It revealed 155,059 tonnes of CO2 had been cut – exceeding the target of 130,000 tonnes with data coming from Birmingham’s Environmental Partnership of 33 organisations across all sectors.

The figures, independently verified by the Energy Savings Trust represent a cut of almost 400,000 tonnes of carbon since 2008.

Cllr Paul Tilsley, Deputy Leader of Birmingham City Council, said:

“To meet our ambitious targets for the third successive year is a tribute in itself to the efforts of everyone across the city who has made a contribution to cut carbon emissions.

“Our focus on improving sustainability will continue as the benefits are huge – a cleaner and greener environment along with increased opportunities for business in emerging technologies to develop here in Birmingham.”

Many businesses and public organisations have been involved in the task of reducing Birmingham’s carbon footprint, the NEC, Cadbury’s and Birmingham Children’s Hospital have all implemented energy saving lighting which have reduced both their costs and their carbon.

Image (C) Birmingham City Council News Room

The experts at Envirowise realised that the best way to reach businesses was throught the Internet. They decided to create a Virtual Tour, which they named as ‘Green-street’. State-of-the art technology was used to build the website. The technology allows individuals to experience the virtual exteriors of some organisations who have used environmental methods to cut-down on their carbon foot-print and energy consumption rates. . The initiative is aimed at educating other businesses about what they can do to cut down on resources.

The state of art 3 dimensional animations will show the exterior of five buildings, these include: Cost Cutters Arms, the Verte Restaurant, the Green Leaves Hotel, the Water Tower office block and the Efficient Engineering Company People will be able to access publications and reports detailing the different ways that they can reduce water consumption and energy.

Tim Robins, Envirowise Regional Manager for the West Midlands, said:

‘Research by Envirowise1 has shown that businesses in our area believe that using fewer raw materials, generating less waste and placing a greater emphasis on energy efficiency are all likely legacies of the recent recession. By exploring Green Street firms can easily find out how to make positive changes and save money, with help on everything from minimising lighting and heating, to more detailed advice on developing a formal environmental management system.’

He added:

‘We know the internet is an integral part of the business working day so we have created this new animated tool in order to make this free advice as accessible to local firms as possible.’

Businesses can visit the ‘Green Street’ at: www.envirowise.gov.uk/greenstreet

The four charging points are the first of 36, which will be spread across Birmingham and Coventry as part of the CABLED project, where 110 vehicles are being tested by users across two cities.

The free charging points are housed in a specially designed parking bay on level one of Bullring’s Moor Street car park offering easy access to the centre via the Selfridges bridge link.

Charles Bradshaw-Smith, Head of Innovation at E.ON – and himself a participant in the CABLED project – said:

“It’s great that we’ve navigated to the second stage of this project bringing low carbon motoring to the streets of Britain’s own Motor City.

“We’ve got charging points right in the centre of Birmingham where they’ll be of most use to drivers. Electric cars are perfect for short commutes to work and for shopping trips to town – and we’re proud that by being the energy behind these charging points we’re making eco-driving even easier.

“In the next few weeks we’ll be rolling out more charging points in Birmingham and Coventry that will become part of a developing national network.”

Tim Walley, General Manager at Bullring, commented:

 “As the first location in Birmingham to offer electric vehicle car charging points, Bullring is helping to make eco-driving much easier and accessible to the public. It’s good to be part of what will soon be a national network ensuring that the number of electric vehicle drivers continues to rise.”

Cllr Timothy Huxtable, Cabinet Member for Transportation and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council, said:

 “This is a major landmark moment in the development of electric vehicle technologies in the city, it shows that the CABLED consortium means business and is the first step to a greater expansion throughout the city.”

 During the trial, a total of 340 vehicles will be tested across the UK, with 110 of those based in Birmingham and Coventry. The aim of the project is to find out how the cars are used – and when they need charging – to get a better idea of the driver’s experience of electrical cars.

