Sustainability stats: This week in numbers

The past seven days saw the UK's poor air quality hit the headlines, with London's pollution issues causing particular concern for politicians and environmental groups alike.


New figures from a report by the Mayor of London found as many as 9,500 Londoners were killed as a result of air pollution in 2010. Boris Johnson duly called for tougher air control measures and locked horns with the Government over plans to expand Heathrow Airport.

However, it was not all bad news for the city: Transport for London built on previous pledges to introduce cleaner buses to London with the announcement of more than 50 full-electric buses to enter service in 2016.

In another transport story this week, Network Rail confirmed it was expanding its partnership with biofuel firm bio-bean to recycle thousands of tonnes of coffee from six of London’s busiest stations. The firms will work together to recycle waste coffee beans into biofuel saving thousands of tonnes of CO2.

Steel giant ArcelorMittal was also investing in biofuels, with plans to invest €87m in a new biofuel facility to convert carbon monoxide gases into bioethanol using microbes discovered in the guts of rabbits.

Renewable energy also made edie headlines. SmartestEnergy announced 2014 was a record year for investment in independent renewable energy sources in the UK and Amazon Web Services confirmed plans for a new 208MW wind farm in East Coast America.

As ever with the week in numbers, click the pic to get the full story.

Matt Field

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