All About Manchester - City in Motion

Green expectations

Manchester, so much to answer for... as the birthplace of the industrial revolution, which was arguably the catalyst for the acceleration of global warming, Manchester is feeling the pressure to help save the planet. Here are some home-grown initiatives that pack a great green punch.

The report that may save the world

As part of this year's Manchester International Festival in July, scientists, engineers and campaigners were asked to submit their ideas for tackling climate change. The most promising applicants were invited to present their proposals to a panel of experts chaired by Lord Tom Bingham - formerly Britain's most senior judge - at Manchester Town Hall (pictured above).

Ideas ranged from delightfully simple, like Peter Scott's super-efficient biomass cooking stoves, to utterly mind-boggling, like Professor Stephen Salter's plan to increase cloud cover using a fleet of remote-controlled ships that spay minute sea water droplets into the sky. Some were even slightly illegal, including Tim Kruger's proposal to dump large amounts of lime into the oceans to increase their ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The results of the town hall 'hearings' formed the basis of The Manchester Report, which has been distributed to policymakers ahead of the Copenhagen summit this December.

Manchester's new green tsar

Manchester City Council has just appointed Richard Sharland as head of environmental strategy - a new post that aims to co-ordinate the local authority's environmental work across the board.

Sharland, who was previously the director of the Lancashire Wildlife Trust and one of the directors of the Groundwork Trust, is now working with the city's universities, community groups, local businesses, voluntary groups and other organisations to draft an action plan to reduce Manchester's carbon emissions by more than one million tonnes.

He explains: "One of the drivers for this is the environmental summit in Copenhagen in December at which the heads of government around the world are going to be agreeing targets. So our action plan will be designed to contribute to that, but set a target that's even higher than we expect national governments to set. And the reason for that is that future prosperity and good environmental performance go hand in hand. Having really good environmental performance is going to help us maintain the ongoing prosperity of the city for the future."

Sharland accepts that Manchester is the birthplace of man-made global warming, but insists that the city is well placed to help solve this problem. "Manchester became the first industrial city in the world because there was a fantastic entrepreneurial spirit in this city, which is still here. So it's about how we channel that entrepreneurial energy with the new information that we have."

Manchester's green tsar is charging ahead, but it will be mission impossible if he doesn't get residents on board. "Everybody can make a difference and everybody needs to pull together," he urges. "Not only that, but we can actually improve the quality of our lives and our overall prosperity if we do it.

"We need to change our technologies, but we also need to change the way that we live. To give you an example, we could live in buildings with fantastic environmental performance, but if we never turn the lights out, then we lose the benefits of the technology.

"It's about all of us changing the way that we live and thinking about the things that we do that have an impact on the environment. For example, if I'm going to go down to the local shop, which is a mile away, I won't go in the car; I'll walk or go on the bike. And actually that would also be good for my health, I might meet other residents and I'll be in the fresh air. It seems such a small decision, but there are 400,000 people living in Manchester so 400,000 trips to the shops add up to a lot of carbon.

"It's about being aware of the consequences when we shop - thinking about where products come from and how they're packaged. Something like a third of the waste that we generate comes from wrapping material for what we eat. So think about reusing bags and reducing packaging. Think about where what we buy comes from. If you think about food for example, the way we move it around has a huge impact on climate change. So if we grow a little bit of our own food, or we buy food that's been grown more locally, that's another little thing. Just be aware of not just the price but also the carbon price, the environmental price, of the clothes we wear and the food we eat."

Air travel that looks ahead

Manchester is home to the UK's largest regional airport, handling 22 million passengers a year. Part of the Manchester Airports Group, the airport is used by more than 100 airlines flying to 225 destinations worldwide, but it also boasts impeccable green credentials, as commercial director Andrew Harrison explains: "We've just been accredited by the Carbon Trust and we're the only UK airports group to do that. We're also the only airports group in the UK to go carbon neutral by 2015. We are seen as market leaders within the airport world internationally, but it's something that we have to redouble our efforts on because we don't want to be seen as one of the best airports; we want to be seen as one of the best companies."

By going green, Manchester Airport is not only addressing its customers' increasing environmental concerns and making them feel better about flying, but it is also saving money. For example, it cost them £1,500 to replace all the light bulbs in a sky link to energy saving light bulbs, but they estimate that this will lead to a £20,000 saving in their annual electricity bill.

Other initiatives include the use of electric vehicles on the apron and the trial of technology including rainwater collection and solar energy heating in new airport buildings. If it all goes to plan, the airport will be generating 20 per cent of its own electricity by 2020.

So the airport is doing its bit for the environment, but Harrison says there are ways in which travellers can make a difference, too: "If any travel is booked through our website now, there is an option for customers to offset their carbon. But the main thing to think of is the way you come to the airport. Come on public transport. If that doesn't meet your needs, then come in your car and park with us instead of being dropped off and picked up."

