Built environment/wellness
Our cities, buildings and man-made environment plus issues around health and wellness
Heating and the importance of systems thinking.
The Heat Pump Summit took place at the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford on 10th April. Despite a long history of heat pump innovation and usage - the first large scale heat pump in the UK was in operation in 1945 in Norwich - household installed heat pumps
Temperature control is a key electricity demand driver
In Hannah Ritchie's recent Sustainability by numbers blog, she asks the question "what do American households use electricity for?" As many of you will know, Hannah is a data scientist and deputy editor and lead researcher at Our World in Data. She dives into data from
EV charging on a neighbours driveway?
A recent report from Zenith suggests that only 1 in 7 UK EV drivers use public charge points. The EVXperience Report (EVX2), which polled almost 2,800 of Zenith’s EV customers, also shows that more than two-thirds (69%) primarily rely on charging off-street at home. The good news is
The combined burden of underweight and obesity has risen in most countries
In 2022, over a billion people globally were living with obesity with 160 million of them aged 5-19. A study published in The Lancet used data from 3663 population-based studies that measured the height and weight in representative samples of the general population between 1990 and 2022. There were 222
Scaling up access to electric cooking services in Tanzania
According to the IEA, 2.3 billion people or nearly one third of the global population cook their meals over open fires or basic cook stoves. The fuels used are typically firewood, agricultural waste, charcoal, coal, kerosene and even animal dung. All of these emit harmful smoke, often in enclosed
Are we finally getting closer to using your EV to 'power' the electricity grid?
Octopus Energy has launched the UK’s first mass market vehicle-to-grid (V2G) tariff (called the Octopus Power Pack), which they say guarantees free charging for electric vehicle (EV) drivers. The tariff, which is still in beta, uses V2G technology and Octopus Energy’s tech platform, Kraken, to balance charging and
A new wee test for bowel cancer?
Colorectal cancer or bowel cancer is the third most common cancer globally and the second leading cause of cancer related deaths (after lung cancer). Europe has the highest death rate with an age-standardised rate of 12 per 100,000 (2022) across all ages and sexes and accounted for almost 28%
Tracking concrete technology developments
Among the various organisations interested in lower carbon concrete is, unsurprisingly, the Institution of Structural Engineers. Concrete is a massively important building material. But, as they say "publicly available information about these technologies is often limited and inconsistent, making it difficult to draw comparisons with conventional concrete." Which
Easing the perceived pain of retrofitting payback
The simple payback period calculation for retrofitting (amount spent / annual savings) misses nuance
An 'Industrial Revolution' for efficient buildings?
The European Energy Performance of Buildings Directive could create a massive investment opportunity.
Blood test could revolutionise Alzheimer's diagnosis
An existing commercially available blood test could identify Alzheimer's risk early.
UK declares national incident as measles cases soar
Between 1st October 2023 and 18th January 2024 (15 weeks), there have been 216 confirmed and 103 probable cases of measles in the West Midlands (a region in the UK) with the majority of cases among children under the age of 10. It has prompted the UK Health Security Agency