Sustainability & Environment

Glasgow Kelvin College aims to become one of Scotland’s greenest colleges

Evelyn Partners has strengthened its fast-growing professional services arm with the acquisition of ReSolve Advisory. The restructuring and business advisory firm is based in Charing Cross, London. Founded in 2020, following the merger of Tilney and Smith & Williamson, Evelyn Partners is a wealth management and professional services group with offices in 30 hubs across the UK, the Republic of Ireland and the Channel Islands.

Change and transformation consultancy North Highland has appointed Jennifer Low as its UK public sector vice president. She will be responsible for leading and developing the UK public sector team while driving growth across government accounts, delivery, quality assurance and risk management.

Proposals for a new law which could mean major polluters are jailed for up to 20 years have received enough support from MSPs to be introduced at Holyrood.

While NHS waiting lists remain at heightened levels, many patients are still turning down the opportunity to detect health issues early. New analysis from Broadstone suggests there is a growing gap between UK residents invited to NHS health checks, and the number actually taking up the offer of preventative care.

Change programmes often suffer from unclear decisions, no decisions, or even worse – changing decisions. But according to Project One expert Ed Davies, thorough project management office planning can be a crucial ally to effective decision making during a transformation.

What if all our Christmases were white? How a weakening Atlantic current may soon be set to see Scotland’s temperatures terrifyingly drop

Hydrogen production technology developed by academics at the University of Glasgow has achieved a “critical” technical breakthrough

Their willingness to innovate has allowed Fairtrade to stand the test of time as a trusted mark with measurable impact. I believe it will continue to evolve and remain relevant for the next 30 years

Pay transparency is becoming a requirement for organisations around the world. But most large firms feel they are unprepared for it, with fewer than one-third ready to meet global regulatory shifts, according to a new study from Mercer.

Opus Forensic Accounting has appointed two new partners, as it prepares for a busy start to 2025. Matthew Geale and Liesel Annible join alongside directors Rob Brooker and Lindsay Tarrant. The Opus Business Advisory Group has the largest independent practice of restructuring and insolvency specialists in the UK, with a head count of over 100 and 29 Partners, across 14 regional offices.

Plans for a 100 megawatt battery energy storage project have been approved

A remnant of ancient Celtic rainforest is to be restored and protected through a new partnership between landowners and a university. 

Wild boars are believed to be within a mile of Inverness as the city braces for an invasion

It’s the borderlands: the moorlands, hills and forests where Ayrshire becomes Galloway and where, in the last year, there have been several sightings: one down the road, another a few miles east, and four more to the south. Some say a war is being fought here because that’s the sort of language they use: war, battle, aliens, invaders, explosion, destruction. And it’s certainly true there’s been a hell of lot of killing.

With Christmas approaching, UK consumers are divided on cost or sustainability when it comes to selecting a tree to decorate. Most households still prefer an emissions-intensive artificial tree, but the tide may be changing according to new consumer analysis.

Invoice financing provider Stenn has gone into administration. Professionals from Interpath Advisory will oversee the process. Jim Tucker, managing director at Interpath and joint administrator, said, “Following our appointment as administrators, our immediate focus is to engage with the Companies’ employees, customers (and their debtors), suppliers and key stakeholders in order to stabilise the Companies’ operations and take all necessary steps to maximise value.

Ryan, a leading global tax services and software provider, has completed the full integration of a leading grant funding and consultancy firm, Granted Consultancy, into the Ryan brand. Granted Consultancy is a UK advisory firm headquartered in Exeter, with more than 30 staff serving clients across the country.

S-RM has appointed Rich Fogarty as its new head of disputes and investigations practice in the Americas. Fogarty brings decades of experience to the newly created role. Sam Taylor, head of corporate intelligence at S-RM, commented, “We’re very excited that Rich has joined our firm to head S-RM’s disputes and investigations team.

I recently listened to an archive clip on the radio that consisted primarily of people whingeing about the railways.

