The City as a Green action focal point

Bruno Giussiani, reporting on a new initiative by the Clinton Foundation to tackle climate change with action around energy efficiency of buildings in cities, summarises "the possible role of big cities in tackling global problems such as climate change":

The basic idea: If cities start acting as global actors towards sustainability, new mobility solutions and traffic strategies, clean energy, water resources management, etc, when you add it all up there could be significant progress even without national policies and international treaties.

I guess we can easily relate to cities both as obvious causes of the climate change problem, with their massive energy use per capita, but also as the creative and entrepreneurial centres that can produce solutions for that problem. It is always easier to galvanise people to action when they can identify clearly with a simple set of concepts and a clearly-defined associated community. It seems that the City is becoming a key focal point in this regard for climate change action.

UPDATE—Jerry Fishenden of Microsoft (who are the technology partner for the Clinton Foundation project) has some intelligent words to say about this issue.

Hot air

I went into the O2 outlet by Tottenham Court Road tube station a couple of days ago to upgrade my handset. It was a cold day, and I noticed that it was pretty chilly in the shop too—unsurprisingly, as the doors were wedged wide open. The shop assistant told me ruefully that he had asked his managers many times if he could close the door, but had been told that it was "policy" to keep them open.

Then, browsing through the handset brochure, I noticed a page on handset recycling. The text pointed out how important it was that we all did what we could to limit our impact on the environment.

The assistant and I agreed that it was most curious that on one hand O2 were pinning their caring, green colours on their sleeve, but on the other hand they were pumping heat out into the street and letting their staff freeze in the hope of pulling in a few extra casual shoppers.

This splitting of corporate identity reminds me of how O2 bend over backwards to make your life, as a customer, as easy as possible in every way except when it comes to finding out how many minutes you have left. Sorry to pick on you about the doors and the minutes, O2—I know your competitors fail on both these counts too—but you happen to be my network provider, so I care about you more. Ah, sweet.

On a related note, why on earth is our government talking about rationing meat and milk to reduce globe-warming cow farts when surely a teeny bit of regulation could ensure that shops around the country kept their doors shut when their heating was on?!