According to Secretary of State, Peter Hain, the Government of Northern Ireland is proposing changes to the Building Regulations to make renewable energy generation compulsory on all new builds from 2008.

That means that within 2 years it will be mandatory that all new homes, company and public buildings will be micro-generating energy via solar panels (to heat hot water) and solar photo-voltaic panels or small wind turbines to self-generate electricity.

Oxfordshire County Council began trials in January to use the power of the sun to illuminate bus stops at night.

Reporting to the UK Government, the Sustainable Development Commission has concluded that nuclear power is not the answer to Britain's future energy needs.

The SDC, the Government's independent watchdog on sustainable development, based it's findings on eight research papers and the report has delivered the SDC's result on the pros & cons of nuclear power, examining the options in a balanced and impartial manner.

The city of San Fransisco is setting a good standard by recycling around two thirds of its waste, the remaining third still goes to land fill. And 4% of the waste collected is dog mess from around 120,000 dogs!

The city's goal is to increase the recycling percentage to 75% by 2010 and 100% by 2020, thereby making landfill redundant by that time. So when Norcal Waste Systems Inc, the city's garbage dispoal company, says it plans to implement a pilot program of dog poop recycling you know they're not mucking about ;)