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

In Devon last weekend, we also went to visit Blacklake Farm near Ottery St. Mary, a 70-acre organic farm run by Catherine and Nick Broomfield. It was so heartwarming to see the farm and meet the family and hear how they work with nature to grow crops and rear healthy and happy animals. 

They have the best hedges and pastures I have seen for a good while. The grass is varied and established in the ground, and they use age-old methods to care for it. The feed for the animals is all produced on the farm, they use crop rotation and animal rotation together with common sense and knowledge to get the best out of the land and keep it in a healthy, balanced state. Using local breeds of cattle and sheep and selling locally helps them to be as sustainable as possible. The fantastic thing is that even though the farm is relatively small, as a business model it works and although the weather and luck can move the line of profit, they survive well and happily. 

Blacklake Farm had a lovely feeling of contentment about it. It felt homely, warm, and the kind of place you could call in for a cup of tea and stay forever. It seemed perfect in every way, from the beautiful green pastures running down to the nature filled goyle, to the orchard above the road which produced the most beautiful apple juice. The farm must be ancient, with its cob construction and painted walls and kitchen floor worn away over centuries.

It had the most incredible soul. It was a special place, a shared space and the passion with which they shared their knowledge was second to none. If every local child could see how they work and see how they are managing not to destroy all the goodness in the land, but leaving it in the same state today as it was when it was worked as a farm 600 years ago, they would have a better idea of what sustainable living in the future could look like. And as Bertie, Catherine and Nick’s son pointed out, not only are the animals on the farm healthy and happy, but they are also “very tasty!”

When I went along to the CIBSE Low Carbon Performance Awards last Wednesday, I was really impressed. Not just because there were 800 people all there in one room to celebrate the amount of energy that had been saved, but that the scheme had been voluntary.

The Awards were about people saving energy over 100 days as part of the CIBSE/E.ON 100 Day Carbon Clean Up Campaign. CIBSE provided information packs to help people understand the simple ways that they could save energy in the workplace.

I really enjoyed being there, the MC and other speaker was the geologist Dr. Iain Stewart and his film and speech were very interesting. I was lucky enough to get to meet him later in the evening and have a chat – some of what he has seen is truly amazing.

It was just a really nice feeling being in a room with so many people who ‘get it’. People who are not just ‘understanding’, but who are ‘doing’. People who are saving energy, and who are, above all, questioning what is going on around them. People who are stopping to think, and making those first steps to do something about it. I had been asked to speak for a few minutes which I did, and you could feel in the room that everyone really cared. As I said in my speech – it was great to see that energy saving could work financially. What was in that room was the proof – and that it was great to see that things had actually been done, and were real savings.

From mineral extractors to hospitals, universities to councils and institutions to individuals, they were all very motivated people. I felt privileged to be among them!

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!

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!