Clyde Wind Farm to provide electricity for 250 000 homes, London Array back on track – and wind overtakes hydro as leading source of renewable electricity in the UK.

BWEA, UK’s leading renewable energy association, welcomed today’s consent for Europe’s largest onshore wind farm. The Clyde project, developed by Scottish and Southern, will comprise of 152 turbines delivering electricity to over 250 000 homes.

On a good day for the wind energy sector Shell also announced it has successfully completed the sale of its stake in the London Array to its two former partners E.ON and DONG Energy, which was welcomed today by Secretary of State John Hutton as "great news".

Both pieces of news come shortly after publication of the BERR Energy Trends report showing that wind in 2007 has for the first time overtaken hydro as the primary source of renewable electricity.

Welcoming today’s news Adam Bruce, Head of Sustainable Development at SSE and BWEA Chairman said "The Scottish Ministers’ consent on Clyde bodes well for reaching EU 2020 targets, as delivering projects of this size will be integral to meeting the challenge of sourcing 15% of all our energy from renewables within the next 12 years."

Both the Clyde Wind Farm and the London Array will be commissioned in phases, with the electricity from Clyde starting to reach consumers in 2010.  Adam Bruce said "Today’s developments show what can be done when industry and Government work together. Year on year we are increasing wind’s participation in the energy mix and have proved renewables are now a mainstream source of electricity.

As the UK’s very first ‘green’ friendship and introduction agency, Natural Friends has helped over 40 thousand people meet a perfect partner. Now, its ethical approach is uniting more singles than ever before…

The reason for this upturn in trends is perhaps less to do with dating and more to do with lifestyle expectations in today’s eco-aware world.

Far from jumping on the green bandwagon, Natural Friends was the first of its kind and rightly proud of its values, which, if member numbers are anything to go by, is exactly what singles on the current dating circuit really want. Founded in 1985 by husband and wife team, James and Barbara Bradshaw, Natural Friends has, over the last 23 years, been dedicated to uniting kindred spirits who share the same approach to life.

Natural attraction

Finding love, friendship and happiness is often about living a life you love with people who share your passions. Be it friends who reflect your positive philosophy, relationships that won’t compromise your values or activities that matter most to you; things that are close to your heart will undoubtedly affect your happiness.

By providing the perfect online service for sincere and caring people, Natural Friends attracts environmentally sensitive, country-loving, health-conscious singles…….

Love is in the air

And the environment… Natural Friends is online dating with a difference because it exists for those who want to make a difference. As a unique kind of networking group it connects compatible people through its continually updated membership list, uniting those looking for love and friendship.

Who joins?

Natural Friends members must be single, non-smoking and typically ‘green’, over the age of 21, and, of course, there is no upper age limit. There is a broad membership of intelligent, successful and discerning members with many common interests from Animal welfare to Zen Buddhism.

Low carbon dating

Natural Friends was the first and is still one of the best eco-friendly specialist introductions agencies. It has acquired a first-class reputation providing a professional service bringing genuine, like-minded people together.

It’s a world away from the disheartening dating websites and pushy profiles that leave many feeling increasingly isolated. Once registered, members are free to contact as many people as they wish. They can also find friends and exchange news and views. The Natural Friends website is secure and confidential and offers a free search facility for those wishing to take their time.

Natural Friends

For single lovers of sustainable living – visit www.natural-friends.com to register

• In 2008, Natural Friends was granted honorary Life Membership of Ethical Junction, ethical-junction.org, and works in association with Ecorevenues.com, which has established the Natural Friends, affiliate service.
• Natural Friends has a fair and transparent membership fee structure and code of practice. Members can join for £30 for 2 months, £40 for 3 months and £60 for 6 months.
• Natural Friends is for single people: unmarried, widowed, legally separated and divorced. They may be of any ethnicity, religion or none, disabled or able-bodied, aged over 21, and primarily country-lovers who aspire to a sustainable existence.

Businesses increasingly identify CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as being an important part of the recruitment process; demonstrating to new recruits that they are about to join a caring and socially concerned employer ("The Ethical Employee": report from Future Foundation and the work foundation 2004), this report looked at how a well developed corporate CSR programme can be a source of competitive advantage to employers.

Barchester Green Investment is an established organisation (est.1985) within the personal wealth management market, working mostly with private clients, Charities and Social Enterprises committed to ethical and environmental investment strategies.