What is known, as the I-Fairy, is four feet high, with flashing eyes, conducted a wedding ceremony in front of 50 guests, which was controlled by a man who sat behind a black curtain nearby.

The robot was made at a company where Satoko Shibata the bride, works, and Tomohiro Shibata, the groom, is a university professor teaching robotics.

It was the first of something ever been seen and has made history.

Last week ‘Bikeability’ rolled out fully across Birmingham to help equip children with the skills and confidence to ride their bikes on today’s busy roads.

Birmingham City Council and Solihull Council are both involved in pushing this initiative and getting schools involved in providing this scheme to all secondary schools.

Eileen Brown, Head teacher at Hodge Hill Girls School said,

“We had to put a bid in to take part in the ‘Bikeabilty’ scheme, it has been well worth the time and effort the school has put in, and the children have really embraced and enjoyed the scheme so far”

What is it?

The scheme is a reformed cycling proficiency test designed for the 21^st century. As well as teaching children safety and observation skills, the scheme is also designed to encourage the use of bikes as an alternative method of transport.

‘Bikeability’ is intended as a fun challenge, split into three levels, children are always working towards their next goal, and this then gives them the motivation to sustain what they have learned.

Secondary schools have to prove they have secure storage for bicycles to take part in the scheme. Depending on the school or the local authority involved.

Walk to School Week

Bikeability follows ‘Walk to School Week’ which finished last Friday. The week is in place to encourage parents and children to think about their journey to school and how they make it. ‘Walk to School Week’ is designed for primary schools, but ‘Step Up’ is the secondary school equivalent which also runs within the same week in May.

‘Walk to School Week’ and ‘Step Up’ are both organised and funded by the Living Streets organisation.

Cllr David Sparks, the Local Government Association spokesman on transport, said:

“Encouraging parents to walk their children to school, where it is possible, makes perfect sense. It means children are more savvy about road safety, it keeps them fit at a time when obestiy has reached record levels and it means less traffic congestion within school zones at drop off and pick up tomes. At a time when petrol prices are soaring, it will also save parents money..”

Statistics

 50% of children don’t walk to school regularly this in turn is contributing to increased childhood obesity and reduced physical activity as well as urban congestion and air pollution.

Cars consume most fuel and pollute more at the start of their journey when the engine is cold, therefore, cycling or walking for short journeys, especially to school, will help reduce the amount of CO2 emissions by a disproportionate amount.

More statistics can be found here.

Visit here for a frequently updated map of participating ‘Bikeability’ schools and organisations.

BMW’s exclusive new EfficientDynamics range, has been specially designed with the environment in mind. Lowering the Emissions on all BMW cars which it resides on.

The EfficientDynamics range has potentially changed the popular high-spec BMW’s into environmental super cars, as shown on the recent BMW 320d, which now only produces a measly 175 grams of C02 Emissions per mile.

A small servery was recently constructed in a Birmingham based town, Solihull. The goal of the servery was to monitor a main road which leads in and out of Solihull town center, for one hour during a prime time travel hour. Every car that went past the check point would be noted and marked down in a spreadsheet. The overall aim was to find out how many cars traveling through Solihull could be considered environmentally friendly.

The results of the servery which showed a disappointing zero electric or environmentally friendly cars, traveling through the zone at the specific time. These results were then presented to a BMW employee, who said:

It’s disappointing that currently there isn’t more cars on the road that are not harmful to our environment. There are a lot of old cars are on our roads which in comparison to newer cars, don’t fair to well in terms of C02 Emissions.

At BMW we strive to make the most efficient cars, which are in turn less harmful to the environment.

This would be a huge set back for the electric car market, as the industry has already began marketing their new range of electric cars with the idea that this proposed discount would remain in place.

Electric cars are expensive to buy, and it has been said that only the most environmentally conscious amongst us would be prepared to pay out for one. Even the £5,000 discount may not help attract many more buyers, so with the possibility of this discount being scrapped before it has even been put into practice, it is hard to see how the future of electric cars can get ahead.

