'GREENTECH' has become one of those fashionable labels applied to all sorts of different things.

This week in the Post, we are trying to clear away some of that confusion and find out what it is really all about.

The reports we are carrying on our business pages suggest that greentech is far more than some fashionable, flash-in-the-pan. It amounts to a series of real opportunities for Nottingham as a city, the businesses which are based here, and the people whose lives they may have an impact on.

That is partly because we all face the same challenges – an increasing number of people all over the world competing for dwindling traditional resources.

Evidence of the attempts being made to try to overcome at least some of those challenges can be seen in the rapid rise of companies like EvoEnergy of Chilwell, which installs solar panel systems, and in Nottingham City Council's push to help ordinary people benefit from these seemingly advanced technologies.

It cane be seen, too, in the council's efforts to try to persuade developers it is worth taking a financial bet on the construction of a business park which will derive at least some of the energy its tenants need from renewable sources.

This particular proposal is not without controversy because of the allotments which might be lost if it is built. But that one problem should not blind us to the wider benefits of renewable energy, and to the importance of the efforts being made by entrepreneurs, businesses and the council to invest now in ideas which could help in years to come.