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Building your own Mini-Greenhouse can be a Fun and Educational Experience, As well as a rewarding one. Especially if you’re good with tools. If you are using a Greenhouse To Initiate Transplants or Grow Plants To Maturity, The greenhouse should be located in an area that will receive the most sunlight and a well-Ventilated area. Avoid building greenhouses In low-lying areas surrounded by buildings or forests. Also, consider easy access to water, and for a small Greenhouse Watering System.

Regardless of the type and size of Greenhouse you choose, consider how long the system will last. Greenhouse Environments can be Maintained with little maintenance, with Ventilation, Heating, Humidity, Artificial Lighting, Irrigation, Etc. For plants that are easy to maintain.

There are many Ready-Made Greenhouses available for purchase or Build your own with a very simple frame. However, making sure that you use licensed Plumbers and Electricians.

Here Are Some Tips To Help You Build And Design A Small Greenhouse.

1. Start with a medium Design and use readily available Materials. An attractive Greenhouse for using Recycled Materials such as reclaimed wood, doors, and window frames.
2. Adapt to the local climate.
3. Plan a design that can use standard sizes of Materials, most of which come in “4x”.
4. Timers and Thermostats can be set to Control exactly the heating or lighting.
5. Design and Build “Backup” facilities in case of power outages or severe weather.
6. To use Wood- Cedar, Cypress or plain Wood (pressure-treated lumber) and painted works well. This is the efficient and cost-effective Material.
7. Greenhouses often use “Glass Panels”, But Polycarbonate Plastic, Fiberglass, Plastic Sheeting or Acrylic can be used.
8. A Permanent Foundation is recommended to support the structure, (but a Floor is not really necessary). A bottom of Gravel a few inches deep provides adequate drainage. A smooth stone or concrete Walkway between the seats provides a stable surface.
9. Greenhouse Design should allow ample space for Tall Plants, and the Plants will only be Occupying Half of the “Two-Thirds” of the Greenhouse Area, leaving the rest for Relaxation and Work Areas.
10. No Overwatering! One of the biggest mistakes new Greenhouse Gardeners make is overwatering. A drip small greenhouse watering system Is Ideal. Use only Room-Temperature Water.
11. For your Comfort, the Planters can be Designed High enough so that you won’t have to bend when tending to the Plants/Fruits/Flowers or Vegetables.

Around 50 firefighters were called to respond to a flat fire on the 11^th floor of a high-rise in Coventry caused by an e-bike battery setting alight.

The West Midlands Fire & Rescue Service (WMFS)

Several fire engines and response vehicles also attended the blaze in Coventry, where several people were evacuated while others were able to remain safely in their homes.

The fire affected the whole flat in which it broke out, with smoke spreading to floors above. No casualties have been reported, but the damage to the flat was described as ‘severe’.

The WMFS found the cause of the fire to have resulted from an electric bike battery being left on charge.

Like other Fire and Rescue Services, WMFS has previously warned of the dangers of lithium-ion battery fires and has asked for people to exercise caution when charging e-bikes.

The Scottish Government will consult on banning single-use vapes next year, due to concerns about their impact on public health and the environment as they become more popular.

The Scottish Government Programme sets out the nation’s policy priorities for the coming year, which include the environment as well as childcare, healthcare and economic growth.

Disposable vapes, are a threat to both public health and the environment. As they are hard to recycle as they contain multiple different kinds of plastics, plus an internal battery. Around 13 million disposable vapes were incorrectly disposed of within the past year, including 2.6 million that were littered.

The environment evidence is undeniable – from litter on the streets, to the risk of fires in waste facilities. A potential ban will start early 2024, after consultation with retailers, manufacturers and other stakeholders are contacted.

Employers are increasingly likely to go unpunished after workplace accidents, according to research by Prospect Union that reveals the number of investigations dropped by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) due to insufficient resources has surged.

The research, using HSE’s own figures, shows that in 2016/17 just two mandatory investigations were cancelled because of insufficient resources compared to in 2021/22 the figure was 389.

