Sustainability by the Triodos Bank

Sustainable bank of the year – Financial times

In 1971 the Triodos Foundation was established by Adriaan Deking Dura, Dieter Brüll, Lex Bos and Rudolf Mees. Their main objective was to find a way to manage money more sustainable. They started the foundation to support different innovative projects and companies. Later in 1980 they established the Triodos Bank.

Their mission is

To help create a society that promotes people’s quality of life and that has human dignity at its core.

To enable individuals, institutions and businesses to use money more consciously in ways that benefit people and the environment, and promote sustainable development.

To offer customers sustainable financial products and high quality service.

Since the start of the Triodos Bank they have opened more offices in Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain. Nowadays Triodos Bank has 200,000 customers and invests in more than 9,500 projects. People become more aware of the fact that more banks are willing invest in social and sustainable projects. That’s one of the reasons that the Dutch Bank is supporting the worldwide development of a more sustainable financial system. They hope that their banking model can be an inspiration for changes in the mainstream financial industry.

In June 2009 the Triodos Bank has won the Financial Times Sustainable Bank of the Year Award at the International Sustainable Banking Conference in London. They have received this prize for their leadership and using sustainability in its objectives and activities. The awards were given by the Financial Times and IFC, a member of the World Bank Group.

Sources:

www.triodos.com
www.ft.com

Green Iphone apps

Since the development of the Iphone, Apple has started a new revolution in the mobile “smart’’ phone era. It has an attractive, unique and typical Apple design. Beside the design an Iphone is very easy to use and very addicted. I also have one for about four month’s now. And yes it’s addictive and very easy to use!

Anyone who has an Iphone can download some amazing and useful apps in the Apple App Store via a wireless Internet connection. With these apps you can for example find your way through a city map, use a real compass, locate restaurants in your favourite city, check the right exchange rates, play your favourite game and much more.

There are even some very interesting ‘green’ apps. I have done some research in the App Store and found the next apps.

This is Green

This app helps you to find your way in becoming more ‘green’. It guides you to be more healthy, save money and live more sustainable and eco-friendly.

http://www.thisisgreen.com/

Green Tips

With this app you can receive different kinds of useful ‘green’ tips. All these tips and advises are submitted by different GreenNexxus users.

http://www.greennexxus.com/

Iphorest

When you buy this app from the App Store you automatically plant a tree! From that moment you can let your virtual tree grow by yourself via your Iphone. For every virtual tree a real one will be planted and conserved by the Conservation Fund.

http://www.iphorest.com/
www.conservationfund.org

iNewz Green

This app will provide you with news on different eco-friendly and environment aware subjects. The iNewz Green app has many features that will lead you to very interesting news subjects.

http://www.ourlivez.com/

Find Green

It helps you to find green and eco-friendly businesses quickly and locally. It’s a North American directory of more than 65,000 ‘green’ listings.

http://www.gengreenlife.com/

Since the amount off apps is expanding enormously I will provide you with a new list of green apps very soon!

Green company: Great LED lights by Innolumis

Since I am from the Netherlands I will also write about interesting Dutch ‘green’ companies. This time I would like to write something about Innolumis.

Innolumis is an innovative company that develops, produces and delivers LED lights that can be used for example in public areas like streets, neighbourhoods and parking lots.

The LED technology Innolumis uses is concept based on a unique colour combination that gives optimum visibility at night and in twilight. The Lumis-LED is available in two colour combinations (Eco White and Green) and with various light yields. The LED light sources are pure LEDs and do not contain any phosphors. The optical quality ensures a uniform light distribution and reduces light pollution to a minimum.



(I could only find a Dutch version of the movie)

A unique feature of this lighting solution is that it provides both better visibility and lower energy consumption. Moreover, the Lumis-LED is developed and produced in a sustainable manner.

For more information go to:

www.innolumis.com

Source: Some texts are used from the Innolumis website.

Eco Email Signatures

Have you ever thought about the effect of eco email signatures?

Since the Internet revolution a great amount of people worldwide stay in touch with each other by email. We are sending private emails to family and friends and we write emails for professional use. Most times when we receive an important email for our work we tend to print it quickly for extra reading. But do we need to print all our emails? Can’t we just read them from our computer screen?

The signature that I have seen most times and sometimes used as well is the next one.

However, what is the effect of these eco email signatures? I think when a lot of people consider their printing habits and print less it will have a significant effect on the environment. It’s simple: when we lower the use of paper we will save a lot of trees. Not to mention the use of environmental unfriendly printer ink.

(Nevertheless, many offices are willing to use recycled paper and better ink..)

