A couple of weeks ago we had our new lighting system installed (see this post). In the warehouse areas we have put in “Brilliance” fittings, which come on only when someone is in the area and the natural light levels are too low. We have also had occupancy sensors installed in the toilets and changing rooms so that the lights switch themselves off automatically when no movement has been detected for more than a few minutes. This has worked very well and has solved the problem of lights being left on all day. Try as I might, I just could not get people to remember to switch the lights off as they leave the room. The final stage is to replace our T8 fluorescent tubes with T5 tubes. These use about half the energy of T8s, are just as bright and last 3 times longer so should generate a significant saving in terms of energy bills and maintenance costs. The new tubes can be retrofitted using a conversion kit so you don’t need to replace the entire light fitting which would be very expensive. Instead we are going through a rolling programme of changing all 177 fluorescent tubes in our buildings ourselves. By fitting a few of the tubes each day we hope that we’ll be able to replace all the tubes without employing an electrician and this will keep costs down further. It is time consuming and will take a while to implement, but once complete this project will cut our lighting bills in half and savings we make will mean that the project will pay for itself within 2 years!

 

All the new lights came from a company called Chalmor, a specialist lighting company.

 

 

If you go into a supermarket and pick up any box of breakfast cereal from the shelf, the chances are it will have a bag inside it made of plastic that contains your cereal of choice. I have recently discovered that the amount of plastic used to make these bags can be reduced by 10-15% by simply changing the way that the bags are sealed. You’ll find that most of these cereal bags have a crimped seal at the top and bottom that is about 15mm wide. But by using a new method off sealing called the Integrity Seal ™ you can actually close the bag with a seal that is just 1.5mm wide. What’s more, the new seal is stronger and less likely to fail than the crimp seal so products will not leak from the bag and should stay fresher for longer.

 

Surely there will be a very high capital outlay to change to a machine that is capable of making such a seal? Well the inventors of the technology say that the technology can be retrofitted onto many form fill seal machines, so there’s no need to replace the whole thing which should make the cost of implementing this system more manageable. I spoke to Ceetak, the company who manufacture these retrofit solutions and they told me that although the technology was originally made with salad bags in mind via a project with WRAP, there is no reason why the sealing system should not work for cereal packets too. So today I will send them some samples of the sort of packs we make on our machines, they will reseal them for me using the Integrity seal ™ system and send them back to me so that we can assess the seal quality and overall look of the product and potential material and cost savings and decide whether we want to go any further with the project. I’m hopeful that this could be the next step in minimising the amount of packaging we use so I will post more about this when I have some results…

 

 

Alara has already been awarded Green Mark Level 1 for our environmental achievements so far, which is great. But now we’ve decided that it would be a good idea to move on from this standard and go for ISO 14001, the internationally recognised environmental standard. Why have we decided to switch? Well one reason is that ISO 14001 is an internationally recognised and is much more widely known than Green Mark. We are also anticipating that some of our customers may make it a requirement for their suppliers to have or be working towards ISO 14001. In addition to this it should formalise our efforts to make our business a sustainable one. At the moment we have an overall target to get to carbon neutral and zero waste to landfill and we are steadily working towards these, but we have no formal plan in place and no documentation to support what we are doing. Working towards the ISO standard should make the whole process a bit more coherent.

 

Implementing an Environmental Management System (EMS) is quite a task though. It requires documented procedures, written evidence and it needs to be maintained. So I’m anticipating that it will take several months to be awarded the standard even though we’re already doing a lot of good work because I need to go right back to the beginning and make sure that everything that the standard requires is included. To help us do this, we took advantage of a grant from the Manufacturing Advisory Service designed to help small manufacturers to achieve ISO 14001. The grant allows you to receive 5 days of consultancy for the price of one and was being administered by the London Environment Centre. It was really useful to discuss with the consultant exactly what was required and see examples of how it can be achieved. The first stage for us is to identify all of Alara’s environmental aspects and impacts. This includes everything from energy to light and heat the factory right down to the use of pens in an office. It’s a huge task. If the auditor can think of an environmental aspect that is not on your list, that’s a non-conformance and the list must be updated before the standard is awarded. So that’s as far as we’ve got at the moment and I think it will take a while longer before this first stage is complete. More updates on ISO 14001 progress to follow soon so watch this space…