Overall cash funding for HSE fell dramatically from £228m in 2010 to £126m in 2019. There has been a recovery since then to £185m in 2022. The long-term cash decline and overall significant real-terms funding decline (current funding is still 43% below 2010 once one-off ringfenced payments are taken into account) have left the HSE with a staffing and skills crisis that will be difficult to overcome.

The COVID-19 pandemic really highlighted that if you want safe workplaces then you need to have an effective regulator in place with sufficient skills and capacity to inspect workplaces and hold employers to account. If appropriate levels of inspections and mandatory investigations are not happening, half of them because of a lack of resources, then that should worry anyone who values safety at work. The bottom line is that if effective investigations cannot be carried out then those who are at fault for an accident may get away with it, depriving victims of justice and making workplaces less safe.

The evidence suggests that most businesses have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience to manage safety risk for themselves. The maturity of business and their increased level of understanding of safety risks means that the HSE can look to regulate in different ways.

Businesses will be left more and more to self-regulate.

They will not be routinely inspected to make sure they comply. Instead, they will be “engaged” through the likes of call centres, digital platforms and social media campaigns.

Although current available digital tools are more sophisticated, this approach has been criticised by previous select committee examinations of HSE.

A property owner has been prosecuted after they failed to carry out a structural assessment, leading to life-changing injuries to a builder.

A stone wall collapsed on builder, while he was converting some outbuildings into a holiday let accommodation in October 2021. He suffered several injuries including a fractured skull, bleed on the brain, and multiple broken bones.

As part of the planning for the project, the property owner had not carried out a structural assessment of the outbuildings. The investigation from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) confirmed that a structural assessment of the outbuildings had not been conducted before starting work, and there was no plan in place for dismantling the building safely.

The property owner, pleaded guilty to breaching the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations SI 2015/51, and was given a 12-month community order and told to complete 80 hours of unpaid work. He must pay costs of £4,097.94.

In Summary If this project had been planned effectively, engaging the right people at the right time to ensure a suitable safe system of work was implemented, the life-changing injuries sustained by the injured person could have been prevented.

What is the difference in these two terms and what will be required in the new Greenhouse Gas Emissions standard ISO 14068?

PAS 2060, a Publicly Available Specification that has been used as a guideline for demonstrating carbon neutrality, makes it clear that carbon neutral should be used to mean all scopes not just scope 1 & 2 (fuels burned on site and in vehicles and electricity consumption). However there has been a growing habit over recent years to use “carbon neutral” to mean just operational emissions – ignoring the value chain (scope 3) even though for most companies between 70 and 95% of their emissions are from the value chain.

To be truly carbon neutral, a company needs to reduce emissions from all sources as much as possible and then offset or actively remove the remainder.

Net Zero uses the same concept but at a larger scale, aiming for emissions from all sources to be reduced as much as possible and the remainder mitigated through removals from the atmosphere. These could be through supporting natural systems which sequester carbon (forest, peat, wetlands, seagrass, etc) or through technology like carbon capture and storage and buried solid carbon sinks.

The implementation of new Greenhouse Gas Emissions standard ISO 14068 ensures that emissions from all scopes are considered.

In summary, a company that is carbon neutral is also net zero (calculated on a year-by-year basis), as in both cases the tracking of carbon emissions and removals need to match.

Employee theft has jumped by a fifth (19%) as the rising cost of living triggers a wave of workplace crime, new data suggests.  

National figures based on Freedom of Information data from 43 police forces in England and Wales.  Reveals almost 6,000 workers were caught stealing from their employer in 2022, up from 5,000 the year before. This amounts to nearly 500 incidents every month. 

The biggest increase in thefts occurred in Lincolnshire, up from 40 to 71 incidents – a rise of 44%.  By police force, the highest rate of employee theft was recorded in Northamptonshire, with 43 incidents per 100,000 people, while the lowest was found in Dorset. 

Ranges of employee theft

Employee theft ranges from petty pilfering of office supplies to the theft of data and embezzlement of company funds. 

Recent claims include a £150,000 theft by a ring of employees at a food manufacturer and a £50,000 claim from a double-glazing firm defrauded by its finance manager.

