Greener Homes for Aussies and Brits

Both the British and Australian governments have announced that they will help home owners green their homes. Australia is offering 2.2 million homes a free insulation upgrade and more financial incentives for solar water heating. In the UK, it was announced that the government will help people with a full ‘eco-makeover’.

More than one in four homes in the UK will be offered a complete eco-makeover under ambitious plans expected to be announced this week to slash fuel bills and cut global warming pollution.

The campaign is thought to involve giving 7m houses and flats a complete refit to improve insulation, and will be compared to the 10-year programme that converted British homes to gas central heating in the 1960s and 1970s. Householders could also be encouraged to install small-scale renewable and low-carbon heating systems such as solar panels and wood-burning boilers.

In total, it is thought the Department of Energy and Climate Change will commit to cutting a third of greenhouse gas emissions from households by 2020.

IssueLab Researches Some Good

The folks over at IssueLab have sent me some neat stuff that they and their research contributers are up to. One of their research contributers has done some research into who’s Lobbying for Good and they’ve done an introspective CloseUp for last year.

“Lobbying for Good” explores how nonprofits are increasingly working with
their corporate partners to leverage companies’ political clout and
governmental affairs departments in support of cause related lobbying
efforts. (For instance, companies like Mary Kay and Royal Dutch Shell are
using their governmental affairs clout to lobby for the nonprofits and
causes they support.)

Given the fact that we have a new administration entering office next week I
think this report could also spark some interesting discussion on the blog
re: strategies for creating positive change over the next 4+ years.

Authored by FSG Social Impact Advisors, the report is a quick read and
offers some interesting case studies that serve as examples of, well
frankly, things that are good!

Readers can download and review “Lobbying for Good” at
http://www.issuelab.org/research/lobbying_for_good

In December they released a roundup of the most popular research documents:

IssueLab’s End of the Year Lists, including the most popular research titles on IssueLab, are based on more than 96,000 downloads in just the past 11 months. Check it out at www.issuelab.org/closeup

Parents: Forget the station wagon or SUV

Bicycles are key to a vibrant city and parents shouldn’t fear taking their children along on a ride. Over at the Spacing blog there’s a short post on riding with kids with a good discussion about bikes in Toronto that the post spurred.

No need to hesitate – put the fun between your legs! Go out and ride 🙂

Either enjoying the ride on their parent’s bike or following behind on their own bike, children are as much a part of urban bicycle commuting as anyone else. Contrast this with Toronto where you rarely see kids riding on a main street and parents who tow their children in bike trailers often receive disapproving looks or concerned stares from passersby. Granted, there are reasons for this. But don’t blame the weather. Note the bulky jackets and scarves in the above photo – temperatures are regularly dipping below zero in Amsterdam. Not as cold as Toronto – and minus the snow – but it doesn’t have to be warm and sunny for Amsterdammers to get on their bikes. It is true, though, that Toronto roads don’t feel nearly as safe as Dutch roads for cycling.