 

 

 

 

 

Since the WEEE regulations came in, I have been telling everyone at Alara that we mustn’t put anything with a plug in the bins and likewise we should not put any batteries in the bins either. This is fine in theory except that until now I didn’t really know how I was going to get them recycled. I have a draw full of dead batteries and a graveyard of electrical items that don’t work anymore. It’s fine if all you have is computers – there are lots of companies that will collect and recycle them. Most computer retailers even offer take back schemes for equipment that you are replacing like for like. But what if you have the odd broken fan, the occasional blown up toaster or equipment that you’re not replacing like for like? Then what do you do? Because as a business we’re not allowed to take them to a municipal recycling centre because that is for public use only and there are no WEEE recycling companies that will make collections for such small amounts…

Or so I thought…

 

But then I came across a company called First Mile. They are a small recycling company that offers a one-stop shop for small business that want to start recycling. For me, the most useful service they offer is the battery bags and WEEE recycling bags. Basically you buy a battery bag at £25, fill it with batteries and when it’s full you give First Mile a call and they will come to your office to collect it. The £25 that you pay for the bag covers the bag itself, the collection from your office and all the paperwork that goes with it, so there are no extra or hidden charges. The bag isn’t massive so you don’t have to wait for years before it’s full unlike most of the other companies that are offering similar services. The WEEE bag works in exactly the same way. I think this is a great service for small businesses and one that was very much needed as it’s so easy!

 

 

Alara has been named as the Green Business of the Year at the Fast Growth Business Awards 2008! It's an absolutely fantastic feeling to win this award and means so much to our business. We've worked really hard to make Alara as environmentally, socially and financially sustainable as possible and it's very rewarding to know that our achievements have been recognised. Winning the award shows that running a successful business and being "green" are not mutually exclusive - you can do both!

The glittering, black tie award ceremony was held last night at the London Marriott Hotel in Grosvenor Square and was presented by Kate Silverton of BBC News. Over 400 companies entered the competition across 13 categories. Also shortlisted in the Green Business of the Year category were Paper Round, Sharps Brewery and The Phone Co-op, all of who put in very strong entries for their green initiatives.

Our award entry highlighted all the green initiatives we have been implementing including launching our Sustainable range of muesli’s in lightweight paper bags instead of cardboard boxes, which reduced the amount of packaging used per pack by an amazing 68%. In the last year, we have cut the amount of waste that is sent to landfill from our factory by approximately 75% by introducing systems for reusing and recycling cardboard boxes, paper sacks, office paper, plastic film, toner cartridges and fluorescent tubes. In addition to this, food waste from our kitchen is composted in bins and wormeries found in the permaculture forest garden behind our factory. We planted 80 fruit bearing trees and shrubs in the garden, transforming what was once a derelict space into a haven for local wildlife and biodiversity. By switching to a 100% renewable energy tariff for electricity, Alara has also reduced CO2 emissions by 52 tonnes per year. The judges were impressed that our green solutions are not just a passing fad but an everyday consideration.

For more details about the awards please visit the fgba website.

To watch a video of Alex Smith and Joanna Southernwood being interviewed after the awards click here

At last, I may have found a solution to the problem of recycling label release paper! Most paper mills and recycling companies won’t take it because of the shiny coating (see this post). But I recently spoke to Berkshire labels again (I contacted them before about biodegradable labels, see this post) and they told me that they could help. They’ve found a company that turns label release paper into paper towels for hand drying. So if they were to supply us with labels, Berkshire labels would be willing to collect any waste release paper from us and send it on to be recycled. If all our label release paper could be recycled, this would be a big step towards becoming a zero waste to landfill site as this material is fast becoming our biggest source of waste.

Hello again! Apologies for the long absence and lack of posts but now I am back and will be updating the blog at least once a week with news on our progress towards sustainability.

 

First of all, congratulations are in order! A few months ago I entered Alara into the IGD Food Industry Awards in the Tetra Pak Environmental Sustainability Award category and I am pleased to say that we were short-listed as a finalist. Unfortunately we didn’t win, but the competition was fierce and it was a real achievement just to be listed amongst the final four short-listed competitors! Also in the final four were Asda, Dairy Crest and Young’s who won the award for their “Fish for Life” programme. We are proud that our achievements over the last year have been recognised and a big thank you goes to all our staff who have been instrumental in increasing our recycling rates, reducing energy consumption and many other initiatives. Well done to you all!

