraft, with technology roadmaps, market and economic reports and a sustainability assessment, the group said.
Hydrogen propulsion is seen as one of the most promising technologies for achieving carbon-neutral commercial flights. AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE/SUPPLIED
The midsize aircraft being showcased on Monday (Tuesday NZT) would store hydrogen at minus 418 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 250 degrees Celsius) in cryogenic fuel tanks at the rear of the plane and in two smaller “cheek” tanks along the forward fuselage to keep the aircraft balanced.
It would have a wingspan of 177 feet (54m), between Boeing’s 767 and 787 twin-aisle jets, and be powered by two turbofan engines.
While Boeing hasn’t set plans for a hydrogen plane, Airbus has targeted a commercial airliner for entry into service by 2035. The European company has told the European Union that a model carrying more than 150 passengers won’t be in wide use until 2050.
ATI said it expects hydrogen aircraft to be operating from the mid-2030s offering better economics than conventional planes. AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY INSTITUTE/SUPPLIED
In the meantime, the aviation industry has put its focus on so-called sustainable fuel, which can be blended into the kerosene that powers current aircraft, and battery powered flight, which is limited to smaller craft like air taxis because of the weight of cells.
The aviation industry is under pressure to slash emissions rapidly or face limits to growth, even as breakthrough technology remains years away. Airlines and manufacturers are also contending with ongoing disruption to business caused by Covid-19, which has weakened their financial outlook already.
David Brown of Go-Ahead is promising that his company’s bus and train operations will be carbon-free by 2035.
‘Personally, I think that’s quite cool!” David Brown, 60, is beaming like a young boy, having just recognised the bus controller at the terminus outside Victoria station as a colleague who joined London Transport at the same time as him, almost 40 years ago. “People stick in transport a long time. That’s what I love about it. They’re doing a frontline job, I’m just doing mine, there’s no difference really.”
Except Brown is trying to steer not just buses but a multinational transport group as chief executive of Go-Ahead – in particular, to wrestle its emissions down to net zero, as the sector faces up to being the biggest contributor to greenhouse gases. This year he will leave the group – whose operations include Thameslink, Southern and Southeastern trains and buses in London and nationwide – after a decade at the helm.
While Covid threatens to unravel a lot of the work done to build up rail and bus services during Brown’s career, he is clear that climate change is the bigger long-term issue. Transport has far surpassed energy generation as the biggest CO2 culprit – making up a quarter of UK emissions – and last week Go-Ahead made a pledge that its 5,000 UK buses and trains would be entirely zero-emission by 2035, cutting its CO2 by 75%. It aims to hit net zero by 2045, before the national target, by offsetting the remainder.
Although Go-Ahead’s decarbonisation strategy – edged off stage by the government’s, which was published the same day – sets out many ambitions, it admits that many are not in its own hands. So what exactly is the point?
“It’s galvanising 30,000 people to get behind a climate strategy,” says Brown. “It’s a sense of purpose. What we deliver is helping solve climate change problems – if you get people on to public transport you’re taking them out of their cars.” About 55% of transport emissions are private cars, he says; just 3% come from buses, and 1% from trains.
The pledges assume continued government spending on hydrogen and electric vehicles, and subsidy for green operations. Brown lobbied for a change announced in the government’s decarbonisation plan, improving bus operators’ grants for running electric vehicles to 22p per kilometre. “It transforms the economics for investing in new buses.”
A high-speed train belonging to Southeastern, one of Go-Ahead’s rail franchises Photograph: Johnny Green/PA
He thinks there are opportunities for more hydrogen buses, but is cautious: “The capital cost is huge and it’s unknown what the ongoing operating costs and lifetime costs will be.”
Go-Ahead’s north London depot at Northumberland Park will be what Brown bills as “the first bus-to-grid virtual power station”, where electric buses charge slowly overnight, and put energy back into the network from their batteries when supplies are needed, as wind and solar supplies – and prices – fluctuate.
