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Solar energy is renewable, and has become quite common in areas that have a dependable number of days of sunshine such as California and Arizona. Solar heat collectors can be seen on roofs all over the Southwest.

There are many ways to use the sun to generate renewable energy. These can include the generation of electricity through photovoltaic solar cells, the generation of electricity through a concentration of solar power, or the generation of electricity by turbines and a solar updraft tower which traps heated air and thus rotates the turbines.

The RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC is often referred to as the Lead-free RoHS, even though it covers five other hazardous materials. The reason for this nick-name may be the ubiquitous nature of lead in electronic equipment and the potential health hazards associated with lead contamination. As per the directive, a product has to be below a threshold limit of 1000 parts per million (ppm) of lead on a homogeneous (any single substance that cannot be separated mechanically) material basis.

One of the occupational hazards of living in the modern industrial age is noise exposure, both in and away from the workplace. Acoustic noise can be defined as unwanted sound and sounds louder than 80 decibels (dB) are considered potentially dangerous. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), more than 30 million Americans are regularly exposed to hazardous sound levels. According to the EPA the number of people exposed to work induced noise damage is around 9 million.

Directive 2002/95/EC, effective July 1, 2006, is not an EU law. Individual member states are to have their own regulations in line with the directive. The resultant variations from state to state, (including differences in verification and penalty clauses), pose difficulties for suppliers of electrical and electronic goods in developing compliance programs. For compliance suppliers have to guarantee that the entire unit is free (within threshold limit) of the six hazardous materials specified. This is easier said than done.

In the world of environmental lobbying there’s one country’s leader the activists know they don’t need to persuade that their cause is right - Prince Albert of Monaco.

From the day he took office two years ago he immediately made his mark by signing Monaco up for the Kyoto protocol, and since then has regularly taken his own initiatives and publicised others to further the green agenda.

Speaking at the Ritz Hotel in London recently, Prince Albert told assembled reporters about his own environment foundation which he launched after a visit to the Arctic to study the impact of global warming and rising sea levels.