World’s First Ecological Nightclub Opens

Property developer Andrew Charalambous, a/k/a Dr. Earth, opened his nightclub Surya, on the Pentonville Road, Islington, London, last night. He claims it is the first ecological nightclub in the world, although the folks at the Sustainable Dance Club (SDC) in the Netherlands dispute that. In any case, the dance floor generates much of the club’s electricity; it has solar panels and wind turbines, and it has air-flush urinals and low-flush toilets. It all sounds great, but what if the music is crap?

Mr. Charalambous probably doesn’t care much if the club succeeds or fails as a financial operation despite sinking a million quid into it. Reuters reports, “A qualified barrister, now worth in excess of 100 million pounds, his latest business venture will recycle glass, metal, plastic and paper products used in its bar, with Charalambous promising to donate part of the club's profits to charity.” Paul Newman’s food products blazed the trail here. Sometimes, a business is more than a business, or perhaps, something other than a business.

“Unless we stop preaching to people and use an inclusive philosophy we’re never going to create the revolution to combat climate change,” Mr. Charalambous told Reuters. “It’s also about creating avenues of thought. Imagine what you could achieve if big corporations adopted this kind of initiative.” Initiative and big corporations make lousy partners, but he has a point.

However, Holland’s SDC thinks that Surya is a bit of a put on. “They are not sustainable in our rules," SDC spokesman Vera Verkooijenat said. In September, the SDC will launch Wvatt, which it calls “world's first sustainable dance club.” Ms. Verkooijenat said, “It’s not only the nightclub, it’s the whole organization that should be sustainable."

Mr. Charalambous replies that that sort of holier-than-thou attitude prevents anything from happening – the perfect becomes the enemy of the good. The SDC has “been talking about it for a while, but they haven't done it,” said Mr. Charalambous. “They want to preach to people and that's the wrong way go about it.”

What is particularly interesting is Surya's piezoelectric dance floor, in which crystals and ceramics will interact to create electricity when people dance on it. “We estimate that if you had loads of clubbers dancing vigorously it would provide 60 percent of the club’s energy needs,” claims Mr. Charalambous. Yeah, but what if Surya plays lousy music, and no one dances? Going out to have a good time needn’t be environmentally damaging (unless one is in a lousy environment, in which case it should be), but eco-clubbing isn’t going to make it just because it’s green.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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