These are other creative signatures that I have found on the Net.

After seeing creative work from others I started to make one myself. This is the result.

Feel free to use it!

Switch to English

Dear reader..

It has been a while that I have written a Green Interest text. The reason for this is a very busy period of many things, new job, hobby's etcetera!
However I am still having fun in finding interesting eco and sustainable news that I can share with others!

Another thing is that I have switched the weblog language to English. I found out that there are people from outside the Netherlands who have read my weblog. Since Dutch isn't an easy language to understand I have decided to switch to English. It is also a nice way to practice and improve my English writing skills. So every positive feedback is very welcome!

(All previous articles will be translated into English)

Enjoy!

The End of the Line

Movies

What if we eat all of our precious fish?

The End of the Line is a new documentary that describes the effects of over fishing and what we can do to prevent the extinction of many species.



Source:
http://endoftheline.com/

Enviu is nu ook in Amsterdam te vinden

Organisaties

De aandacht voor Enviu is groeiende. Dat blijkt wel uit de hoeveelheid vrijwilligers die zich aanmelden om een bijdrage te kunnen leveren aan de duurzame en maatschappelijk verantwoorde projecten van Enviu. Het hoofdkantoor van Enviu is te vinden in Rotterdam, maar aangezien er veel vrijwilligers vanuit Amsterdam werken, begint Enviu ook een onderdeel in Amsterdam. Op deze manier kunnen vrijwilligers veel meer lokaal te werk gaan en lokale netwerken opzetten.

Enviu is een internationale non-profit organisatie die zich inzet voor ontwikkeling van duurzame en maatschappelijk verantwoorde projecten. De organisatie bestaat uit een internationaal netwerk van jongeren tussen de 20 en 35 jaar die vrijwillig hun kennis en ervaring toepassen in diverse projecten.



De medewerkers van Enviu zijn continu op zoek naar het ultieme ‘WOW!’ idee. Dit zijn duurzame en maatschappelijke ideeën die door kunnen gaan als business case, meetbaar zijn en een leerzame en leuke uitdaging bieden voor de jongeren die eraan gaan werken.

Bron:
http://www.enviu.org/

Zonne-energie uit de woestijn – De Desertec Foundation

Zonne-energie

Twintig grote Duitse bedrijven, waaronder Siemens en de Deutsche bank hebben toegezegd te gaan investeren in het Desertec Eumena project. De Duitsers pakken het groot en daadkrachtig aan door 400 miljard Euro te gaan investeren in het project. De Desertec Foundation is een initiatief van de Club van Rome en Prins Hassan Bin Talal van Jordanië en wordt ondersteund door herverzekeraar Münchener Rück. Met het Desertec concept wil men de komende decennia duurzame energieprojecten gaan opzetten in allerlei woestijnen in de wereld.

Het Eumena project

Het Eumena project is een samenwerking tussen Europa (EU), het Midden Oosten (ME) en Noord Afrika (NA). Het plan zal stap voor stap worden opgebouwd uit honderden concentrated solar power (CSP) centrales. Deze zullen geïnstalleerd worden in de woestijnen van Noord Afrika en het Arabisch schiereiland. Om de opgewekte stroom te kunnen transporteren zullen er twintig hoogspanning gelijkstroomkabels worden (HVDC) aangelegd met ieder een capaciteit van 5 Gigawatt (GW). Tegen 2050 zal een groot deel van de opgewekte elektriciteit gebruikt worden door de Noord Afrikaanse landen en het Midden Oosten. Europa zal hiervan ruim 15% kunnen gebruiken. Een toegevoegde waarde van het project is dat een deel van de duurzame stroom ook gebruikt gaat worden voor centrales die zeewater kunnen ontzouten voor de levering van schoon drinkwater. Tevens zullen er duizenden banen gecreëerd worden voor de opbouw van de diverse centrales.

(illustratie - Desertec)

Concentrated Solar Power

Bij een Concentrated Solar Power centrale vangen een grote groep spiegels de stralen op die afkomstig zijn van de zon. Deze spiegels staan allemaal gericht op een kleine oppervlakte. Doordat de zonnestralen van alle spiegels terecht komen op deze oppervlakte ontstaat er een hoge temperatuur. Met de hitte die ontstaan is wordt stoom opgewekt, waarmee uiteindelijk elektriciteit geproduceerd kan worden. In de Mojave woestijn in de Verenigde Staten en in Spanje zijn al enkele CSP centrales gebouwd.

Bronnen:

http://www.desertec.org/

http://www.wikipedia.org/