London’s New Eco Bus

It’s been around since March but I caught sight of it for the first time yesterday - the world’s first double-decker hybrid bus. On route 141 in London, the bus is still bright red but has some lovely green leaves on it.

The bus uses a combination of diesel and electric power and is part of the Mayor of London’s plan to reduce carbon emissions and tackle climate change. Other slightly generic measures include:

• Continuing modal shift from private car usage to public transport, cycling and walking.

• Greater energy efficiency across all TfL businesses and modes of transport.

• The adoption of more energy from renewable sources and innovative technology to recycle energy.

• Support for the continued research and development of low carbon fuels.

• Strategies and support for organisations and individuals to travel in more environmentally-friendly ways through Travel Demand Management schemes, including in the London Borough of Sutton the largest of its kind in the UK.

Song of the Day - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger

Thanks to Brendon at his excellent web marketing site, Tailored Consulting. The video is a group of friends at a couple of companies lip-synching. Great stuff!

Get An Eco-Assessment Of Your Home Or Office

A company based in Sydney, Todae, will come to your home or place of work and perform an eco-assessment.

With the aim of cutting your energy and water usage, the survery will look at your heating, insulation, recycling, electricity usage and so on. It’s fairly expensive, at AU$399 but could save you a fortune in the long run.

Another Australian company called EcoSmart will also do the same thing.

Are there businesses near you that will provide you with an eco-assessment, or could you offer the service to others??

[Via Springwise]

Heroes Episode Guide - Chapter 16: Unexpected

Heroes keeps up such a pace that when you get an episode where there’s only a few revelations you end up disappointed, but at no point did I think this would be one of them. Even before the ‘previously’ we get to see Ted and then a new girl, Hana, with a similar power to Micah but wireless.

Signing up Matt, they form a new team to stop Mr Bennet (it’s taken me until now to realise there’s only one ‘t’ in his name). One thing Matt doesn’t mention is that he’s tried to read his mind before and couldn’t, so how does he know he’ll succeed this time?

And Mr Bennet’s not having the best time of things. Claire hates him and has her memory, the Haitian has gone off piste, Mrs Bennet could be dying and then people break into his house - again. I’m glad we learnt what the two marks on people necks are and am eager to find out more. But as hinted at before, Mr Bennet reports to superiors so we may not find out everything. I still think he might have a power we don’t know about.

The second of the four stories we followed this episode was Mohinder and Sylar’s road trip. Mohinder seems to have developed a vaccine now so his goal is to help those with abilities they can’t control. Poor Dale, we know she’s dead as soon as she meets Sylar, but has he bitten off more than he can chew? She couldn’t control her super hearing, maybe Sylar can’t either. Absorbing/taking powers might overwhelm him, although he is very powerful - he was dead once remember?

Thirdly, Hiro and Ando split up. I’m sad about this as Ando is great but at least they won’t be the comedy fall guys anymore. It’s nice to see Hiro’s powers work and that the thing with the sword may only be in his mind. And he meets Stan Lee!

And the fourth story of Peter and Claude. Why the Haitian and Mr Bennet used tasers rather than their usual method of detaining heroes I don’t know, but the result was spectacular. Claude’s teachings have helped Peter immensely and in times of stress he seems to be able to call on his powers at will. Also his ability to move things with his mind means he may have absobed all of Sylar’s powers too - even ones he doesn’t know bout. Will we see a Sylar v. Peter battle at the end of the series?

Or is Peter turning to the dark side? The use of his abilities and subsequent consequences with Isaac and Simone suggest he may be on a different path than becoming Superman.

The ending was as shocking and as brilliant as we’ve come to expect from Heroes. Can Peter save her, will she survive, what will happen next? Only the next episode will tell us and there’s only two weeks until New York explodes.

The Charity Meme - A Worthwhile Link Train

Whilst we’ve been tagged a couple of times before by other bloggers, we don’t always participate. However when Shaun at Hobo SEO tagged me for this “link train” it was finally a worthwhile one. It’s a charity link train, the idea is to help these charities rank high in Google for keywords and this is achieved simply by the type of anchor text links on this page. “Anchor text” is the text used in a hyperlink, such as “disaster relief” below. This is aimed at improving their rankings in the search results, in the first case for someone searching on “disaster relief” and so on.

