Personal Blog of Ellen MacArthur

Last night Katie (our media manager), Joss (our editorial/web content manager) and Fiona (our sustainability manager) and I headed off on the bus to a meeting to launch an event called ‘The Big Green Picnic’ which will be held on the Isle of Wight on the 24th and 25th May.

The event is being organised by the Isle of Wight Council and is about getting people from all over the island to come for a fun, family event which will help to inform them about what the island has to offer and how to live in a more sustainable and less wasteful way. It’s also a great opportunity for the Council to talk about what they are doing at their end!

What was nice about yesterday evening was that it was about discussing and learning and brainstorming. There are evidently all sorts of people here who are already working towards making the island more sustainable and who are really excited about being part of a bigger campaign.

There was a real range of people there, from people importing ecologically friendly products, to organic T-shirts made in carbon neutral factories in India. It’s really great stuff.

Lynn Clarke, the Community Liaison Officer at Island Waste, whom we met on our visit there (see earlier blog) was saying that she had already been involved with events trying to get people to be more conscious of their waste, and these dated back 10 years! It would seem that the Island had a carbon footprint analysis done in 1999, which provides a great and probably rare comparison!

We also met Zoë Moore who has been instrumental in setting up sustainable practices at Vestas and has helped them to gain a range of accreditations and awards. She has also found funds for a project getting solar panels on schools, both here and in India through a sort of twinning arrangement. Well done, Zoë!

Joe Duckworth and David Pugh at the Council spoke well and came across as very committed. The mere fact that they are getting the picnic off the ground and running is fantastic. It’s good to see that a large part of the effort is in making the island a better place generally. So all in all, a really interesting event - and more importantly, an event with a lot of enthusiasm and commitment about it!

Let’s go!

The beginning of everything public for me was the BT/YJA Young Sailor of the Year award in January 1995. It was the first time anyone other than the teachers at school called my name out, and I remember vividly going out to the big city of Derby to find a skirt (of all things!) to wear to the event. Since then I have been to the event most years (other than those when I have been at sea!), and have been lucky enough to win the Yachtsman of the Year on three separate occasions.

This year was the 52nd year and the trophy was (once again!) won by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston for his incredible circumnavigation in the Velux 5 Oceans (at the age of 67!). The runners up were so close though that virtually all four of them could have won the award. Geoff Holt, who sailed solo round the British Isles in a small trimaran was one of the runners up. It takes an incredible human being not only to sail around Britain in a small trimaran, but to do so when you are paralysed from the waist down like Geoff. Other runners up were Mike Golding and Dee Caffari who had also recently competed in offshore races. Mike had rescued fellow competitor Alex Thomson, also in the Velux 5 Oceans.

The Young Sailor of the Year was Laurence Greenough, also someone who is inspirational. He continues to sail his unmodified Topper after losing his leg in a boating accident. It was lovely to see everyone again, in fact those faces who have become friends throughout my racing career. Some were faces I had not seen for years, so it was lovely to be able to have a chat about past experiences and previous encounters. I chatted with Mike Richie, who must be 90 years old now, and who has raced numerous times across the Atlantic (the last at 87!). He really is an inspiration to us all, as much now as he was when I first met him in 1996. At lunch, I sat next to Lady Pippa Blake who we were proud to have as ‘godmother’ of Kingfisher before she left New Zealand on her maiden voyage to Europe. It was great to catch up with her and discuss all sorts of topics, including her fantastic artwork, I’ve been to one of Pippa’s exhibitions and she has created some wonderful pieces.

I loved being there, and it was fantastic to spend time amongst friends. I left the Painted Hall in the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich with a light step, and a feeling that it had been really nice to see familiar and friendly faces…..

Here is a flattering shot of a couple of blonds working away with a few tubes of silicone! Rudi and Rhys who provide the onshore support to our sailing team kindly took on the job of sealing all the gaps they could find around our windows today. We had already attempted to bubble wrap the draughtiest bits – but here was their attempt to go one step further. It didn’t even disrupt work too much and we have already been able to switch off some radiators! Thanks Guys…. Here’s to a draught-free January!

We spent an interesting day in Derby earlier this week visiting some of E.ON’s clients in Derbyshire to see how they manage their energy and resources. Our visits included Inspirepac, Derby City Council and Debenhams.

Our first visit was to Inspirepac, a cardboard packaging manufacturer where Group Managing Director Chris Marples and his team showed us how they are working on reducing their impact on the environment, and whilst they openly say they are only just scratching the surface they have reduced their energy usage by 7% whilst growing the business by 15%. There were also small things that you can see and feel around their business like all the offcuts and waste cardboard going back in the same lorry which supplies them to be recycled, the man who comes in to repair the pallets rather than throwing them away and buying new ones, the new printing machine which uses water based inks, the change of electricity supply which will save £18K per year and use less energy as a more refined system. There is a real will to change things, a real will to be thinking about ideas – and things are happening which was great.

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We went on a mission recently to see what was already happening on the Isle of Wight with regards to educating young people about the environment around them. In many ways the subject of sustainability is definitely a challenge of education as if the young people of today do not appreciate and understand the environment around them then it’s unlikely they will care for it.

One project along these lines has been the ‘Eco Challenger’. This project is a bus which was put together and run by the Medina Valley Centre, which goes out to schools and to events and fetes on the island. Its objective was to show young people an assortment of things through using solar power, wind generators and a special microscope linked to a monitor. They had all sorts of sea shore creatures and specimens from the cliffs and sand in a water tank which the public had collected.

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