As cost-of-living pressures mount, employee theft has significantly increased, suggesting some workers could be turning to desperate measures to make ends meet. These consequences of employee theft can be devastating for companies, resulting in reduced profits, lower staff morale and in extreme cases, even bankruptcy. Consumers also lose out through higher prices.

No business is immune to theft in the workplace, which can go undetected for years, and occur at all levels. Unless firms have the right protection in place, they have little chance of recovering stolen cash and goods, and may face other expenses, such as regulatory fines.  

Reducing the risk

Firms can reduce the risk of employee theft by implementing robust payment controls, regular audits, and a positive work culture.

Fraudsters are using ever more sophisticated techniques to trick employees into divulging sensitive information. So making it crucial that employers have robust security measures in place, alongside effective cyber awareness training to help staff detect and avoid these scams.

A recent YouGov poll showed that staff well-being is falling down the list of priorities for employers, with statistics showing:

• only a third of employers see improving staff morale as their responsibility;
• one in four employers spend nothing on employee well-being or mental health;
• 58% spend less than £100 per employee on well-being a year.

The survey of 1009 British companies and 2009 staff, was conducted last December and revealed that most employers saw attracting and retaining talent, and improving productivity, as their main priority.

Since the pandemic, most staff said they had returned to normal working practices, with fewer than half reporting that they still had the option of flexible working, including being able to work from home and to choose when they work.

Only 2% of employees said they felt confident about going to their boss if they had a problem in their personal life or with their finances, whilst only 1% would talk to a work colleague. More people said they would research their issue online before going to their line manager with an issue.

The survey followed a publication by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, which showed worrying levels of in-work poverty. It said employers should be doing more to ease the pressure on staff facing financial difficulties, including offering flexible working and more secure shifts, creating a compassionate workplace culture, and signposting employees to specialist support. Employers who don’t invest in employee wellbeing may be missing out on the productivity benefits it can provide.

The survey showed that the size of businesses, where they are in the country, and what sector they are in, determined how much, if any, support employers provided. Age also played a part, with demand for support with the cost of living most marked among young employees.

While the demand for mental health and well-being services among staff was high, particularly for stress and anxiety and the cost-of-living crisis, a significant number of workers said they received little or no support from bosses, or the services that were provided were not always of value to them.

By listening to, and understanding what employees need, companies can start to build stronger, more empathetic and productive work environments. Access to well-being support should not be a lottery or a privilege.

When an oil spill occurs, it can have devastating effects on the environment and local wildlife. These spills can occur for a variety of reasons, including accidents, natural disasters, or human error. Fortunately, experts have developed a variety of effective oil spill cleanup methods that can help mitigate the damage caused by these disasters.

One of the most common oil spill cleanup methods is the use of containment booms. These booms are placed around the perimeter of the spill to prevent it from spreading further. The booms are typically made of materials that are absorbent to oil and are designed to float on the surface of the water. This method is particularly effective in calm waters where the oil is less likely to break up into smaller particles.

Another effective oil spill cleanup method is the use of skimmers. Skimmers are boats equipped with specialized equipment that can remove oil from the surface of the water. These machines can be particularly effective in removing large quantities of oil quickly. However, they are less effective in choppy water or where there is a large amount of debris.

One of the most innovative oil spill cleanup methods is the use of bioremediation. This method involves the use of bacteria and other microorganisms to break down the oil into harmless substances. This method is particularly effective in areas where the oil has penetrated into the soil or other porous materials. Bioremediation can take several months to complete but is an effective long-term solution.

Another method that has been used to clean up oil spills is the use of chemical dispersants. These chemicals are designed to break up the oil into smaller droplets that can be more easily dispersed throughout the water. However, there is some controversy over the use of dispersants as they can also harm marine life and other organisms.

Finally, burning is another method that can be used to clean up oil spills. In this method, the oil is ignited, and the resulting fire burns off the oil. This method is particularly effective in areas where the oil is concentrated and can be quickly contained. However, burning can also produce harmful pollutants and is not always a viable option.