 

One of the recommendations from Envirowise was to review our lighting system to look for energy savings. Generally, all the lights are switched on in the morning and they are left on all day until everyone goes home. But there are areas of the factory that are used mainly for storage and are unoccupied for large parts of the day, yet the lights remain on all day wasting energy. So to overcome this problem, I have been looking into installing Passive Infa Red (PIR) sensors that will switch on the lights only when someone is working in the area. Another suggestion was to replace our existing T8 fluorescent tubes with thinner, more efficient T5 versions. T5s use about 50% less energy and last 3 times longer than T8s so it should be well worth the investment.

 

One useful company that I came across when doing this research is Chalmor. They are a lighting specialist who can advise on the best way to save energy on lighting systems. They can offer a wide range of energy saving products, consultancy service and can arrange installation as well. Their website is very useful too - I came across this calculator that works out how much energy (and money) you could save by switching from T8s to T5s and what the payback period is likely to be. I called Chalmor to arrange a review of our factory lighting and someone came to visit the factory within a week. They will put together a report for us with some recommendations on how we can save energy on lighting bills and estimate the cost, projected energy and financial savings, and pay back period. I’m looking forward to hearing about how much they can save us.

 

I have made a little more progress in my search for an environmentally friendly label manufacturer. Last week I came across a company called Berkshire Labels who make biodegradable labels that conform to EN 13432, the European Standard that means that the packaging is compostable. Since I’m also looking at making our paper bag range compostable, I contacted them for a quote for the labels on this range. They responded very quickly and gave me a lot of information about their product. The main advantage in Berkshire Labels’ Biotak range is that they use a fully compostable adhesive whereas most other label manufacturers that claim to have “eco” label ranges just use the normal glue but less of it. As far as I know they are the only label manufacturer that is close to having a product that conforms to EN 13432 which means that they are entitled to display the seedling logo on their labels to show they are home compostable.

 

They also gave me the details of a company called Fibre Fuel who collect label backing paper, amongst other things, to turn into fuel pellets that can be burnt as a form of renewable energy. Since I cannot find any company who will recycle label backing paper, burning it for energy is the next best thing. I think that the sort of volumes of material that we are producing here might be too small for Fibre Fuel to be interested in making a collection but it’s worth a try anyway and I will enquire about it anyway.

 

Envirowise is a government funded organisation whose target is to help businesses reduce waste and hence save money. All the advice they give is free and confidential so I would urge any businesses out there, however big or small to contact them for a free visit. It’s a very simple process. A couple of weeks ago I filled in a very straightforward online form on the Envirowise website requesting a FastTrack visit from one of their advisers. Someone called me within a week to arrange a convenient time for a visit. The visit itself lasted about 2 hours with a bit of time spent discussing things in the office before heading out into the factory and offices for a tour.

 

They made a number of recommendations to help us save energy and reduce waste and it was useful to have someone look at our setup with a fresh eye.

 

In terms of energy saving, there are 2 big areas that we could make savings:-lighting and heating. Several areas within our premises are used mainly for storage yet they have the same light levels as areas in which several people are working. We could easily change this by removing lights or fitting motion sensors so that the lights only come on when someone is in the area. Even in my own office, light levels could easily be reduced. I have 8 fluorescent tubes in my office but 4 would be plenty to light the whole office sufficiently. (I have moved offices so I no longer have the LED lights) With heating, insulation is the key, particularly because most of our heating is electric. Excluding draughts and preventing warm air escaping will help keep the heating bills down in the winter.

 

In terms of waste management, the adviser said that we are generally doing the right things but we need to make more of an effort to prevent waste occurring, particularly food waste. There is currently a lot of waste muesli that ends up in the bins and this is something that I’ll be addressing in the future. Other ways to improve recycling rates are to put better labels on the bins showing what can go in each one, and to try to give staff more incentive to recycle.

 

Envirowise will be sending me a report, hopefully by the end of the week and from that I’ll be able to work out what the potential cost saving to the business will be should we implement all the measures they suggest. Overall I found the visit very useful and informative and I’m sure that we’ll be taking forward some of the suggestions that they made. I would recommend that every business takes advantage of this free resource – it could easily save you money as well as improving your waste management systems.