Choosing which airline you fly with can also help green up your travel. Jukka Hienonen is the CEO of Finnair - an airline that has been positioning itself as a 'greener' option for travel to Asia from Manchester. We asked him if there is such a thing as green air travel.

"Air traffic always has an environmental impact - we consume fuel and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise. But if we look at the emissions for example, air travel represents two per cent of man made emissions, but if you ask a man on the street what his best estimate would be, he would probably give you a figure which is tenfold. So therefore I think we have also been accused more than we deserve. Air travel has an environmental impact, but there are plenty of things that we can do better or worse. And that's the part where we're concentrating.

"I think the most important thing an airline can do is to run a fleet that is as fuel efficient as possible, which means that you must be able to invest in new technology. There is a 20 to 30 per cent decrease in the fuel burnt if you use the most modern aircraft on the market. And we are running the most modern fleet in Europe. Then of course the customer can also do plenty of things to help, by choosing more direct routes and avoiding congested airports, for example."

Hienonen may be onto something because Finnair, and its shorter, greener flights to Asia, has been doing extremely well in Manchester.

"From Manchester we fly to ten destinations in Asia and our market share has grown from 2.8 per cent to more than 10 per cent in a year. We are competing against all airlines that fly via Paris, Frankfurt etc, but we simply have this geographic benefit - by flying through Helsinki we fly every metre to the right direction."

Manchester Airport

Fashion with heart

Back in the 19th century, Manchester was known as 'Cottonopolis' - the textile manufacturing centre of the world. Today, although its high street is dominated by international chains, the Northern Quarter is packed with local independent retailers selling ethical, sustainable and green fashion.

There's Afflecks Palace on Church Street, with its breathtaking range of quirky shops and stalls selling everything from eco-friendly gifts to vintage and second-hand clothes.

Eco-savvy shoppers also flock to the district's vintage joints, including Rags to Bitches (Tib Street) and recycled fashion boutiques like Junk Shop (Dale Street), where unwanted items such as stained table cloths and torn curtains are reinvented as one-off dresses, skirts and tops.

Fashion recycling is also big at the Manchester Fashion Market, on Tib Street, which takes place every Saturday. Many of the local designers here take old garments sourced from vintage bazaars, jumble sales and charity shops and transform them into truly original fashion items.

But it's not just small independent businesses that have caught the eco bug. The Trafford Centre, Manchester's swanky, 230-store retail giant, has pledged to become the greenest shopping and leisure centre in the UK.

"We are committed to cutting our carbon footprint in every area of our business," says Gordon McKinnon, director of operations. "Over the last 18 months or so, we have introduced a whole range of initiatives. From significant investment in installing new, greener lighting systems, right through to small changes like reducing the operating hours of our escalators, we are trying to make a difference.

"Last year we recycled the equivalent of six jumbo jets worth of waste - and next year we will see that figure double. By the end of 2010 we will have cut our energy consumption by ten per cent and increased our recycling so that 50 per cent of our waste is recycled rather than going to landfill."

Rags to Bitches

Homes with a view

Before sustainable development became a catchphrase, one Manchester-based company was pushing the boundaries in a hugely ambitious regeneration project.

In 2002, property developer Urban Splash set out to transform a run down area in East Manchester into a vibrant new community with sustainability at its heart - New Islington. A government-backed millennium community project, New Islington has been shaping up beautifully while setting new standards in innovation and environmental responsibility.

"From the start in New Islington we set out to try and include environmental credentials within the whole development, which was a novel approach when we first started but has become quite common over time," says Richard Hattan, director of development at Urban Splash. "The old Cardroom Estate used to sit in a bowl in the ground. And what we decided to do right at the very beginning was to get the demolition spoils from the houses, brick and concrete, and other materials that we got from other parts of the site, clean them environmentally and then use all this material to reshape the bowl in the ground.

"Then we had a borehole in the site, which was used to pump water from below the ground into that pool that we had formed, and that created a new canal. So the park and the waterway have been constructed with material that we gathered from in and around the site or beneath it. And that was quite a major decision from an environmental point of view. It meant that 45,000 cubic metres of material that would probably have ended up in landfill somewhere was instead reused to build something beautiful. There have been all sorts of things like that throughout the project."

Although you won't see features like solar panels, wind turbines or rainwater harvesting systems in New Islington yet, the community generates its own electricity and heating, gets its drinking water from a local borehole and recycles most of its waste on site.

"Everyone hears 'eco-house' and thinks of windmills and other things that are visible," says Hattan. "In fact the features that perform the best use quite simple technologies like good insulation, good windows, efficient heating systems. I think houses are quite quickly becoming more and more efficient and environmentally responsible."

In the meantime, there are easy things you can do to make your home greener - and save yourself some money in heating and electricity bills in the process. Hattan suggests three: "Insulation, double glazing and a good, modern, efficient heating system. None of these change the appearance or the way you live in your house, yet they are really effective."

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