Employee benefits and CSR

Ethical and environmental investment has grown rapidly since ethical funds first emerged in the UK in 1985, figures produced by the not for profit Ethical investment Research Service (EIRIS) show that at December 2007 there was a total of £8.9 invested in ethically screened funds, this is a very significant increase on the 1997 figure of £1.5 billion.

Research carried out by F&C (Foreign and Colonial) also indicates a significant level of interest in ethical and environmental investing amongst the general population. In May of 2008 F&C commissioned a survey with OnePoll looking at the public’s interest in ethical investment. The survey found that 88% of respondents felt that it was "important" or "very important" for companies to take social and environmental governance issues seriously.

The survey also found that 58% of respondents were prepared to invest their own money ethically.

As the Corporate Social Responsibility agenda has developed it has moved away from being about legal compliance to focusing on the integration of social and environmental responsibility into the core values of the business; Yogesh Chauhan, the BBC’s chief adviser on CSR and deputy chair of the Corporate Responsibility Group (CRG), put it very succinctly when he said "Corporate Responsibility is no longer viewed as a niche activity within companies and knowledge of CR issues is becoming a key competence for managers across business and industry".

By connecting corporate social responsibility with the employee benefits element of an employee’s overall remuneration the employer sends out a clear message about the seriousness of their commitment to CSR.

What are the key employee benefits areas this might cover?

Employee benefits divide into three discreet groups; insurance based benefits, pension benefits and salary sacrifice/green benefits such as cycle schemes.

Insurance based benefits-

These are benefits which are purchased for the employee by the employer using an insurance company, the main forms are; death in service, income protection, family income benefit and health insurance.

The opportunity- purchase insurance using a friendly society or an insurance company with strong CSR presence; for example Friends Provident or AEGON who are a FTSE for Good listed insurer.

Group personal pension schemes-

The majority of mid size companies, those with less than 1000 employees, have switched to offering Group Personal Pensions. The majority of pension providers offer an ethical fund or funds, but how good is their offer?

There are a number of pension providers with market leading ethical funds and others with poor performance from both a financial and an ethical point of view.

AEGON and Friends Provident offer Citywire AA rated ethical investment manager with strict ethical screening criteria. Aegon’s lead ethical manager, Audrey Ryan, recently won the Observer Money 2008 ethical manager of the year award.

Cycle to work-

The 1999 Finance Act introduced a tax exemption which allows employers to provide employee with cycles and accessories as a tax free benefit.

Employees using this scheme will enjoy a reduction of up to 50% in the cost of purchasing their chosen bicycle.

The rise of transformational investing-

Whereas investing ethically used to mean avoiding the bad or socially irresponsible; heavily polluting industries, arms manufacture, tobacco and investments in oppressive regimes. Transformational investment concentrates on investing in ways which produce competitive market returns and clear social and environmental benefits.

A number of these investments are now available within pension schemes.

Despite the gloomy economic outlook there’s a ray of sun for  responsibletravel.com, reporting sales growth of +37% for Jan – Jun 2008 as the responsible tourism sector becomes better established.  While the holiday market remains tough responsible travel & tourism is one of the few areas showing growth.

The big winner is England - which knocks Thailand off the number 1 most booked country on the site (up from 14 with sales growth of +95%) as travellers look to stay closer to home.  Other winners include Turkey, outside the Euro and good value, which is up from 10th to 5th most popular destination. 

Losers include Kenya – with sales down 40% and dropping from number 4 to number 20 after the (now resolved) political problems earlier in the year.  Other, perhaps more surprising, losers include China down from number 7 to number 23 after publicity around pre Olympic human rights issues increases. 

The top 10 destinations in 2008 so far (with 2007 ranking in brackets) -

1. England (14)
2. Thailand (1)
3. Egypt (3)
4. Italy (2)
5. Turkey (10) 
6. Spain (12)
7. Peru (5)
8. Malaysia (8)
9. Morocco (9)
10. Tanzania (6)

Justin Francis, responsibletravel.com Managing Director said - 

Although a far newer category than say organic or fair trade food the responsible travel & tourism market is slowly becoming better established. As in the food sector increasing numbers of consumers want to know how products (holidays) are made, by whom and with what consequences for the environment and local people. 

Although only 25% of the companies that approach us end up meeting our criteria and joining our site 
we have increased our product range by 20% as more hotels and tour operators turn to responsible tourism.  Over the past year we’ve focussed on growing our closer-to-home UK and European holiday offers.