A pioneering clean power scheme that has cut fuel poverty in 250 Highland homes has been handed a top award by Scotland’s renewable energy industry.

cotland’s agriculture minister Jim Fairlie said: “Following confirmation of a case of atypical BSE in Dumfries and Galloway, the Scottish Government and other agencies took swift and robust action to protect the agriculture sector.

A new study revealed worrying findings.

I’m a pensioner and I don’t want the winter fuel payment; I want to see households and businesses across Great Britain pay prices much more closely related to the relative cost of production in their area.

A growing gap between expectations and reality seems to be causing UK business leaders to tune out of the hype around Generative AI. While a recent report from Accenture has sought to convince bosses that Britain has “more to gain” from the technology than any other G7 economy, another from CreateFeature suggests the majority of leaders do not see it as a priority.

National accountancy and business advisory firm MHA has outlined its strategy to become net zero by 2030. The UK member of the Baker Tilly International network has spent the last year trying to upgrade the sustainability credentials of its buildings, among other policies to improve its long-term emissions data.

Electranet has won a new contract with the University of Sussex. The professional services firm will now work to install a high-speed IT network at the institution. Jason Oliver, chief digital transformation officer, University of Sussex, said, “They bring expertise and a wealth of experience.

Ramboll has appointed Neil Sansbury as its new UK managing director. Sansbury has been with the company for eight years, and was previously appointed as acting managing director in the summer of 2024.

Sightings of Scotland’s iconic red squirrel have increased during the latest survey carried out by citizen scientists.  

Beachcombers have extracted a ton of rubbish and detritus from one of Scotland’s picturesque shingle strands during a series of monthly clean-ups.  

More than 90% of disabled people face barriers when using at least one mode of transport, according to data from the National Centre for Accessible Transport. When accessing rail services alone, eight-in-ten people using wheelchairs or scooters found barriers to step-free access.

The world is an increasingly volatile place, with major changes in government and geopolitical tensions around the globe. Richard Neish, CEO of tech consultancy 101 Ways, explains how the firm is helping firms adapt to the macroeconomic challenges that they face.

London-based law firm Statham Gill Davies has agreed to join Moore Kingston Smith. The move will see Statham Gill Davies join Moore Kingston Smith’s legal services team, to form a new entity in 2025. Matt Meadows, managing partner of Moore Kingston Smith commented, “Statham Gill Davies’ team of exceptional and seasoned lawyers are a very welcome addition to our Legal Services team.

Budget tax hikes will stop firms committing to big field developments such as the controversial Cambo field West of Shetland and send some running for the exits experts have predicted.

Scotland’s last nuclear power plant has won a two-year life extension from the French energy giant that owns it in a move welcomed by the UK Government.

It would make life even more challenging for bears on the ice.

Hopes that Ayrshire could become a renewables powerhouse have been boosted after a key ports project cleared a significant hurdle.

The past two years of heightened inflation mean that many electric vehicle users in the UK are keen to find ways of keeping charging fees away from their household. A new study reveals three-quarters of users would prefer to avail themselves of public charging options, amd perceived predatory pricing practices of domestic energy providers.

With Big Four advisory and audit firms continuing to reckon with falling demand, EY has become the latest firm to announce cuts to its UK headcount. The firm reportedly set to cut 150 roles in its UK consultancy division, while also having to replace one of its most senior executives in the team.

Culinary events company Hickory has announced that it will enter into administration. Professionals from Opus Restructuring & Insolvency have been installed to oversee the work. Established in 2012, Hickory is a Scotland-based events firm, with a reputation for “bold culinary events in incredible venues, with a focus on innovative and invigorating menus”, according to its website.

More than one-third of business leaders are concerned over how state company will be funded

French energy company EDF said on Wednesday that Torness in East Lothian will keep generating until March 2030.

Home energy organisations have called for the Scottish Government to reaffirm its commitment to spending the £1.8 billion it had pledged to Heat in Buildings.

Not the news they wanted to hear.

The Ryvoan bothy has become the focus of an objection to a phone mast 400m away. What does the application’s withdrawal say about wild politics?

The SNP Government faces increased pressure to boost support for a just transition from fossil fuels ahead of publication of the Scottish Budget.

