Where does all the leftover food go when the grocery store closes at the end of the day?

Maybe it’s repurposed somehow or throw out… but what if it could help a supermarket become energy independent? A Sainsbury’s supermarket in the United Kingdom will soon power itself with leftover food waste and disconnect from the National Grid.

Sainsbury’s partner is Biffa, one of the U.K.’s largest waste management companies, which collaborates with Sainsbury’s to make this possible. Sainsbury’s trucks its food waste from all over the U.K. to Biffa’s plant in Staffordshire. Biffa then converts it into biogas, and this biogas is then burned to meet the energy needs of a location in the town of Cannock.

“Sainsbury’s sends absolutely no waste to landfill and we’re always looking for new ways to reuse and recycle” said Sainsbury’s’ head of sustainability Paul Crewe in a press release. “We’re delighted to be the first business ever to make use of this linkup technology, allowing our Cannock store to be powered entirely by our food waste.”

Not all of Sainsbury’s’ food becomes biogas. To ensure no waste goes to landfills, Sainsbury’s also donates food that’s safe to eat to its charitable partners to feed the underprivileged, or to feed the animals in the Knowley safari park.

Biogas is a renewable fuel, created when bacteria feast on organic matter in a large tank in the absence of oxygen. This is called anaerobic digestion, and Sainsbury’s is the process’ biggest user in the U.K. In a statement, the company says they generate “enough energy to power 2,500 homes each year.”

Biogas is composed mostly of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas if released uncombusted. Burning the fuel releases carbon dioxide, but unlike natural gas, coal or oil, which release carbon that was once sequestered underground, biogas is created from organic sources already a part of the carbon cycle and is carbon-neutral.

Biogas power generation can be a solution for remote areas in need of energy. Wind and solar can be intermittent depending on the weather, but biogas is more renewable. Plus, anaerobic digestion doesn’t just have to depend on food waste. Manure and other agricultural wastes can be converted to biogas as well.

-Recovered from Hufington Post

To make it clearer, here is the process:

Public transport is free from this Friday in several French cities, including the metropolitan area of Paris, after which the authorities have imposed restrictions on traffic, since they are on alert by air pollution.

The north of France, as well as the Rhone valley, are the areas most affected by the overcoming of the threshold concentration of particulates, a situation that was initiated on the 5th and will run the weekend, explained the Russian Atmo France, which has a network of surveillance. The Minister of Ecology, Philippe Martin, announced yesterday that the public transport in the metropolitan area in Paris, will be free from this Friday until Sunday night to try to encourage motorists to not use their vehicles.

For more information, visit http://noticiasambientales.blogspot.mx/

Energy Efficiency

To improve the energy efficiency of residential buildings and services could reduce the emissions that cause climate change by 23% and employ tens of millions of people worldwide in the face of 2050. This is one of the main conclusions of the report presented today by one of the main groups in the job of the World Congress of Sustainable Construction, World Sustainable Building 2014, held in Barcelona from 28 to October 30.

Rehabilitate buildings to spend less energy would reduce electricity demand in the housing units in a 24% and up to 27% in blocks of services with a view to 2050, according to estimates by experts from the working group Area Global Vision of the World Sustainable Building 2014.

Rehabilitate buildings to spend less energy would reduce electricity demand in the housing units in a 24% and up to 27% in blocks of services with a view to 2050, according to estimates by experts from the working group Area Global Vision of the World Sustainable Building 2014.

For more information, visit www.theguardian.com

It’s looking more and more likely that history will remember 2014 as a crossroads on climate change.

In March, the world’s leading climate scientists told the world that there’s simply no more time left to waste: nations must act quickly, decisively, and cooperatively if we want a decent shot at averting the worst effects of a warming planet. It wasn’t the first time that the scientific community delivered their warning, but it could be the last. The next report won’t arrive until the next decade, when we may already have passed critical tipping points.

It’s in this context that the EU is currently debating the toughest climate targets in history, among them a 40% cut in carbon emissions by 2030. What those targets look like in the end – and the steps policymakers lay out to reach them – carry profound implications for our own future and for generations to come.

Which means we need to get creative. There’s no doubt that more renewables and stronger emissions standards will form the backbone of any climate framework going forward. But putting all our efforts into just those mandates, which primarily focus on a few large stakeholders such as manufacturers and power plants, would ignore what’s shaping up to be the 21st century’s most powerful energy resource: all of us.

The complete article is on the website www.theguardian.com