I chatted to my old flatmate and good friend Declan Commons a couple of weeks ago. When I say I chatted to him, that is exactly what I mean because I could not chat with him. You see, he had just discovered Skype and wanted to try it out but he had no headset. So I spoke to him using my microphone and my webcam, then waited for 10 seconds while he typed back. All rather strange I can tell you.
Anyway, hats off to Dec for starting his own environmental planning consultancy. He has become somewhat of an expert in sustainable town planning over the last 10 years. When councils, construction firms and property developers plan new developments, they need to take lots of factors into consideration. By going through this planning process in a sustainable manner, they should make better decisions about the area which people could be living in for hundreds of years to come. I think that's roughly what Dec gets up to but check out Planning Workshop for the full story.