Henry Murdo and Margo McLellan have been sharing knowledge of tree growing and planting with National Trust for Scotland to help save rare Arran Whitebeam.

Glasgow City Council issued a ‘Temporary Stop Notice’ to pause all construction work on the development site in the Langside area of the city

“If the budget doesn’t include at least £4.7bn for climate and nature. If there is not a fair deal for local government. If there is absolutely no spending on independence, we would certainly struggle to support it.”

The Scottish Government has unveiled its plan for how to make Scotland a major hydrogen exporting powerhouse – fuelling Europe’s industry

VAUXHALL motors was set up by Scots marine engineer Alexander Wilson in 1857 and went on to become one of the biggest car manufacturers in the UK.

Two of the world’s brightest minds have diagnosed what’s wrong with the world and the solutions needed to take us back from the cliff edge. They talk to our Writer at Large

Typhoon Tip measured 1,380 miles in diameter, which is further than London to Romania.

In Scotland, almost all measures of NHS performance have worsened over the last year… But in England, most measures have improved over the last year

Scotland’s forestry sector stands at a pivotal crossroads, with Scottish Woodlands balancing economic growth through timber production and also addressing the need to protect biodiversity and combat climate change, writes David Robertson, the company’s Investment and Business Development Director

Welcome though the news is of the ceasefire in Lebanon, it does nothing to settle the deep-rooted hostilities between Israel and its neighbours. Nor does it do anything to end the murderous Israeli assaults on the wretched civilian population of Gaza.

AI images provide a horrible warning.

Three Lewis community landowners have joined forces to develop a plan for a new community-owned windfarm in north-west Lewis, which would provide sustainable income for each community over the longer term.

Trees can bring life, interest and some privacy to a front garden.  There isn’t much space there by the time you’ve parked the car but you could probably fit in one or more trees that take up little room. Narrow growing species can transform the garden.

In recent years, the debate around green finance has been highly polarised.

Where’s the hope in a week of green stories – from a ban on salmon farm activism through to COP and the start of global plastic negotiations

The remarkably simple SpeedComfort is designed to distribute heat faster, and more evenly, from a radiator and around a room

AS temperatures plummet and winter bites, energy efficiency has never been more important…or more challenging, given the rise of complex and fast-evolving technologies and products, coupled with a steep rise in the number of new entrants with varying levels of knowledge and expertise entering the energy sector.

Surely our Scottish MPs at Westminster are just as capable of managing their constituents’ interests as their English colleagues, which compounds the notion that a devolved assembly up here is totally gratuitous.

Cox is urging people to support the Scottish Rewilding Alliance’s Rewilding Nation Charter

By Emma Reid, Director, Planning and Environment, Shepherd and Wedderburn 

Scottish Water has completed construction on a ‘pioneering’ new type of hydro energy generation scheme at a reservoir in East Lothian.

A charity has called for better support to help it monitor fragile Golden eagle populations after it was confirmed that one of the rare raptors had been killed flying into a wind turbine.  

PARTNERSHIP working is at the heart of ScottishPower’s drive to decarbonise homes across the UK.

TO say that Edinburgh is a beautiful city would probably be viewed as an understatement.

Dr Ben Wilson has just returned from Cop 29 and believes it has been a failure

At the wheel of his little blue and white boat, Hans Unkles is used to the solitary life of a creel fisherman with just the glorious scenery of the Sound of Jura, the wind in his face and the gentle slap of the water against the hull of the Lorna Jane for company.

They are a splash of colour on otherwise dreary city walls, usually dramatic in scale and often poignant in subject matter, sometimes a touching tribute to a well-loved figure or rooted in history.

Deer stalking has long been seen as the preserve of the rich. But a new scheme at Beinn Eighe is all about training locals to shoot venison for their larders

Niall McKillop, who has died aged 76, was a mariner, naturalist and author who passionately defended the Wild Atlantic Salmon. He came from generations of Highlanders and was a true polymath.

The Great Stink of 1858 prompted massive investment in the sewer network. What was it and why is it still relevant?