In all this, as the small print of the strategy makes clear, there is a commercial imperative: “If Go-Ahead does not take action on this issue, our competitors will – and those with more climate-friendly reputations could ultimately take market share from us. This would weaken our business.”
Brown happily concurs. “There’s an altruistic view, and a commercial reason for doing it, in terms of positioning. And a people reason: younger people especially are attracted to work for companies who have purpose and are doing the right thing environmentally.”
Right now, though, public transport faces a more immediate crisis, with passenger numbers still only about half of pre-pandemic levels. And there is a renewed focus on the risks with Covid cases soaring, particularly as mask-wearing becomes optional on trains in England.
Brown frowns. “Whenever anyone talks about a tight, packed environment, they talk about public transport – and I want to scream and say hold on, the average journey time on a bus is 18 minutes max, the doors are opening all the time, fresh air is coming in and out, the windows are open on the top deck. You really aren’t exposed as you would be in a packed pub sitting there for two hours, there’s no comparison.”
He doesn’t mention names, but the prime minister, Brown’s former boss when mayor of London, suggested even as he was removing the legal requirement to wear masks that people “might choose to do so in enclosed spaces, such as public transport”.
We used to bring 150,000 people into London Bridge every morning. They’re not coming at the moment.That affects everyone. – David Brown, Go-Ahead
Brown argues: “There seems to be a little bit of demonising it and that shouldn’t be the case. There is no evidence that anyone can catch Covid on a train or a bus, none whatsoever.”
That conviction comes despite the Covid deaths of a significant number of bus drivers. Brown says Go-Ahead believes none contracted Covid at the depot or while working.
Another factor may be at play, he suggests, comparing the clamour to travel abroad on planes, which are more enclosed than buses or trains: “People are choosing to do that because the prize at the end is going on a holiday. They might not be choosing public transport because the prize at the end is going to work.”
He sees a similar phenomenon with rail: “We have much busier trains at the weekend now, people are going to the coast – they love it, they don’t worry about what’s happening in the trains in those circumstances.”
On the mask issue, he says, he wants transport “to be treated the same as other parts of the economy”. If he could choose, “I’d want to say, everyone should be doing it everywhere, in any environment, I want that consistency”. Come Monday, he will still wear a mask. “It’s not protecting you, it’s protecting other people … it’s just a polite thing to do.”
Covid, he says, has only accelerated underlying changes towards working from home and ordering goods. “I don’t think we’ll go back to packed trains, because social trends are changing. Commuter journeys are going to become more discretionary.”
But net-zero targets depend on people returning to public transport, rather than the car, he says. “We have to find ways of getting people back on the railways, and we have to tackle the costs, because the cost base is not sustainable now.”
However, he points out that public transport is often seen abroad as part of the “fabric of society”, and subsidised accordingly. ”You need to cut your cloth, attract customers – and you may need government money, because of the social benefits.”
Nowhere is this more apparent to him than in the capital. “We used to bring 150,000 people into London Bridge every morning. They’re not coming at the moment. That affects everyone. The big fear I have for places like London is how do you keep that vibrancy of the city centre, if you don’t have all those people coming in? You need all that activity and buzz – otherwise, you’re just in the suburbs.”
It seems inconceivable to remember, he says, that in the job-scarce 1980s, when he started as a graduate trainee, the discussion at London Transport was about cutting back the Bakerloo and the Northern lines because the population of the capital was in decline.
But without public transport, “it wouldn’t move, it wouldn’t function”. The challenge now for operators, he says, is “making sure that when people do come back, that we’re ready and we’re there for them. If they don’t find that the 7.25am is still operating or we don’t have the same frequency of service, then we’ve got a problem.”
The Christmas tree is an age-old tradition that has not only become the symbol of Christmas—right next to Santa Claus, the mistletoe, and others—but has also become a key figure of any household.
And Christmas trees come in all shapes and sizes: the spruce, pine, or fir trees used are either artificial, electronic (you know, like using Christmas lights), or living, they can range from being a couple to dozens of feet high, and, believe it or not, there are even “half” and “quarter” Christmas trees. Yes, I was being quite literal when I said “shapes.”