 

For the last few weeks I’ve been reviewing all the different renewable energy technologies that are available to us, focussing particularly on wind turbines, solar hot water and solar photovoltaic systems. A summary of what I’ve found out is given in the table below.

 

	Wind Turbine	Solar Thermal (Hot Water)	Solar PV (generate power)
Cost	£10,000 (tower mounted) £20,000 (roof mounted)	£5,000 per system	£70,000  (10kW system)
Annual Energy Output	~ 1000 kWh	~1500 kWh	9000 kWh
Annual Saving	~£150	~£200	~£1,300
Pros	-Very easily seen, noticeable -Potential to generate a lot of energy with high wind speeds	-Simple system, well proven -Relatively easy to install -Long guarantee -No planning permission needed -Qualifies for Enhanced Capital Allowances	-Will generate electricity every day as they require daylight not direct sunlight -Very little maintenance needed -No planning permission required -No structural alterations needed (probably) -25 year guarantee, up to 60 year life
Cons	- Roof structure is not really suitable so may need strengthening -Wind speeds in this area are very low so not much potential for energy generation -Long payback due to low wind speeds -Needs annual maintenance and checks -Planning permission needed	-Not a large saving because of low water usage -Would need new hot water tank -2 year maintenance checks, 4 year system flush	-Very expensive -Long payback period - around 50 years

 

 

After discussing this with the rest of the management team here, we’ve decided that the system that is best for our site is the solar thermal system that will provide hot water for the factory. We discounted wind turbines because we were advised that our roof is not really suitable for mounting turbines and the average wind speeds in our location are very low so we would not generate much power. Solar photovoltaics are just too expensive at the moment and have a very long payback even if we did manage to get a grant from the DTI’s Low Carbon Building Programme. At the moment, all our hot water is provided by an electric emersion heater so installing a solar thermal system will reduce the amount of electricity that we use on site, thus reducing our energy bills all year round. Although the savings will not be massive because we don’t have a big hot water demand, there’s a potential 4% return on our investment, which isn’t too bad. And if we are successful in getting a DTI grant, that will increase to an 8% return which is actually pretty good. More on this when I’ve had some detailed quotes back from solar panel installers.

 

The fruit trees in our permaculture forest garden are currently working hard to produce our first crop of fruit. So far I've seen apples, pears, blueberries, melon pears, pomegranetes (although these are very small won't get big enough to eat), cape gooseberries, japanese wineberries, pinapple guava (acca sellowiana), chilean guava (ugno mollinae), and even a very small bunch of grapes! All our trees are still very small, so there won't be a huge harvest this year, but it's exciting to see so many berries and fruits developing as time goes on. I think all this wet weather we've been having has done them all a lot of good and has meant that we haven't had to worry about watering them. You can find a few pictures of some of the fruits in the garden here, but in the meantime, here's a picture of one of our good old English apples

 

At Alara we use a lot of labels on our products. Everything that leaves our factory will have at least one label on it somewhere so we probably apply about 5 million labels every year! Although this won't contribute much to the weight of the overall product because the labels typically weigh less than 1 gram, it's still important to think about their environmental impact. I've recently been talking to our label supplier about whether they could make labels for us on recycled paper instead of paper made from virgin material, and whether we can have our labels printed with vegetable based inks. Apparently none of their other customers have asked them for this before so it seems we are the pioneers of sustainable labels!

The labels themselves are only half the battle though because all our labels are supplied on a backing paper which is currently just thrown away. The worst thing is that this backing paper is not recyclable in the UK because it is coated in silicon to make it easy to peel the labels off. Paper mills will not accept this material with other paper because it does not break down into pulp very easily when back at the paper mill. Our label supplier said that there's only one factory in Europe that recycles backing paper and it is in Germany so it's not worth the extra transport costs to collect all the backing paper for recycling. There are no alternative backing papers available for use at the moment either because there just isn't any demand on the industry to provide it.

I even contacted NISP (National Industrial Symbiosis Programme) about the label backing paper problem as they specialise in finding ways of reusing or recycling awkward materials but with no success. So if there are any other businesses out there reading this blog that use large quantities of labels, I urge you to talk to your label supplier about recycling backing paper. It seems that the only way things are going to change is if we create a demand for a recycling process that deals with this waste.

