Personal Blog of Ellen MacArthur

I was asked to speak at the Eco Island conference last week in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. The eco-island project is at the core of the Council’s sustainable community strategy, and is something that personally I am hugely excited about!  There must have been over 300 people there, who all seemed motivated by the island’s plans. These plans include everything from energy to food production, to improving open spaces and increasing people’s contentment in living here. There were some great speakers including Professor Bill Wakeham of Southampton University, Professor Sir Ghillean Prance, Scientific Director of The Eden Project, Eugene Dreyer from Sir Terry Farrell’s architecture practice who are designing a new vision for the island and Tony Galloni, Head of Marketing for Sustainable Energy Solutions at E.ON.

When it comes to making a difference, we have the most amazing opportunity. Not only, like other councils, in that the door of sustainability needs to be pushed open and kept open, but also because the island’s geographical boundaries, being surrounded by water, mean that it is a perfect place to try this initiative as measuring what goes on and off the island is so much easier. I believe that the island can be a shining example to other regions, but there is a terrifically long way to go, and the challenge is simply colossal.

I feel though that if you are trying to understand the solution to a problem, you need to break things down and look at things on a smaller scale. You need to understand the big picture, but so many of the changes you make will be small and incremental. Just hopefully millions of them at the same time!

When I spoke at the conference I used the sailing journey analogy of being out there and simply having to manage your resources. Being aware of and on top of the reserves that you have and looking after them and never wasting them. Our island could be an incredible example for this, we have huge food production, but most is exported. We have incredible amenity value in our beaches and open ground which we need to preserve. In effect we need to leave the island in a better state than when we all arrived here, looking after the place, and managing its resources not draining any other area of the country or world.

I really hope that the Isle of Wight people will get behind this project, and that the island will change as we do to be a happier, and more sustainable place to live. 

Ellen