But it doesn’t end there. If you’re a fan of the real thing, but want to be environmentally conscious, there’s even a solution for that—renting. Yes, turns out, in London, you can rent a tree that comes to your home in a pot, and returns to the wild once the festivities are over and waits for the next year.
Turns out, people can rent a Christmas tree for the holidays, after which it’s returns to its farm or forest
Image credits: Alexanda Lautarescu
PhD student and Twitter user Alexandra Lautarescu (@AleLautarescu) recently went to Twitter to share her joy and fascination with what she called a “sustainable X-Mas gem.” She posted a picture of a roughly 6-foot Christmas tree she got from the London Christmas Tree Rental that was waiting to be decorated.
In the tweet, she explained that the London Christmas Tree Rental lets people rent a tree in a pot. Then, in January, it goes back to live on the farm, awaiting its next Advent season. When the tree reaches 7 feet, it is retired and returns back to nature by being planted in a forest. The tweet ended up going viral immediately, getting over 62,000 likes and 7.3k retweets.
Twitter user A. Lautarescu recently shared her joy of a tree she rented from the London Christmas Tree Rental, after which the tweet went viral
Image credits: Alexanda Lautarescu
And speaking of the rental service, it was founded by Jonathan Mearns and Catherine Loveless, with whom Bored Panda got in touch for an interview. One January, Jonathan and Catherine took a stroll through the streets of London and noticed what could only be called a graveyard of Christmas trees—used and discarded after the holidays.
They thought to themselves that there must be a way to do Christmas trees differently. “We explored the rental concept and in our research we learned that 7 million cut trees go into landfill each year and when they rot they emit greenhouse gasses. The average rotting 6ft tree produces 16kg of CO2. When we realized this, we felt we had to try and make this rental idea work,” explained Chatherine Loveless, co-founder of London Christmas Tree Rental.
The way it goes is a person orders one of four sizes of trees—3, 4, 5, 6 or 7 feet in height, each size very aptly named Mr. Kensington, Miss Fulham, Mr. Westminster, Miss Islington, and Mr. Bromley appropriately. The shortest, the 3-foot Mr. Kensingon, costs £39 or just a bit over $50, while the tallest, the 6-foot Miss Islington, runs at £69 or $92 for the Christmas season.
The London Christmas Tree Rental, founded by Jonathan Mearns and Catherine Loveless, aims to reduce the amount of Christmas trees that end up in landfills
“The trees have names based on London boroughs according to their size. Our smallest tree, Mr. Kensington is because Chelsea and Westminster is the smallest borough in London. Mr Bromley, our mighty 7 footer is due to Bromley being the largest borough. Miss Fulham comes in at a delightful 4ft, Mr Westminster is our 5 footer, and Miss Islington is our 6 footer,” elaborated Catherine. “We encourage the family to give them first names so that they can welcome them into the home each Christmas, on the whole, the trees are very well behaved and make perfect house guests!”
Then the living tree of your choice is delivered to your doorstep for you to place wherever you want around the house (avoid warmer parts of the room or else the tree will think spring came early) and to decorate however you please. Just make sure you also water it with about half a liter of water a day (it comes with its own drip plate, so things won’t get messy.)
Once the season is over, you then set up a time to have the company come pick up the tree, give you back the £30 or $40 deposit, given that the tree hasn’t been obliterated by the kids, the pets, and/or that one family Christmas dinner that nobody talks about. And if you liked the tree, you can reserve it for next season!
Co-Founder Catherine Loveless said the average rotting 6ft tree produces 16kg of CO2 and there’s around 7M of them annually in landfills
Image credits: Anna Gordon/FT
“All the trees are returned to the farm in January where they are cared for till the following year. If a customer has liked their tree, then it can return to them the following year. 97% of these rollover trees survived the 2 heatwaves this summer and were able to return to customers this year. They become part of the family and the customer is excited to see how much it has grown,” said Catherine.
