Investment returns, Barack Obama and Heathrow’s third runway: this week’s features

It’s Friday, and so the weekend is almost upon us. But we’ve just got time to round-up all the features and in-depth items that have appeared on Blue & Green Tomorrow this week.

On Monday, whilst many of you will have been flocking to the beaches and parks to make the most of the Bank Holiday no doubt, we were keeping things serious by talking about capitalism.

The fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the starkest symbols of Soviet oppression, heralded the end of socialism, and the collapse of Lehman Brothers will probably be the herald of the end of Anglo-American capitalism. So, Simon Leadbetter asked, what next?

Moving into Tuesday, and we were privileged with having one of the UK ethical investment industry’s biggest names – Julian Parrott – write a piece for us.

Julian is chair of the Ethical Investment Association (EIA) and a partner at Ethical Futures, financial advisers based in Edinburgh, and he wrote about how aiming for high returns as an ethical investor is irrelevant and distracting.

On Wednesday, our features section added an infographic to its list, thanks to Four Pillars Hotels. Called Sustainable travel: why should you travel green?, the infographic analyses the environmental impact of the travel and tourism industry before laying out some handy tips to reduce your carbon footprint when travelling.

Yesterday, Alex Blackburne wrote about the proposed third runway at Heathrow – an item that had clogged up the agenda on Wednesday, with the news that Arctic sea ice had reached its lowest ever level taking up a seemingly secondary role.

In his piece, Alex said a third runway would be “costly, unnecessary and distracting“ and called for a greater emphasis on public transport as opposed to domestic flights.

“A plane needs the same amount of runway whether it’s flying to Beijing, New York or Edinburgh“, he said. “The difference is; opting to travel to Edinburgh by train wouldn’t be unreasonable or impossible.”

And finally, today’s feature was a follow-up contribution from Charlie Wood, who last week wrote a piece examining Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s green credentials.

This week, Charlie deemed it only fair to look at the other side of the US political spectrum, by focusing on the current US president, Barack Obama, and his commitment to sustainability.

That’s all for this week’s round-up, folks. Enjoy your weekend.