Best New Product

in association with Tesco

WINNER Vegware – Compostable Packaging

Vegware is the only UK company to supply cafes and shops with disposable cups, cutlery and packaging made of compostable vegetable material. While they look like their plastic counterparts and cost the same, there is a huge difference in environmental impact. Plastic is difficult to recycle when contaminated with food, so most goes to landfill. Vegware can just be binned with all other food waste and composted into fertiliser and biogas fuel. In 2010 Vegware’s customers saved 110 tonnes of carbon and 99 tonnes of virgin materials by using its products. The company runs a network to help its customers compost all their organic waste. http://www.vegware.com/

Second Nature UK – EdenBloc35

EdenBloc, launched in March 2010, is the only rigid insulation manufactured in the UK and made from natural materials. Designed to line walls, ceilings and roofs, 60% of the board is waste wool, for example from the carpet industry. Manufactured in Appleby, Cumbria by Second Nature, EdenBloc has a lower carbon footprint than synthetic alternatives. It has also provided a new market for low-value wool waste and so helps to sustain local rural industries and reduce landfill. It is being used in a number of large building projects including the National Trust property Morden Hall in Surrey. EdenBloc is close to generating £100,000 of sales in its first year.http://www.edenbloc.co.uk/

VPhase plc – Domestic Voltage Optimisation

Vphase brings the voltage optimisation technology already used by businesses into the home. In the UK, average mains voltage is 244 volts. Many appliances need much less (fridges use only 207 volts) and the extra energy is wasted as heat. Vphase, which costs £300 and can be installed by any electrician, regulates voltage at 220 volts. Independent tests show electricity savings of 6-12%. This means that in an average family home Vphase would pay for itself in about three years. It is a “fit and forget” solution requiring no behaviour change, and if fitted at the same time as a fuse board (of which 1 million are sold every year), it takes just 10 minutes to install. http://www.vphase.co.uk/how-it-works

Baxi – Ecogen dual energy system (micro-CHP)

Baxi Ecogen is the UK’s first combined heat and power (CHP) boiler for homes. It looks and acts like a conventional gas boiler in providing heating and hot water, but has a turbine generating 1kW of electricity. Micro CHP has huge environmental and economic advantages, because generating electricity at the point of use (the home) is 90% efficient, compared to 35% for electricity that must be transported from a distant power station. It saves the homeowner money (Baxi says up to £600 a year) and reduces carbon emissions. Excess electricity can be sold into the national grid using the feed-in tarif. Micro CHP could revolutionise the home energy market.http://www.baxi.co.uk/ecogen