Now, Catherine did explain that their business has two delivery options—one is where a customer can come to a local pop-up hub and choose the tree they have paid for, but this means that the customer will also need a car and the pot weighs a lot, while the other option is to rent it blind online and to have it delivered to you. And we both know Christmas trees are such a subjective thing.
BUT, despite this, this way you’re making sure your Christmas tree isn’t one of the aforementioned 7 million that have been cut down and met their fate in a local landfill, but one that will continue living and helping fight climate change.
The company offers several sizes of Christmas trees, each named after London’s smallest to biggest boroughs
And if you’re wondering how you can turn this into an educational thing for the kids, the people at the London Christmas Tree Rental got you covered:
“We have a sister company, Holly Berry Trees, where Holly Berry, who is Father Christmas’s next door neighbour, posts out mini pot grown Christmas trees. These are predominantly to children and come with lights, decorations, reindeer poop (compost) and a beautifully illustrated story about life in the North Pole living next to Santa,” elaborated Catherine.
She continued: “They are not rented, but bought. After Christmas, the child can either keep the tree in it’s pot and it can come back into the house again the following year, or they can plant it directly into the garden. It is the child’s own tree, to name and care for. It educates the child from a young age to the importance of the environment and learning to care for something living, whilst wrapped up in a magical Christmas character.”
Depending on the size, renting a tree for the holidays will net you anywhere between £39 and £69 ($50–$92)
If you happen to live in the London area and haven’t got a Christmas tree yet, why not get in touch with the London Christmas Tree Rental? You can also follow them on the various social media that they’re on, including Facebook and Instagram.
But before you go decorating and Christmas shopping, why not let us know what you thought about this and what Christmas tree you’re going for this year in the comment section below!
People online loved the idea of a Christmas tree that they can rent just for the holiday season
A street in the heart of London’s financial district has banned petrol and diesel vehicles.
The aim is to bring nitrogen dioxide levels within guideline limits.
The 18-month trial will be used to consider similar plans for other streets.
Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to health in the UK, according to Public Health England.
One London street is taking extreme action against air pollution by banning all petrol and diesel cars.
Beech Street, in the heart of London’s financial district, will be restricted to zero-emission vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians by spring 2020, with exceptions made for emergency vehicles, access to car parks and for refuse collection and deliveries. The road, much of which runs underneath a housing estate, will participate in an initial trial for 18 months, while air quality and traffic are monitored.
“Drastically reducing air pollution requires radical actions, and these plans will help us eliminate toxic air on our streets,” said Jeremy Simons, chair of the City of London Corporation’s Environment Committee. “Nobody should have to breathe in dirty air.”
Road transport is responsible for around a fifth of UK greenhouse gas emissions, according to the country’s Office for National Statistics. While the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions fell by more than 30% from 1990 to 2017, emissions from road transport increased by 6% over the same period, it says.
While emissions overall have gone down in the UK, vehicle emissions have risen. Image: UK Office for National Statistics
Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to health in the UK, according to Public Health England, with between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths a year attributed to long-term exposure. It has been linked to a range of diseases including coronary heart disease, strokes, respiratory disease and lung cancer.
And it’s a worldwide issue, with the World Health Organization estimating that more than 90% of the global population live in places where air quality levels exceed their recommended limits. London is among more than 30 cities that have signed the Fossil Fuel Free Streets Declaration, pledging to procure only zero-emission buses from 2025 and make a major area zero-emission by 2030.
Road traffic is on the up in the UK. Image: UK Office for National Statistics
Cutting greenhouse gas emissions will also be key in the fight against global warming. Public Health England says governments and local authorities must take action to limit and mitigate air pollutants.
The City of London Corporation’s plan aims to bring nitrogen dioxide levels on Beech Street within air-quality guidelines set out by the European Union and World Health Organization. After the trial, the corporation will decide whether similar measures are suitable for other streets.
“It will bring substantial health benefits,” says Oliver Sells, Streets and Walkways Committee Chairman. “The experimental scheme will be enforced using the latest in smart-camera technology and I hope it will be the first of many other schemes like this.”
