Personal Blog of Ellen MacArthur

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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Just before Christmas I attended a very interesting event, an awards ceremony for the Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme run by the Carbon Trust and the NEF (National Energy Foundation). The objective of the event sponsored by energy services company E.ON is to provide companies with their certificates who have reached the necessary levels of energy efficiency.

I was genuinely surprised by not only the level of commitment clearly shown by the businesses and individuals, but also by the sheer variety of companies getting involved. I thought that the businesses we would see would be more in the retail sector, but there was everything from aircraft production to car factories to brick makers! It really was a wide range of people, but the results were impressive, and what was even more promising was that because of the number of businesses who are accredited and reaching the necessary requirements, NEF now have to hold two events. Many of the companies involved were not insignificant on a national scale, but mainstream names both from the high street and industry.

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Happy New Year to all!

These are my New Year’s resolutions which I will be trying to stick to this year:

- Try not to travel where at all possible - if you can do a live link from the Southern Ocean, we should be able to chat from office to office!

- Talk to people more about little ideas that I think of to save energy to encourage a different mindset….

What are yours?

Ellen