• American Red Cross - disaster relief
• Raleigh Rescue Mission - homeless raleigh
• SOS Children’s Villages - sponsor a child
• Samaritan’s Purse - emergency relief programs
• St. Jude Children’s Hospital - cancer research
• Medecins Sans Frontieres / Doctors Without Borders - Humanitarian Relief
• American Red Cross - Emergency Preparedness
• AMREF - African Medical & Research Foundation - African Health Development
• DOROT - Programs for Elderly
• Feed the Children - Protect Children
• Service International - Disaster Relief
• Pujols Family Foundation - Children with Down Syndrome
• National Alliance to End Homelessness - Homelessness
• The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research - Parkinson’s Research
• Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Program - Child Healthcare
• Aids Research Alliance - Aids Research
• Wildlife Conservation Society - Wildlife Protection
• Cancer Research Institute - Cancer Research
• Second Harvest - End Hunger
• AARP Foundation - Helping Senior Citizens
• The Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity - Polish Charity
• CPR For Schools Across Poland - CPR Training
• Program of Insulin Pumps in Diabetic Children Therapy - Insulin Pumps For Children
• Non-invasive Neonatal Breathing Support - Infant Flow
• Program of Universal Neonatal Hearing Screenings - Neonatal Hearing
• Ardgowan Hospice - Lymphoedema Clinic
• Cancer Research UK - Cancer Charity
• Childline - Free advice for children
• World Wildlife Fund - Save the environment
• Friends Of the Earth - Solve environmental problems
• Groundwork - Improve my community

The rules are simple, copy the list of charities and links (grab it from whomever tags you) and add your 5 favorite charities or non-profit organizations to the end (link to their sites with anchor text of the causes they champion). Of course finish things off by tagging 5 other webmasters/bloggers and then publishing the post or the webpage.

The meme was started over at SEO Refugee by Skitzoo.

I’ve tagged a couple of people who have taken the time to comment on Life Goggles or who I have found their site of interest:

1. Eco Kev
2. Adnan
3. Brendon
4. Yaro
5. Tyler

Latest Green News

Gordon Brown has outlines plans for “eco-towns” in the UK. The BBC report that he wants 100,000 homes in (5) “carbon neutral” communities to be built on old industrial sites.

Asda introduces recycled cardboard milk bottles Asda in Lowestoft, Suffolk is now selling milk in bottles made out of moulded recycled cardboard. The sustainable packaging has been designed by Greenbottle Ltd of Framlingham, Suffolk. The milk costs the same price as that in plastic bottles, of which more than 100,000 tons go to landfill each year.

The Daily Telegraph featured edited and abridged extracts from the New Green Consumer Guide, one of which suggests that plastic bags are a better eco choice than paper bags, because paper bags are heavier and take up more space in landfill sites.

The Times reported that free plastic bags will not be available from the Saffron Walden branch of Waitrose for a fortnight. Customers at the store will instead be asked to reuse old carriers and shopping bags.

Co-op Insurance calls for cut to red tape to reduce CO2 emissions Co-operative Insurance has warned that UK companies wanting to significantly reduce their carbon dioxide emissions are being hampered by red tape surrounding green wind energy. Its concerns are shared by 10 large companies including Alliance Boots and J Sainsbury, all keen to realise benefits of wind and other renewable technologies. Local bureaucracy, poor planning guidance for councils and the lack of a long term energy strategy are among the issues concerned.

The UK insurance intermediary Budget has launched a new car insurance policy, ibuyeco, which will offset 100% of customers’ CO2 emissions as long as the policy lasts, if they pay a small additional fee. The fee is calculated according to their type of car and estimated mileage. Budget says that the charge goes towards funding categories of projects such as reforestation, energy efficiency and renewable energy. This is done via the Carbon Neutral Company.

M&S announced plans for its first eco factories, one in Sri Lanka and two in Wales, which will harness the latest renewable energy and recycling techniques. The Daily Mail also reported that the company is to start charging customers for plastic bags as part of its £200m scheme to encourage shoppers to go green.

Hotel Chatter talks about the greenest hotels in the US. Our articles on green hotels are here and here.

All news is copyright of it’s original owner and reproduced for information only.

Trafalgar Square Goes Green

Just for 2 days, London’s Trafalgar Square has been given a green makeover, as part of a Visit London tourist campaign.

“The turf, which has been sourced from the Vale of York, will then be moved to Bishops Park in Hammersmith and Fulham.”

[Via: BBC]

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