Transport is responsible for a large proportion of carbon emissions. As high carbon fossil fuels are largely used to power all types of transport - from road to rail, marine to aviation - carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Using public transport and technologies to improve energy efficiency, hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles, bio fuels and fuel cell vehicles are all vital components in helping to reduce our carbon emissions from transport. - Description added by: David Lockie

A product or system is only as low carbon as the materials and components from which it is made. More and more, companies expect their suppliers to have strong corporate and social responsibility policies that meet their own high standards. A sustainable supply chain will ultimately increase profitability. - Description added by: David Lockie

A product or system is only as low carbon as the materials and components provided they do not increase during its life the overall environmental burden  with its maintenance and repair costs. - Description added by: Andrew Schofield

Every type of energy has its own storage issues, but perhaps the hardest challenge is to store electricity. As the proportion of electricity generated from renewable sources increases, the problem of storing it grows too. For example, a solar panel on a roof generates electricity during daylight hours, but we might need that electricity at night (for lights especially). So it is common to use solar panels (or any other intermittent renewable energy device) with batteries that can store a limited amount of electricity for use later on. Unfortunately this tends to work less well for high-demand appliances such as fridges, washing machines and kettles, because the sheer amount of electricity they need would require a really large bank of batteries. New technologies such as fuel cells may create ways to convert this electricity in to hydrogen during times of plenty and then back in to electricity when electricity is needed, but there are efficiency and cost barriers to this that still need to be overcome. - Description added by: David Lockie

Renewable and alternative energy sources are set to play an increasingly important role in providing the electricity, heat, cooling and fuels that society needs. There is a wide range of energy sources such as solar (both photovoltaic and solar thermal), wind, bio-fuels and biomass, hydro-electric, geothermal and heat pumps. - Description added by: David Lockie