In conclusion, oil spills can have devastating effects on the environment, but there are effective oil spill cleanup methods available. Experts use a variety of methods, including containment booms, skimmers, bioremediation, chemical dispersants, and burning, depending on the specific circumstances of each spill. By employing these methods, we can help mitigate the damage caused by these disasters and protect our environment for future generations.

Sewage overspills have been hitting the headlines with increasing frequency over the last few years, with raw waste discharged into rivers, lakes and streams across the UK and Ireland on a daily basis.

As climate change brings with it more frequent and more intense extreme weather events, the sewer system is likely to be overwhelmed more often. Raw sewage overspill that lands directly into rivers and the sea can cause water pollution. The end result is environmental deterioration and human health hazards, which can have knock-on effects for leisure and tourism, as well as seafood consumption.

New research from Imperial College London has found that the recent increase in sewage overspill events is down to the fact that down to capacity issues in wastewater treatment works, which are struggling in the face of rising population numbers and more intensive industrial activities,

causing these infrastructures currently unable to keep up with demand. The water industry need to demonstrate the need for capital investment in infrastructure to replace the country’s ageing sewage systems.

Between 2000 and 2008, just over one per cent of the sewers across England and Wales were replaced or upgraded. If this rate of replacement continues, given that most of the UK’s infrastructure was only intended to last between 60 and 80 years, it would take 800 years for all sewers to be replaced.

Falls from height remain one of the most common causes of work-related fatalities and injuries in this country and the risks associated with working at height are well-known

A timber company has been fined £80,000 after an employee fell through a stairwell while working on a barn conversion.

The driver and warehouse operative was working on the barn which was being converted for rental use, at the company’s address in May 2018.

He was trying to access the first floor of the barn from exterior scaffolding and jumped onto a piece of insulation which was covering a stairwell. The insulation gave way and the worker fractured two vertebrae in the fall.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) found the work was not properly planned, appropriately supervised, or carried out in a safe manner when the incident occurred. The company had a duty to control how the work was carried out, including staff supervision.

The timber company pleaded guilty to breaching the Work at Height Regulations SI 2005/735, was fined £80,000 and ordered to pay costs of £7,331. The company were also ordered to pay a £170 victim surcharge.

The worker’s injuries were serious and this incident could have been avoided if basic safeguards had been put in place.

Following months of pressure from civil society groups, the UK Government signed on 28^th November 2022, a public information campaign for improving home energy efficiency backed with £18m. It has also confirmed the details of the next phase of the ECO scheme, ECO+.

In a move that has been advocated by environmentalists, groups representing vulnerable demographics and even the UK Government’s own climate advisors, the UK Government has confirmed a campaign advising members of the public on saving energy at home “without sacrificing comfort”.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) confirmed that the campaign will offer information on how people can claim the one-off payments this winter that the Government is offering, and also provide more technical advice on reducing energy use while still keeping warm.

Tips provided will include draught-proofing windows and doors; adjusting the temperature on radiators in empty rooms and reducing boiler flow temperatures to 60^oC. Boiler flow temperatures indicate how hot water becomes before it is sent to radiators. This latter change, BEIS claims, could save the average home £160 per year.

Energy Company Obligation ECO+

Also announced by BEIS today are details about the next phase of the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme. The scheme obliges medium and large energy suppliers to fund the installation of energy efficiency improvements in British households, prioritizing those most in need, including pensioners, low-income families with young children and those on means-tested benefits.

BEIS has confirmed that the new ECO phase, ECO+, will be available to a wider range of groups, with the aim of helping all who do not currently have access to any other government funding to improve home energy efficiency. It will include £1bn of funding – 80% of which will be made available to homes in lower council tax brackets with an EPC rating of ‘D’ or below.

ECO+ will run for up to three years from next spring. BEIS estimates that it will save the average home around £310 on annual energy bills.

The UK Government is notably aiming for all homes to reach EPC grade ‘C’ or higher by 2035. Currently, 46% of homes meet this level of energy performance. The Climate Change Committee and other groups have recommended that the Government brings forward a new national home retrofit scheme in the near-term to get the nation on track to meet the 2035 goal.