It was the swish ceremony for the Green Business Awards this week – hosted by Mock the Week’s Hugh Dennis. On the menu (I guess) was Pea Soup, Carbon-ara, and Petit 4×4s.  Eurostar scooped the coveted award for Best Large Company while furniture maker HJ Berry & Sons picked up the prize for best SME. Other winners included Dalkia (Best Energy Company), The Green Insurance Company (Best Financial Business) and McCain Foods (Best Consumer Goods and Retail Company).

Tags: an ethical graduate placement, graduate opportunities with Green companies, Green businesses

“Think before you drink,” a message I generally ignore, but this time it’s coming from sustainable business consultancy Envirowise. They have calculated that Britain’s workers consume 165million cups of tea a day, but boil enough water to make 330million cups. What a waste! Companies are always looking for little sparks in a job interview, and mentioning this – and an idea to cap it – would go down well, saving that potential employer money and making them look like they care about the planet. Put the kettle on and get thinking!

Tags: Energy saving at work, graduate job interview, job interview talking point, waste at work

Do you know what a bio-mass fired power station is? No, neither do I. Apparently three of them are coming our way producing enough renewable energy to light up a city the size of Nottingham. The energy is produced from waste matter like as straw, forestry residue and sunflower seed and peanut husks (much of which has to be er…shipped in from around the world.) Who do we have to thank for this new £2bn initiative? CVs at the ready for Siemens, and the 60% stakeholder Drax, the power generator that currently owns Europe’s biggest coal-fired power station.  Drax currently supplies 7% of Britain’s electricity needs from a single site in Yorkshire where it has been using biomass for so-called co-firing, with coal, for the last few years. One to watch this lot, so get in touch now – they’ve got the right idea.

Tags: Energy, graduate careers at Drax and Siemens, Graduate jobs in energy sector, industry

You don’t hear much from Fujitsu Siemens Computers which is presumably why they conducted a survey into green practices at work. No surprise to hear that environmental awareness is on the increase: 51% of staff said they lobby their boss to get greener and introduce energy-saving and recycling initiatives. 70% switch off computers overnight compared with 14% in 2005; 82% recycle paper compared with 20% in 2005; and 37% save petrol by lift-sharing with workmates. It’s a clever way for Fujitsu Siemens to flash their own green teeth, so make sure you play up your tree-hugging abilities with any dealing with them.

Tags: careers in IT, Graduate careers with Fujitsu, Green issues for job interview

Though planning permission is still necessary, ScottishPower is pushing ahead with a major tidal energy project in the waters off Northern Ireland and Scotland. They have been working on the Lanstrom device, said to be the world’s most advanced tidal turbine, which operates like an underwater wind turbine. The sites would be home to 60 turbines which could power up to 40,000 homes. The downside is that, for obvious reasons, trawlers cannot operate in the turbine waters, so the fishermen will kick up a stink (literally).  The company is having to carry out detailed environmental research to ensure the scheme will not impact marine life.

Tags: Engineering jobs, environmental jobs for graduates, marine careers, ScottishPower careers