Numerous dealers in and around Birmingham will be put out by this latest revelation. Renault plan to launch a new range of four zero emission cars 2011, which Renault Birmingham have confirmed they will be stocking from the end of next year.

Mitsubishi have already launched two low CO2 emissions cars in the form of the “Colt” and the “Outlander”, which both boast lower emissions and better fuel economy. There are also plans to release the new “i MiEV” soon, which claims to be “the first viable and affordable fully electric vehicle available in the UK.”

The Acorn Mitsubishi centre at Quinton already stocks the “Colt” from £8,499 and the “Outlander” from £25,999, so this £5,000 discount could really make a difference to the sales of electric cars in and around Birmingham.

With Nissan producing the new zero-emissions, recyclable “Leaf” and Citron marketing the new zero-carbon, 100% electric “C-ZERO” at the end of this year, we could be seeing big changes in the future of environmentally-friendly transport.

However, the cut of this proposed discount could stunt the sales of these cars, especially when you consider that Nissan are already promoting their new “Leaf” under the pretence of this £5,000 discount, offering their car for £23,350 instead of its £28,350 retail price.

The government may not realise it, but they could be damaging the potential for electric cars to have a real future on our roads.

 Experts are concerned that because the cars are so silent; pedestrians, especially those who are blind or partially-sighted, may unwittingly step out in front of the cars.

 It is with this in mind that researchers are looking into placing speakers into electric cars, which face the direction the car is travelling and alert pedestrians to the car’s presence.

 Noises

It’s thought the noises might be similar to those heard in Star Wars and other futuristic films.  Other options are said to be a loud car engine sound, so as not to confuse pedestrians.

 Whilst many see the idea as a good one; there are growing concerns that instead of reducing noise pollution whilst car makers have the chance; they will instead be adding to the noise pollution with unusual and unexpected sounds.

 Warwick University

Warwick University is currently trialling a number of sounds in conjunction with electric vehicle makers. Professor Paul Jennings, from the trial team at the University told Birmingham Recycled;

 ‘Electric cars are inherently quiet at low speeds.  This has great potential benefit in reducing levels of disturbance from traffic noise.  However sound also acts as a warning to other road users.  It signifies the presence of a vehicle, its speed, direction and acceleration’.

  ‘ The aim for our research is to learn how to design appropriate sounds that give sufficient warning, whilst having minimal detrimental impact on the environment.  We intend to take on this new challenge by adapting the tools and techniques for optimising interior vehicle sounds that have been developed with our partners’.

Ipex is the largest English, technology event for the media and will attract thousands over the next week.

The City will be packed by the 45% of people who are attending from all over the world, who will be taking part in an event packed week, as Ipex has organized an event of a large scale.

The NEC is said to be the perfect place to hold such a large-scale event, which is why it is the top UK venue.

Birmingham is a City with many things to do therefore visitors will be able to make the most of their time in the second largest City in the UK.

The new cars are an improved version of the well loved Fabia and Roomster models which are already popularly stocked across Birmingham.

Several Midlands dealerships are thought to be stocking the new green Fabia and Roomster models in their branches, however have yet refused to comment on the latest development in technology of Skoda cars.

The Government Pledge

This comes at a time were a plea of support from the coalition government states they intend to fulfil ambitions for a low carbon and eco-friendly economy, accelerating the development of a ‘small electricity grid’ to kick start an electric vehicle revolution.

What’s inside?

The Skoda car will include the latest in green technology, including a three cylinder ‘super charged’ engine with a fuel consumption rate of just 3.4 litres per 100 kilometres and a carbon emission rate of 89 grams per kilometre.

The car also boasts a ‘Start Stop’ system, enabling drivers to reduce emissions while the car is stationary. Hopefully going someway to meeting Government aims of radically reducing C02 emissions by 2012. Here you can find further details about the technology with features in the new designs.