PRESS RELEASE

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The Rt. Hon Douglas Alexander MP Secretary of State for Transport will learn about the UK’s first renewable hydrogen packaging plant and other environmental innovations at a dinner hosted by Summerleaze Ltd on February 20^th 2007 at the Commonwealth Club, London.

The subject of the discussion and the minister’s speech will be the department’s environmental priorities in the short to medium term. The transport sector is a huge contributor to carbon emissions in the UK, accounting for an estimated 22% of UK emissions via surface transport and a further 6% of emissions from aviation.

Maidenhead-based Summerleaze Ltd has a 20 year history of innovation in the field of environmental technology and sustainability including pioneering the use of landfill gas as a source of energy and operating the largest anaerobic digester in the UK to generate renewable energy from waste. In the early ‘80s the company was experimenting with liquefaction of methane from landfill to create a green transport fuel.

The dinner with the Minister is being co-hosted with General Motors who have plans to produce a series of hydrogen-fuelled cars by 2010 as part of its strategy to push alternatives to conventional petrol.

Peter Prior Summerleaze MD explains:

‘We are pleased to be co-hosting this event with General Motors as there is a need to harness the advantages of Globalism and Localism, where each is appropriate, if we are to deal with the challenges of Energy Depletion and Global Warming and yet continue to live civilised lives.’

In keeping with its ethos of sustainable innovation Summerleaze has recently embarked on the production of hydrogen manufactured from green energy through a joint venture based in Cambridgeshire. Green Hydrogen Ltd is the first company in the UK able to manufacture and package hydrogen with a known purity and quality, appropriate for transport and industrial applications.

The University of Hertfordshire is pioneering the use of renewable hydrogen at their campus where Derek Eade, formally of Ford UK, and colleagues are developing dual fuel vehicle technology so that cars can run on hydrogen and conventional fossil fuels:

‘The importance of using a green source of hydrogen is that it is the real thing – offsetting only makes sense when there is no green alternative.’

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Summerleaze fully accepts its obligations to the environment and to local communities and allows public enjoyment of its facilities. This includes the restoration of quarried sites for agricultural, nature and sporting activities.

For example the company's site at Bray includes a lake which is used for a variety of activities, including sailing, windsurfing and fishing. Close-by is an idyllic nature reserve. Elsewhere, the company has won awards for the quality of its agricultural restoration.

Summerleaze is a major sponsor of the Thames Valley Adventure Playground for handicapped children and provided the site at Taplow where extensive indoor and outdoor facilities have been specially constructed.

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Mike Ashe

Telephone:      0845 130 3280

Mobile:            07980 968 431

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Issued by Summerleaze Ltd

7 Summerleaze Road

Maidenhead

Berkshire SL6 8SP

United Kingdom

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