Ben Morris removing wet wipes flushed into the River Brent from a misconnected block of flats in west London (Picture: w8media) Hundreds of homes in London are flushing their toilets directly into rivers, and in some cases have been doing so for years. The problem is well known by councils and Thames Water, and has been described as ‘a catastrophic failure of regulation’. An Environmental Information Request specified at least 84 homes in west London alone which are wrongly plumbed, but the problem is thought to be much wider, potentially reaching even 1% or more of London’s housing stock which would be tens of thousands of residences. One apartment block of 14 flats was identified as having a ‘misconnection’ in its plumbing over six years ago in April 2018, while the freeholder of another building was notified in 2021.  But with the properties still not replumbed, poo and wee continue to flush into the River Brent and River Crane, tributaries of the Thames. On a visit to the Brent River Park last week, Metro saw two sections of the River Brent where sewage was pouring into the water. The smell itself made the problem clear, but we also witnessed sanitary towels and wet wipes stuck at the entrance to what was supposed to be a surface water drain. This issue is separate to sewage discharging into rivers through storm overflows, which is controversial but permitted when heavy rain could otherwise overwhelm the sewage system.  To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Up Next Previous Page Next Page Quizzing mayor Sadiq Khan in May, Hina Bokhari AM stated there were ‘currently 943 identified misconnections in London’, saying he would have his work cut out to make the capital’s rivers swimmable within ten years. Misconnections can range from a single dishwasher to an entire newbuild block of flats connected wrongly. On the day we visited the Brent, water was freely flowing from a surface water outflow although it had not rained recently, and murky ‘sewage fungus’ was growing. Ben Morris, founder of the Clean Up the River Brent campaign and a Brent River Park charity trustee, took measurements of both ammonia and phosphate levels from water pouring into the river.  Latest London news Plan reveals how £15,000,000,000,000 tunnel could connect London and New York Hundreds of tractors to grind Westminster to a halt today in latest farmer’s protest Moment family screams after house explodes but make ‘miracle survival’ in London To get the latest news from the capital visit Metro’s London news hub. A sanitary towel fished out from the drain as it entered the river (Picture: w8media) The blocks misconnected in west London Thames Water specified seven current misconnections to the River Brent and River Crane, and when they were first identified: April 2018: Block of 14, discharging into the River Brent in Ealing November 2021: Unknown number of homes, discharging into Dollis Brook on the River Brent in Barnet February 2023: Block of 30, discharging into Yeading Brook on the River Crane in Harrow September 2023: Unknown number of homes, discharging into Dollis Brook on the River Brent in Barnet April 2024: Block of 11, discharging in the borough of Barnet, though further information on watercourse was not given August 2024: Block of 26, discharging into Edgware Brook on the River Brent in Harrow September 2024: Unknown number of homes, discharging into the River Brent in Ealing Thames Water said they assumed each block had been misconnected since construction. His colorimeter maxed out at 9.99 mg/L for ammonia before we arrived that day, meaning the true figure was higher, and by the time we visited mid morning it was still at 9.86 mg/L. Raw sewage would see a typical level of 20 to 40 mg/L. Ben said levels over the course of the working day showed a graph ironically similar to the shape of someone’s backside, with levels highest in the morning and evening when people were home from work.  This could be the biggest source of chronic pollution for London’s rivers, harming fish and invertebrates, turning ‘healthy rivers into disgusting drains’, and taking us back to the time of the ‘Great Stink’ in 1858 before we had treatment works, he said. Why do these plumbing misconnections happen across London? The problem happens when a waste pipe is accidentally plumbed into a surface water drainage pipe, rather than the correct pipe taking foul water to a treatment works.  