A short video of Al Gore on climate change interchanging with other news stories and expert reports showed the 180degree differences of opinions that experts have on this subject which creates such a debate.

Is it a catastrophie, made up inconvenience truth or the Great climate change swindle designed to create a panic?

Government response to this has been to agree with the A.Gore theory and an Inter Planet Climate Change report (IPCC) carried out carries a lot of credibility.

The results are a Climate change Bill with built in targets and an overall reduction of 60% CO2 emissions by 2050.

Also included in the bill are:

Formation of an independent climate change committee
Carbon reduction targets and budgets
Reporting structures
Code for sustainable homes
Planning policy statements
Sustainable construction targets
Policy milestones

Embodied impacts are reported at 90% CO2 from building use and the remaining 10% from it's construction.

The audience were then tested, by trying to guess the CO2 intensity of products ranging from cement, aggregate, PFA, Bitumen, Smoothies, Crisps and Shampoo.

When it comes to calculating embodied CO2 there are generally 2 adopted methods at the moment:

Organisation wide analysis
Product footprints

Both can be very complicated to evaluate and must include all aspects of raw materials, manufacturing, distribution, product use, disposal.

The problem is that at the moment there is no formulated standard. This makes comparing results, companies on a like for like basis at the moment is nigh on impossible unless scrutinised by experts.

Hopefully the future will standardise the whole process as has been for H&S, Quality and Environmental processes.

To get the numbers for the calculations is also very time consuming and relies heavily on accurate measuring and sub metering internally throughout the process.

The market place has already started but as time goes on will insist on this data being available and for eg the British research establishment already publish a "Green guide" of listed products, used to guage building constructions

Often the phrase "Carbon Neutral" is used as a very large marketing tool for organisations, although the reason for being carbon neutral is that they have offset the amount by some other positive environmental projects such as tree planting etc.

The QPA have organised 5 workshops throughout 2008, solely to deal with good practice carbon management.

Photo: Miles Watkins (left) Andrew Shakeshaft - WofE Branch chairman(right)

Miles Watkins (left) Andrew Shakeshaft - WofE Branch chairman(right)

The dates can be found on the QPA website.

In summary:

The debate still rages
Government have started ratcheting up policy
Footprinting of products is a growth area
Evaluation to achieve comaribilty is still in infancy
Companies should take the opportunity while it lasts

Miles gave a very dynamic presentation and was clearly passionate about the subject.

The evening was completed with a question and answer session followed by a vote of thanks given by Kevin Sargent (branch ex-officio).

Report by A.Shakeshaft (Branch Chairman)