Changes to the Kyoto protocol due next year will force many companies to take the climate change more seriously – or face huge fines. So if these companies don’t go green, their business will be worth less money. So say the tree huggers at the Carbon Trust. They looked at firms with a combined worth of $7trillion, and found they could be worth even more if they took steps to tackle emissions – with automotive firms set to gain the most by reaping the benefits from techy advances in the field of hybrid and electric cars.

You heard it here first: After giving our lawyers the fidgets claiming that one of India’s biggest firms, Tata, had used thugs to seize farmland for the factory to build the world’s smallest and cheapest car, the Nano, we seem the claim was not a conspiracy or flashback. In fact the opposition party in West Bengal has called for an indefinite siege of the factory building in protest. The party leader, a tough old dame called Mamata Banerjee, wants 400 acres of land returned to local farmers and is in no mood for a compromise. In such a stand you soon find out who your friends are: a number of other states in India have come forward and said they are more than happy to build the Nano. That will worry the state government here who are desperately trying to attract investors who for years have been put off by its communist policies. If Tata are forced to move, what message will that send out? The world’s cheapest car, yes. But at what cost? Hanson St Hansen-Hansan, News at Ten, Bengal.

The country’s “greenest” supermarket that has opened: built from wood, it uses rainwater to flush customer toilets, has a wood chip boiler to heat the place, and wind turbines to power its checkouts. The new Sainsbury’s store in Dartmouth will use 50% less energy from the national grid and produce 40% less CO2 than a normal store. The rainwater bog-flush alone will save more than one million litres of mains water every year (that’s a lot of people going to the lavatory at their local supermarket, isn’t it?). Its electricity bill will be a third lower than a normal supermarket, saving Sainsbury’s £200,000 a year. Its pretty hard to label the build with the “greenshit/bullwash” label: Sainsbury’s planted 400 trees to compensate for the 200 used in the timber frame, and 90% of the building waste being recycled. Even the delivery lorry also made its first drop off at the store powered by the gas produced from rotting rubbish. A sizeable doff of my bowler hat to Sainsbury’s. More of the same please.

There’s no point giving out gongs at the Green Web Awards if you can’t give some “greenwashers” a good shoeing at the same time. Wooden spoons were handed out at the awards to Shell and ExxonMobil for advertising campaigns that tried to make them look more green, and toy maker Mattel. They were ridiculed for attempting to sell a range of Barbie dolls (Barbie BCause) who’s production and distribution did not practice what it tried to preach. For a more curious case of Green back slapping we need to get in a cab over to the Royal Albert hall which played host to the curious Business in the Community “awards for excellence,” who patron is none other than Bonnie Prince Charlie. Companies were recognised for progress towards greener practices – these included energy giants like EDF and NPower, and even E.ON, the darlings who are proposing a return to coal-fired power at a plant in Kent. Best of all, the Environmental Leadership award went to Tesco – a company who’s ethics are constantly under fire for its treatment of suppliers and who has been known to send “local” chickens on a 1,000 mile round trip from farm to fridge. So surprising was the win that Tesco didn’t bother to send anyone of note to collect the award, and some in the attending audience were so appalled they got up and left. So I drank their (organic) wine. Well done though to our firends at the Co-op who won company of the year.

Wind farms are a good idea, but are often seen as oppressive and unsightly. That’s why the go-ahead has been given to build Europe’s biggest onshore wind farm in Scotland – the hills of South Lanarkshire to be precise, straddling the Glasgow-Carlisle motorway. The farm will be capable of powering 320,000 homes (doesn’t seem much does it?!) with 152-turbines. As well as making Scotland a contender for the Green capital of Europe, the project will bring £600m in investment and create over 200 jobs during construction, which Scottish and Southern Energy said would start in 2010 and end in 2011. The   infrastructure necessary to transmit the energy from the farm has already been upgraded with an £84m investment from ScottishPower.  The announcement came on the day that Malcolm Wicks, the British Energy Minister, declared that expansion in offshore wind power in the North Sea could generate 30,000 jobs and attract £3 billion in investment.