Until recently there seemed to be no hope for several British species. A saving grace for our native butterflies has come in the form of a brand new butterfly garden, specially designed to house the beautiful insects.

The new garden will reside in the United Kingdom’s largest tropical butterfly paradise, the Stratford-Upon-Avon butterfly farm.

The garden itself has been placed in a location which will optimize the rays given off from the sun, rays which are vital to the survival of the butterflies and the environment they thrive on.

Later this year the Stratford-Upon-Avon butterfly farm will celebrate it’s 25th Birthday, having opened in July 1985.

Birmingham based lepidopternas enthusiast, Robert Kennedy commented on new garden plans:

I’m absolutely delighted, England and Scotland are home to some of the worlds most fascinating papilionoidea. It would be a tragedy if we stood by and watched them go extinct.

I for one think it’s an excellent idea, I’m truly looking forward to seeing them, comfortable in a natural environment.

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.

Although in recent years plans have been submitted the West Midlands is still a considerable stretch behind the rest of main land England.

Currently there are 262 wind farms in the United Kingdom consisting of 2896 turbines.

Working for Severn Trent Water, David Wood explained about their current ambitions for bringing wind farms to the West Midlands.

We have not had any plans approved yet, but there are currently 12 sites we are looking at and we have submitted 2 applications to date.

With more applications hopefully coming soon and decision dates looking we are hopeful that we shall be successful and that we can help to bring more renewables to the region.

Below is a map of some of the key wind farms which currently spread across England, halting at the West Midlands, before continuing on into Wales.

View Wind Farm Locations in a larger map

Birmingham City Council has now declined to comment on two separate occasions, when questioned on the possibility of wind farms for the West Midlands in the not to distant future.

Over the next few years 110 automobiles from six different manufacturers are set to be trialled over a span of 12 months.

People participating in the project will have charging units installed in their homes. In addition to this, 35 – 40 charging ports are to be placed around the Midlands.

The scheme has been co-funded by the Technology Strategy Board’s Ultra Low Carbon Vehicle Demonstrator competition. Advantage West Midlands have also played a key part in the project.

Arup Advanced Technology & Researcher, Christina Fell commented on the current progression of the scheme:

The time line of the project is still on track with the first batch of cars (Mitsubishi I-MiEVs) having been handed over to 25 end users in December 2009.

Upon completion the roads of Birmingham and Coventry would have witnessed a wide range of different automobiles, from the small I-MiEV to the large Land Rover Range-e.

The 66 million pound project is due for completion in the summer of 2010.

To allow for the most efficient build Bournville College is currently relocating to an all new green environment, which will eventually house up to 15,000 young students in Birmingham.

The building itself has been designed to achieve the BRE EAM (Building research establishment Environmental Assessment Method) “Excellent” rating.

David Collins, assistant principle: Estates, at Bournville College pin pointed some of the key criteria which will aid them when meeting the standards of an “Excellent” rating.

1 Aim to connect the building to a district heating system in a later development phase

2 Rainwater harvesting

3 No general office air conditioning - classrooms designed around a heat sink affect – exposed concrete soffits take in heat during the day and let this out at night.

4 Transport plan – there is only a relatively small amount of on site parking – use to be made of local railway station and bus routes where possible

6 Waste plan – Waste to be re-cycled where possible

Post build won’t be the end for Bournville’s bid to save the environment.

The College is looking at ways to monitor it’s overall energy usage, via electronic displays, allowing them to focus on specific areas of the site, lowering their energy usage levels.

West Midlands based company Zytek Automotive will be working under the supervision of Gordon Murry Design, after the Technology Strategy Board supplied funding of 4.5 million pound for the state of the art, all electric car project.

The car or T.27 as it’s more commonly known in the industry will set new highs previously unseen for environmental sustainability. It has been estimated that the T.27 will release 67% less harmful emissions than the average car.

Gordon Murray Design

Overseeing the project is Gordon Murray Design, Gordon Murray himself understands the importance of making the car as environmentally friendly as possible.

‘Environmentally friendly’ is a core value of our business.

By applying a holistic approach and our iStream® methodology to the design process of T.27, it will be the world’s most efficient car.

The project currently has 11 months left to run and should come to a close in February 2011.

If the project is successful it will see three fully operational T.27′s produced, with the overall objective of expanding into the manufacturing market a possibility.

It is our intention to work with the UK Government to form a consortium with the ultimate goal of producing the T.27 in this country and making the car widely available on the open market.

Zyteck Automotive

The company was founded in 1982 and began developing electronic technologies for the world of motor sports. One of their biggest achievements in the early years was ‘the first digital engine management system for Formula One’.

During 1994 Zyteck started experimenting with electric cars, the first fully operational electric car produced was ‘the electric Lotus Elise‘.

David Wood, who is part of the renewable energy team at Severn Trent Water, explained about plans for future wind farms which have been submitted by himself and Severn Trent Water.

We have not had any plans approved yet, but there are currently 12 sites we are looking at and we have submitted 2 applications to date.

With more applications hopefully coming soon and decision dates looking we are hopeful that we shall be successful and that we can help to bring more renewables to the region.

David also explained how there are current targets set by the government which require the West Midlands to increase its renewable fuel sources to 15% by 2020.

Since the first in 1991 wind farms have been emerging  all over the United Kingdom and the overall number of wind farms has rapidly rose and is currently over 200.

How they work

Wind Farms are currently one of the most environmentally friendly ways to generate energy.

How they work isn’t as complicated as most people think; imagine a fan, using electricity to produce wind and then reverse the process so that the wind spins the blades on a turbine, turning a motor inside which generates energy harvesting the power of wind.