When we launched our new range of products last year, we decided to take the opportunity to redesign and minimise the amount of packaging that is used on our products. So our newest products are packed into paper bags (like this) rather than in plastic film inside a cardboard box, (like this). This has reduced the weight of packaging used per pack by almost 75% which is great news as it means that we are using less resources and there is just less packaging to potentially end up in our customers bins.

The only problem with this is that the bags are lined with a plastic film meaning that it can only be recycled if the film is removed first. To solve this problem, I've been investigating whether we can somehow make the bags biodegradable or compostable. Until recently I hadn't had much luck because most of the biodegradable film on the market was made from corn starch from a genetically modified source. Our products are organic, so this is definitely not an option for us! But I've recently been in touch with a couple of companies who may be able to make the film from biodegradable orientated polypropylene (OPP). This material is made of the same stuff as ordinary OPP but it has an additive in it which helps to break down the material quickly in the presence of light, heat and moisture. The idea is that they won't degrade when they are just sitting on a shelf, but will degrade on a compost heap or under landfill conditions. The manufacturers have said that trials of paper bags lined with this material have been successful so far, so it may be that we will be able to switch to these bags in the future. We are a step closer to biodegradable bags...

We have a large kettle in the staff eating area which is frequently left on to boil all day even when hot water is not needed. The main reason for this is that if someone forgets to switch it on before tea or lunch break, then no one gets hot drinks, so it's just easier to leave it on all the time. The trouble is that it's a 3kW kettle so if it's left on all day when no one needs it, that's a real waste of energy!

The answer to this problem is to put the kettle on a timer like this one, so that it switches itself on before break times start and off again when break times are over. That way everyone gets their hot drinks and no energy is wasted. This timer can be programmed to come on and off exactly when needed making it ideal for items that must be on at certain times or things that people tend to forget to switch off.

We’ve had quite a lot of success with our “switch off” campaign recently where we have encouraged staff to make sure all of the electrical equipment on the production line is switched off at the end of the day. Giving people a list of equipment that they need to turn off has really helped and much less is being left on overnight by accident.

 

However, the one thing I can’t get people to remember is to switch off the lights when they leave the changing rooms or toilets. For some reason they always forget. So to overcome this problem we’ve decided to make use of some very simple technology…I’ve just bought 8 of these timer switches to replace the light switches in all toilets and changing rooms. Once the button is pushed, the light stays on for 10 minutes, and then it automatically switches off. It should save us around £150 per year  - not a massive amount but worth doing all the same.

 

Junk mail…one of my pet hates! What a waste of time and paper both at home and at work. Like most businesses, we used to receive a lot of unwanted brochures, fliers, mail shots and general rubbish through the post and also by fax. So my colleagues who sort the mail and faxes have been calling up companies who have sent us junk mail and requesting that Alara is removed from their mailing lists. A couple of months on, and the amount of junk mail we receive has been cut by two thirds! A dramatic cut and it is still reducing. This is a really easy way to reduce your environmental impact by preventing paper being wasted and will probably save you some time when sorting the post too.

 

Well, unfortunately we have had to abandon the wind turbine project. After sorting out problems with getting a suitable fan, it turns out that the modification we were testing does not improve the performance of the turbine by enough to justify continuing. The benefits just don't outweight the costs of the project.

Instead, we are now reviewing all forms of renewable energy to determine what would be the most suitable technology to use for our factory. I've been investigating solar thermal, solar photovoltaics, wind turbines (off the shelf ones this time rather than custom made) and heat pumps as systems that we could use to generate electricity or hot water and reduce our dependancy on the grid. There are loads of companies out there selling this equipment, so I found that a good place to start is with the DTI Low Carbon Buildings Programme. This is a grant scheme available to householders, commercial businesses, SMEs, large new developments and public sector bodies who wish to install some form of renewable energy system. For SMEs a grant of up to 50 % of the installation cost is available on all renewable technologies. The LCBP website is particularly useful because it gives a list of accredited products and installers so is a good place to start looking for information.

Anyway, I have contacted a range of companies who should be able to help us decide what would be the most suitable technologies and who will provide us with quotes so that we can assess the likely payback period and it will be interesting to see what they come up with. One company that seems to be particularly helpful is Microgeneration as they offer detailed consultations to businesses free of charge! I will definately be taking them up on that offer.

