Sustainability stats: The week in numbers (06/02/15)

January is never exactly pleasant weather-wise, but this one was particularly windy. 14% of the UK’s electricity was produced by wind turbines during over month. Coupled with the news that 68% of the British public support onshore wind it seems wind turbines have made a firm case for themselves this week, despite Tory opposition.

Maybe it was to get away from the biting wind that 114.4 million people chose to stay in Sunday night and watch the Super Bowl on TV. The big game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks was the first game in the Super Bowl to ever be played under LED lighting.

But if we did fancy a windy winter walk, we can now step out in M&S’ sustainable footwear. ‘Footglove Earth’ shoes contain high levels of post consumer waste in their components.

Other big figures of the week came when £7bn was added to the UK’s economy by the waste industry in 2013, and a new 10-step water saving guide published this week highlighted how public bodies in Scotland could save the Scottish economy £2bn.

And the week wouldn’t be complete without some more fracking news – some of Britain’s outstanding natural beauty is safe from fracking as a swathe of environmental protections were imposed on the industry, leaving it’s outlook bleak, but the countryside beautiful. As ever, click the pic for the whole story…

Lucinda Dann