They recently received an ISO award for their attempt to lower their carbon footprint throughout the building, and is the first theatre in the UK to have been registered .

The theatre has implemented several schemes to help protect the environment, including compacting general waste, so it can be recycled every two weeks. Originally it was two skips every week, to a landfill site.

Waste which cannot be recycled is now sent to Tyseley Incinerator in Birmingham, which produces enough energy to power 40,000 local homes.

The Hippodrome have also been involved with the Cool Earth charity to help save the endangered Amazonian rainforest, through selling coffee. So far, the theatre has rescued seven acres of forestry, which will help contain 1, 800 tones of C02.

Brian Smith, of the Facilities Department at the Hippodrome has stated:

‘Birmingham Hippodrome is the UK’s most visited theatre, with around  500,000 visitors annually.   We wanted to be able to respond to their needs, by helping to save the environment.’

Further plans to reduce carbon emmisions are being looked into, and are hoping to be implemented by 2011.
Mr. Smith further stated:

‘Our commitment is ongoing and at the moment we are looking at how we can improve our water usage.’

The Hippodrome sees food recycling as another priority which needs to be addressed, but have stated that they are not upto scratch as of yet.

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Allied with Amazing Animals, an organisation which supply various different animals, One Stop hope to showcase chicks, ducklings, rabbits and much more, to get kids and parents into the Easter spirit.

The organisation is adamant on prevailing their message of conservation of these timid animals.

Mark Burbridge, the deputy centre manager of One Stop stated:

‘We are fully aware of the terrible issue of cruelty to animals, so we made sure we went through a professional source. It would have been easy to just pick them up from a farm, but we wanted to do it the proper way.

We wouldnt have brought them into the centre if we thought they weren’t being looked after.’

Unlike other animal agencies, Amazing Animals actually owns, keeps, breeds and trains its animals, from giraffes to neon tetras.

Alongside presenting these animals to families and children, leaflets and posters will be distributed around the store, promoting the values and the responsibilities they have to the animals.

As they care for a number of endangered animals, including Bengal tigers, they aim to highlight the importance of what families can do to help support such beautiful creatures.

A representative from Amazing Animals Sarah Lawson stated:

‘We make sure to provide our animals with the utmost safety, wherever they may be travelling. They are very important to us.’

For the more vulnerable animals, like the ones which will be publicised at One Stop, there will be a picket fence surrounding the chicks, as well as heat lamps, to keep them warm and safe.

However families will not be able to pet the animals, due to the safety of the creatures- as well as for their own well being. If handled precariously it may cause unwanted stress for the animals.

The idea of the Green Bus is to help with congestion on the roads, working parents who don’t have time to drop their children off to school and of course to reduce CO2 emissions.

The new state of the art services has a specially designed route, which drops each child off a short walking distance from their home.

Each bus service even has its own tracking device, which can be accessed on the Green Bus interactive website.

The managing director of the Green Bus, Ian Mack stated:

‘The Green Bus removes huge numbers of unnecessary car journeys from the roads in the West Midlands every day.’

The four services that have travelled the roads so far have been extremely successful, carrying around 300 pupil’s everyday and minimising their carbon footprint in the midst of it all.

The head teacher of Dame Elizabeth Cadbury Technology College Lynn Barnett stated:

‘We do hope that other schools in an around Birmingham will also introduce this service for their pupils. It’s a positive thing for the environment and for the kids themselves. But it is really up to Centro.’

Centro, have set up a number of schemes including the Park and Ride, which reduces 2.75 million journeys off the region’s gridlocked roads and decreases carbon dioxide emissions by 6,200 tonnes each year.

There are now over 6,400 free Park and Ride car parking spaces in the West Midlands as a whole. These spaces are calculated to take over 53,000 journeys off the road per week, saving 66,000 litres of fuel.

The marine centre has set up a petition on their website in an attempt to get this law banned and has leaflets about the bid within the centre.

Andy Simmons from the Birmingham branch stated:

‘It is vital we preserve these great animals, and I hope more people will see the importance of signing this petition.

For us, but more importantly for the next generations.’

Sea Life Centres all across the country have been writing letters to environment ministers throughout Europe, urging them to condemn this, in effect, act of extinction.

Once hunted to the brink of extinction, the humpback has made a dramatic comeback in the North Pacific.

A 2008 study estimated that the humpback population hit a low of 1,500 whales before hunting was banned worldwide.

According to a study by NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service in 2009, there are approximately 30,000 humpback whales left in the oceans.

However if whalers continue to hunt these mammals, extinction is more than likely to re-emerge.

The people of Greenland have justified their position by arguing that their whaling is aboriginal by being an important tradition amongst this indigenous group, which needs to be taken into consideration.