We’ve been redecorating some of our offices bit by bit over the last few months. Since we’d bought eco paints containing no VOCs for the walls from Ecos (see this post), we decided to look for an environmentally friendly floor covering too. We came across a product called Marmoleum® which is a special type of linoleum. Marmoleum is made from linseed oil, rosin (from pine trees), wood flour, cork flour, natural pigments, limestone and jute all of which are natural ingredients and all of which are sustainable. Last weekend we put a new floor covering down in some of the offices and kitchen area. Looks great! And there are loads of different colours and styles to choose from. Check out the manufacturers website, here.

 

I have just signed up Alara to Cyclescheme. This is a fantastic initiative where employees can get a really good bike for just over half price and pay for it out of their salary over 12 months. The idea is to encourage staff to cycle to work instead of driving or using public transport, thus helping the environment and encouraging a healthy lifestyle. Joining the scheme is very simple process - employers just need to register on the cyclescheme website, complete 1 simple form and that’s it.

 

The way it works is that the company actually buys the bike on behalf of the employee, then the employee pays the company back over a period of 12 months through contributions from their salary. The company can claim back the VAT on the bike and also doesn’t have to pay tax or national insurance on the employee’s repayments so there’s a further saving. The overall cost of the bike is reduced by nearly 45% so the employee gets a great deal and the employer gets a fitter, healthier worker. To calculate how much you could save, click here.

 

Well, wind turbine testing hasn’t gone particularly well so far. After setting up a ‘windmill workshop’ and building a scaled down model of the turbine, we then had trouble finding a fan that we could use to generate enough ‘wind’ to test the design.

 

To start with we bought a propeller type fan on ebay but when we connected it all up we found that it just threw air out of the sides rather than the front, so the airflow wasn’t uniform – there was a dead spot in the middle, right at the point where we really needed the strongest airflow!

 

Then we tried a big extractor fan thinking that more power would do the job, but no, we had the same problem. We even tried building a makeshift wind tunnel around the fan to try to channel the airflow forward. Didn’t work either.

 

So now we are trying a centrifugal fan (also from ebay) rather than a propeller type. The hope is that this type of fan will produce a more uniform airflow so that we can continue with our testing. If it doesn’t work, then we’re stuck as I’m out of ideas! Suggestions anyone…?

 

We’ve nearly finalised the design of our wind turbine so it’s now time to think about how to go about putting the turbine on the roof of our factory. We’ve decided to employ a structural engineer to help us because we will need to assess whether the roof structure is strong enough to cope with the static and dynamic loads associated with the spinning wind turbine. We also need help in determining how to safely attach the turbine to the roof. Our building is a warehouse with a steel framework and a slightly pitched roof so it’s not the easiest place to mount a turbine!

 

My contacts at London South Bank University have recommended a few local structural engineers who might be able to help us, so I have contacted them and am waiting now to hear their thoughts on the project and the potential cost of the work. I hope that getting them involved will help our planning application, and will certainly help when we apply for building control approval.

 

Yesterday we had another volunteer day, this time we were planting blueberries. This proved to be more difficult than I thought it would be as blueberries like acidic soil but ours is alkaline. To give them the best start we had to dig very large holes and fill them with special ericaceous topsoil for acid loving plants. A big thank you to all our volunteers who spent most of the day digging through our rubble like soil to make the holes big enough and deep enough! We also finished mulching around the trees with cardboard, which will help to keep the moisture in the soil over the summer. Another successful day thanks to our volunteers, who mostly came up from Camley Street Natural Park.

 

One of the next stages in our plan to be carbon neutral is to start generating our own electricity for the site. We decided that the best way to do this is to put a wind turbine on the roof of our factory. However, the wind turbine in question will not be an off the shelf model, it will be a bespoke design based on a modification to a Savonius rotor. Although ours is not a particularly windy site (being in the middle of London and surrounded by lots of other taller buildings), we decided to go ahead with this project anyway for a number of reasons, but mainly to test out this new design. The configuration should lend itself very well to generating electricity from the wind flowing over buildings in urban environments.

