Sustainability can sometimes feel like a hard vision to sell to people – it is often seen as being synonymous with cutting back on things that are enjoyable – things that make us happy. This is why it is so important to link well-being and sustainability in the way we think about social progress. By incorporating this vision into the policies that are designed to improve society we can create a realistic goal of achieving sustainability while also promoting people’s well-being. At the Centre for Well-being at nef (the new economics foundation) we argue that ‘progress’ must mean well-being for all and this means that sustainability is essential – after all, there is no point ‘performing well’ and enjoying life today if it leads to societal collapse tomorrow and insufficient resources for future generations to enjoy life. Our latest report, Measuring our progress: The power of well-being, proposes a framework to understand how sustainability and well-being tie together. nef’s framework presents the key relationship between resources and goals. It asks, in effect, how efficient we are at achieving the goal we want – high well-being for all – given our limited planetary resources. The answer will largely depend on how efficient our human systems – things like the economy, democracy, education system and other human activities – are at using resources sustainably, and how efficient these human systems are at delivering high well-being for all citizens. In other words, a sustainable view of progress is one that recognises well-being as the goal of societal progress instead of intermediate aims such as economic growth. So adopting a focus on well-being as the ultimate outcome is a crucial part of the sustainability agenda. On a practical policy level, one of the major tasks lies in addressing the question of how policy-makers at all levels of government can use our limited resources more efficiently to create well-being. Caerphilly County Borough answered this question by creating a list of three objectives and targets for 2030 based on the idea behind another of nef’s reports, The (un)Happy Planet Index: to promote longer healthier lives; to promote fulfilled and satisfied lives; and to consume less resources. Progress on these three objectives is measured using Caerphilly’s Sustainability Index (an efficiency measure of the ecological cost of having high life expectancy and life satisfaction). Recently the sustainability index has been used by Caerphilly, Torfaen and Carmarthenshire County Borough Councils and the Welsh Local Government Association to produce an interactive web-based version for children called the Green Grin-o-meter. However this is rare: in most cases improved sustainability or well-being are not the main objective but are by-products of policies designed for other purposes. The well-being agenda is receiving increasing media and political attention. We now need to make sure that this vision of well-being – good lives now – is used alongside sustainability – good lives in the future – to drive real changes in the way that we design policies. Visit nef. VIEWPOINT July 2011 Page 10

Story courtesy of Cymmal Cymru











 

As of 1st October 2011, shoppers in Wales will have to pay a minimum of 5p for every carrier bag they are given, in an effort to dramatically cut down on the excessive number of bags given out each year.

The charge will also mean that retailers in Wales will be obliged to keep a record of the number of bags they issue and account for how proceeds from the carrier charge are used.

However the Welsh Government has always said it would review the record keeping requirements for small retailers. Following feedback from the Federation of Small Businesses and other organisations representing the business sector, the Environment Minister has decided that retailers with a headcount of less than 10 would have limited administrative resource and therefore should be exempt from record keeping around the charge.

 Speaking about his decision, the Environment Minister said:

“Last year in Wales we took home on average 273 carrier bags per household from the major supermarkets alone, and this figure does not even account for the number of bags we pick up when shopping on the high street or at smaller stores.

“Most of these bags are completely unnecessary. They end up cluttering up our cupboards, littering our country or sitting in landfill sites where they take between 500 and 1000 years to degrade.

“The carrier bag charge is all about helping us to cut down on the number of carrier bags we use. It is a policy that has been welcomed by people across Wales and really is good news for our country

“I have listened to the views of the Federation of Small Businesses and other representatives of the business sector, and am pleased to announce that whilst all retailers will have to charge for bags from 1st October, those with a headcount of less than 10 will be exempt from having to keep records around carrier bag use.”

Janet Jones, Chair of the Federation of Small Businesses in Wales, said: 

“We are pleased that the Minister has listened to our concerns regarding the practical implication of this for micro businesses. The complexity, as well as the added time and cost, in administering this would add further pressure on small businesses which have already been struggling to cope with the ongoing effects of a recession, high fuel costs and a VAT increase. We hope that the enforcement of this will also be lenient to allow time for the new charge to embed, not only with retailers, but also with their customers.”

The Environment  Minister stressed that he hoped people across Wales would be able to avoid the carrier bag charge altogether. He said:

“The idea of the charge is not to make people pay for carrier bags. Rather it is to encourage shoppers to make use of the bags they already have.

“We can all avoid the charge by remembering to carry reusable bags when we do our shopping.”

“We know that reducing our use of carrier bags is not going to solve all our environmental problems, but the charge does deliver an important message about the need for us to live much more sustainable lives.”

The level of the carrier bag charge has been set at 5p because the Welsh Government believes this is high enough to encourage people to change their shopping habits but not so high that it will deter impulse shopping or place a significant burden on shoppers who have forgotten their reusable bags.

Story Courtesy Welsh Assembly Government





 

Low cost photovoltaic panels capable of producing twenty times more power than standard cells are under development in Wales and could cut the financial payback time from ten years to just twelve months. 

The collaborative industrial research project by Swansea University, Swansea based Pure Wafer Solar and Gwent Electronic Materials (GEM) aims to have a full-scale pilot production line up and running within eighteen months.

The intention is then to set up a manufacturing facility capable of processing more than 2MW per annum – enough to generate power for more than 1000 homes.

It currently takes about ten years to recoup the cost of installing a PV system but the short financial payback and the low cost of these panels will make it economically attractive for businesses and investors.

The Welsh Government Academic Expertise for Business (A4B) programme is backing the innovative industrial collaboration. A4B is EU funded and supports highly innovative collaborative R&D projects between academia and industry to bring new high value products and processes to the market.

Novel nano-materials and advanced manufacturing processes will be utilised to create a clean and affordable energy supply using reclaimed silicon integrated into a low cost Concentrating PV (CVP) panel that intensifies the light focussed on to the cells, generating more power.

Rather than trying to increase the efficiency of PV cells through a complex and expensive process, the aim is to increase the intensity of light that hits the cell using low cost nano scale lenses.

Business Minister Edwina Hart said that in the current economic climate it is more important than ever that Welsh industry takes advantage of the innovation and know how provided by academic research.

“The application of these skills to industrial partners can bring considerable benefits to individual companies and the wider economy. This particular project has the potential to help meet renewable energy targets and create green jobs in two of our key sectors.”
The use of reclaimed silicon wafers will dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of the PV modules. Reclaimed wafers are readily available from Pure Wafer - the world’s second largest wafer reclaim business (see Notes to Editors).

Unlike standard silicon cells, PV cells fabricated from recycled silicon require vastly reduced thermal processing, making them the greenest possible silicon PV option.

The reclaimed wafers - which measure up to 300mm sq – mean the silicon cells will be nearly twice the standard size. When incorporated in a CPV module, up to twenty times more power could be generated than from standard modules, with little additional cell cost.

The inks used for electrical contacts can make up almost 30% of solar cell manufacturing costs and GEM will develop lower-cost inks with optimised electrical performance for concentration

Dr Owen Guy who is leading the project said support from A4B would ensure the rapid transfer of technology from the lab to the production line.

“This step change in PV electrical generation will have a huge economic and environmental impact by reducing the energy payback time from five years to six months and the economic pay back time from ten years to one year.

“It will make PV electricity generation economically viable even without the current Feed in Tariff and make investment in PV installations very financially attractive.”

Story Courtesy of the Welsh Assembly Government