Postage Stamp. Environmental Change.

I need to look into the environmental changes they've chosen to include in the brief. Chosen being the key word here, I don't believe they'd of made the effort to include them without reason.

Low-impact transport:

Wiki - Sustainable Transport.

Also known as green-transport, meaning transport which has a low impact on the environment. So were talking about walking, cycling, car shares, electrically or sustainably powered cars and public transport such as trams and buses.

Transport accounts for 20 - 25% of the worlds energy consumption and more importantly you might say, it's carbon dioxide emissions.

An article written by the Low Impact Living Initiative (LILI) says that low-impact transport can be achieved by a combination of a switch from private to public transport and an increase in sustainably powered vehicles, most importantly muscle power.

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Zero-carbon housing:

What is zero carbon housing? 

Well it's funny you should ask as I've just been looking into it. Zero carbon housing is a home which produces zero or even negative CO2 emissions by maximising the use of energy efficient and renewable energy sources.

Apparently from 2016 in the UK, all new houses must be zero carbon. The key is in insulation and they will look probably the same as traditional British houses.

If the house also uses solar or wind turbines or both, then it's possible it may make more energy than it uses. In this case the government actually pay the owners for the energy they put back into the grid.

  

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Water over-consumption:

It's obvious I think what this refers to but It's the one I'm having most trouble finding information on.

"We are living beyond our means when it comes to water. The short-term solution to water scarcity has been to extract ever greater amounts of water from our surface and groundwater assets. Overexploitation is not sustainable. It has a heavy impact on the quality and quantity of the remaining water as well as the ecosystems which depend on it. We have to cut demand, minimise the amount of water that we are extracting and increase the efficiency of its use".

Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director of the EEA.

Basically the jist is that people are using too much water compared to the resources we have available. Water consumption is as high as 170 litres per person per day average down south compared to the governments target of 130.

Some solutions to help ease this are suggested that houses have water meters installed. Studies show houses with the meters use 13% less water then those without.

It also threatens animal habitats near the water sources when they run low.

 

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Initial Thoughts:

Personally I think the low-impact transport appeals to me most. It can easily worked into a set and already has strong visual elements which can be experimented with and expanded upon, as well as being a pressing issue and one I think the UK is acting upon with projects such as the congestion charge.

The obvious colour thoughts for projects of this nature is greens, blues and yellows. Light and vibrant to reflect positive visions of climate change.