 

Vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) like the Savonius rotor are more suited to urban environments for a number of reasons. Firstly they will turn whatever direction the wind is coming from whereas the more conventional horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs) must turn to face the wind in order to extract energy from it. Secondly, wind in urban areas is often very turbulent because of obstructions like buildings or trees. HAWTs don’t work very effectively in turbulent air but VAWTs are affected less severely. There are however, many issues to overcome before we can actually put the turbine on the roof…more about that another day…

 

 

Not sure that mulching with the rye flakes has actually worked very well. It sees that they don't really block out enough light to prevent weeds from growing as I found some small leaves poking through! Never mind, I think we'll just compost them instead and continue mulching with cardboard. Our apple trees are now blossoming which is very pretty!

On Monday we're planting blueberries and continuing to dog our pond so I hope that the weather gets a little better by then. Please feel free to come and join us if you're available.

Last week we received a delivery of organic rye flakes that our quality department rejected. The supplier didn't want it back and we didn't really want to throw it away as we are trying to get to zero waste to landfill, so after much discussion we decided to try mulching with it. Regular visitors to the site might remember that we had been mulching with cardboard boxes and paper sacks from our factory as described in this post - but that looks really untidy. When you walk into the garden the cardboard and paper on the ground is one of the first things you notice.

So anyway, mulching with rye flakes seemed like a good idea as they will rot down eventually but should do the same job as wood chip or bark chippings. Mulching blocks out light which should prevent weeds coming through, keeps moisture in the soil and will provide some frost protection for our new plants. I tried it with a couple of bags this morning and it definitely looks much prettier than the cardboard. It might even be better than the cardboard because the flakes will allow rainwater to reach the soil whereas it might just run off the sheets of cardboard. If anyone has any comments about this I'd love to hear them as this is a bit of an experiment for us.

 

At Alara we have a chef who comes in every day to cook for our staff at lunch time. We have quite a varied menu of salads, rice dishes pasta dishes, meat and vegetarian dishes, all very tasty and all freshly prepared. We recently decided that all fruit and vegetables that are served up for lunch should be organic since we firmly believe in the benefits of organic food production and wholeheartedly support the organic movement. Although this is more expensive, it is much better for the environment and we feel it is much better for the health of our staff too!

There has been a mixed reaction from our staff to this change. Some have welcomed it and are quite enthusiastic about the idea whilst others are less supportive. It seems that one of the reasons for this resistance to change is that there is now less meat on the menu. Organic vegetables cost a lot more than their non-organic equivalents so the budget sometimes doesn't stretch as far as meat. In some cases meat has been replaced by soya and in others it's just that there's less meat in whatever dish is being served up. So in summary, the vegetarians are quite happy with the change but the carnivores are finding it more difficult to adjust...we'll see if attitudes change in time...

 

Following the success of our last planting day, I'm now organising another one for the 30th April 2007. This time we will be planting lots of smaller undergrowth plants to build up the lower layer of the garden. A lot of the plants we are putting in will be nitrogen fixing which is important for keeping the soil fertile. We'll also continue to dig our pond for harvesting rainwater. It promises to be a great day, especially if the weather holds!

More details can be found here including how to register your interest

If you'd like to volunteer, we'd love to see you there so don't hesitate to get in touch!

 

Today we had another very successful planting day in our permaculture forest garden. 9 volunteers came down to help us plant another 30 fruit bearing shrubs including blackcurrants, gooseberries, kiwi, and passion fruit. Once everything was planted we also did some mulching around the more vulnerable trees using cardboard boxes and paper sacks that came from our factory. Some of our more energetic volunteers also made a start digging a hole for our pond as you can see in the picture below.

A very big thank you goes to all our volunteers who did an absolutely fantastic job on the day! We couldn't have done it without you and really appreciate all your hard work - especially those of you who spent the afternoon digging out our pond. It was back breaking work, made even more difficult by the fact that the ground contains loads of old bricks and rubble left over from when the site was derelict.

The pictures of that I took on the day can be found here...enjoy!

There will be another planting day at the end of April...more details coming soon.

Spring has most definitely sprung in the garden! Everything is looking a little more leafy now and we even have some peach blossom on the peach tree. We also found some fruit on one of our elaeagnus which was just about ripe - it was very bitter though so I don't think I'll be snacking on those just yet! But it's nice to know that our plants are happy enough to start fruiting. Looking forward to more...