When this happens underground, it may not be immediately obvious, meaning that when it is discovered it may be difficult to rectify. Ben Morris founded the Clean Up the River Brent campaign group and now spends much of his time cleaning up sewage pollution (Picture: w8media) Wet wipes and debris caught in a grill at the exit of the surface water drain on the River Brent (Picture: w8media) In many cases, it happens during conversion works to existing plumbing systems, such as when a building is converted to flats. But it can also be a blunder during initial construction, as happened with the newbuild blocks in west London. Who is responsible for enforcing rules on sewage? It is the responsibility of the freeholder or property developer to ensure plumbing works are compliant with regulations. Once they are notified of a misconnection by Thames Water, they have an obligation to fix it. The ammonia reading we tested at the sewage outflow (Picture: w8media) A sign up in Brent River Park warning visitors to keep the river clean (Picture: w8media) But if they don’t, it can be hard to work out exactly who should take action, whether that be councils, the water company, the Environment Agency, or someone else. ‘The whole situation is beautifully constructed for buck passing,’ Ben said, with rivers crossing borough boundaries and several different organisations tasked with managing sewage and river quality. ‘There aren’t clear lines of accountability.’ At least one of the owners/developers in west London are allegedly seeking to pass the costs of resolving it onto the leaseholders, with occupants ‘faced with enormous financial responsibilities that are not their fault’, the Friends of the River Crane Environment, the charity which made the information request, said. Trustee Rob Gray said: ‘These seven blocks are only the ones that have been revealed so far in one small part of North West London; the true scale of this problem across the capital is therefore likely to be far greater.’ Storm overflows empty out of a different outlet some distance away in Brent River Park (Picture: w8media) Ben Morris said: ‘It is now possible to build, market and sell properties that flush sewage straight into our rivers, and no-one spots it until it is too late. ‘That is raw sewage going straight into a river in a country that is supposedly advanced, cares about the environment, cares about hygiene, and has a building regulations system in place. How can that not be a scandal?’ A Thames Water spokesperson said: ‘Most misconnections will have been done entirely by accident but is the responsibility of the property owner, which is why we would urge freeholders or developers fitting new connections to make sure they’re plumbed in properly. ‘We have identified seven buildings in the Brent and Crane area which are misconnected, and have made those responsible aware to ensure all wastewater is taken to our sewage works where it can be safely treated.  ‘We have a programme of work to help identify and investigate misconnections and we also fund local projects across our region, which have been a great way to increase awareness of the issue, while involving communities to take stewardship and help manage their local environments.’ Local councils responded Ealing Council said: ‘We are aware of one development of multiple properties where the developer and Thames Water are in a long-running civil dispute around liability for the drainage connections. We cannot comment on that matter until the litigation process has concluded. ‘If a misconnection has occurred and Thames Water notify us that they have failed to rectify it, we will work with them to get those responsible to reconnect their drainage systems appropriately. If they fail to do so within a reasonable timeframe, we may take enforcement action against them.’ They said Thames Water were the statutory sewerage and water undertaker in London, and responsible for managing the sewage infrastructure in our borough: ‘We cannot provide any further information on the specific cases cited in this report, because Thames Water has not identified which misconnections relate to different river outfalls.’ A Barnet Council spokesperson said: ‘Any pollution of our waterways by sewage is unacceptable, and we as a council are concerned about the growing occurrence of these incidents and the impact this has on our residents, our biodiversity and our local environment. ‘New property developments are required to submit detailed plans for the proper management of sewage to prevent such pollution. However, many adaptations and conversions of existing properties take place without proper consideration and can result in these misconnections. We are doing all that we can to raise awareness about this issue, including issuing advice to residents setting out how they can help by checking the water flow connections in their homes. ‘The Water Industry Act provides Thames Water with powers to carry out works on any land/property to prevent and stop pollution from occurring to the local watercourses. This includes undertaking enforcement action on misconnections from private properties. ‘However, this is a complex area with fragmented legislation which is not helping, and as such we continue to work collaboratively with the Environment Agency and Thames Water in line with the legislation.’ Has your home been affected by this? Contact jen.mills@metro.co.uk.

A rare 12-foot oarfish was found off the Southern California coast.

Scientists have discovered they’re made of human faeces, drugs and chemicals.

One of his campaign slogans was ‘drill, baby, drill’ and he has vowed to open up the Alaskan Arctic to fossil fuel companies.

‘You never know when the last time you’re going to see someone is.’