Green Hero - Jason Billin
Jason Billin - tackling Green Issues in Business
Jason Billin is standing as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Rushcliffe, the seat held by Ken Clarke for many years. Not only have the candidates for the Green Party and the Renew Party stood aside in his favour as part of the Unite to Remain Alliance, but Ken Clarke himself has said he is considering voting LibDem.
Born in London in 1961, Jason trained as a graphic designer and paper engineer; he moved to Nottinghamshire in the 1990s and now runs his own small branding design and publishing company.
Scout Commissioner
Jason's horizons have always stretched well beyond his immediate self-interest. Passionate about the development and welfare of children and teenagers, he is a well-known public figure throughout the constituency as a school governor, community volunteer and former District Explorer Scout Commissioner. The motivation to campaign within the Green Liberal Democrat movement comes from a desire to leave his two grown-up children, and their generation, with a safe and sustainable environment.
Jason explains:
"One of the biggest bugbears for me is the sheer amount of unnecessary plastic packaging and packaging waste - all of which means yet more carbon extraction. I also think that we must face up to the issue of existing mountains and rivers of plastic that are polluting every nation. We should burn the plastic for energy generation and offset this with adequate reduction in other fossil fuel power generation until we have dealt with the waste that already exists.
There are plant-based alternatives that are viable and, with investment, can be scaled up to replace oil-based plastics.
Where plastics cannot be replaced, I want to see that plastic is treated as a rare / finite commodity
and recycled and repurposed rather than discarded."
If elected, he would introduce a bill to ban the use of fossil oil-based plastics in all packaging, particularly food packaging.
"As a brand and packaging designer I see too much waste and unnecessary use of plastics. Where plastics cannot be replaced, I want to see that plastic is treated as a rare/finite commodity and recycled and repurposed rather than discarded. This needs a major overhaul of the recycling system in this country!"
Harvesting marine energy
Jason sets out his vision for harvesting marine energy:
"I also think that as an island nation we are ignoring the biggest single resource at our disposal for energy generation and that is the sea around us.
I would like to see a proper discussion about the subsidies that are paid to the nuclear power industry and provide substantial investment in wave and tidal power.
The Limpet system that was trialled on Islay is a fantastic idea, and once the noise of turbines is sorted - i.e. not using standard power station turbines but bespoke units similar to wind turbine nacelles - this could be rolled out across hundreds of miles of coast where there is no foreshore - and without disrupting habitats - in fact the system provides for additional habitat for molluscs etc"
Jason Billin is a man with a vision, and the energy and persuasive skills to channel the efforts of others and himself into achieving that vision. He believes that we need to 'tread lightly on the planet' by re-using, recycling and repairing whenever we can.
Product Design!
Jason was also the designer of the Green Liberal Democrats range of promotional T-shirts - definitely a GLD Hero! These T-shrts are all made from low impact cotton using low-impact colours and inks...
Making Change Happen
Jason Billin is a key member of our Green Liberal Democrats team who can make environmental change happen in Parliament, so we'll be doing all we can to help get him elected. Will you join us?
For more Green Heroes go to the Green heroes front page here >>> https://greenlibdems.org.uk/en/page/green-heroes
