Davey Winder
Thursday, 10 July 2008 18:28
Science -
Climate
Page 1 of 2
Claiming to be the first eco-nightclub in the UK, the Club4Climate at Bar Surya in London generates its own electricity from the dance floor and plans to donate any surplus power to local residents.
A 35 year old property developer from London, Andrew Charalambous, has
some rather ambitious plans to change the face of 'clubbing' while at
the same time help to save the planet. Reinventing himself as
Dr Earth, head of the
Club4Climate organisation, Charalambous is opening what
he claims is the first eco-nightclub tonight.
Based at Bar Surya in the trendy Pentonville
Road district of London, the club will feature its own wind turbine, a
solar energy system, toilets that use air to flush as well as waterless
urinals, and even the drinks are sold in eco-friendly polycarbon cups
instead of glasses.
But the real innovation is that electricity generating dancefloor. The
Daily Mail
reports that the piezoelectric floor, using crystals and ceramics to
create a charge as people pound on the floor, could provide as much as
60 percent of the club's energy needs. "...if you had loads of clubbers
dancing vigorously" says Dr Earth.
The announcement has not gone down too well with the Sustainable Dance
Club who
dismiss the
claim that his club is the world's first ecological nightclub. A brief
statement at the SDC website says "Club WATT in Rotterdam will be first
SDC when it opens on the 4th of September 2008. After that maybe London
is next?"
'They are not sustainable in our rules' SDC spokesman Vera Verkooijenat
told the Daily Mail
"it's not only the nightclub, it's the whole organisation that should
be sustainable.'
How has Dr Earth responded to this criticism, and should we take him seriously? Find out on the next page...
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