News Headlines

A message from our Director

I have just got back from the Skoll Foundation’s Awards (more below) and was so impressed by all the fantastic social entrepreneurs that I met there. Like us, they are building up sustainable enterprises that are bringing benefits on many different levels. Businesses can offer so much more than just dividends for shareholders and customers can vote with their spending power for the sort of companies that they want to see survive the recession. The following stories show just some of the sustainable enterprises that we are directly involved in.

Here’s to a new way of doing business and a consumer savvy spring. Sue Riddlestone

BioRegional founders recognised in award from eBay charitable foundation

On the 26th March BioRegional’s founders were presented with a prestigious award from the Skoll Foundation. The awards which recognise the most innovative and sustainable approaches to resolving the world’s most urgent social issues, are made by the charitable foundation established by eBay's first president, Jeff Skoll.

The award includes a $765,000 grant to BioRegional which will allow significant expansion of our global ‘One Planet’ sustainability programme – working with government and business to put in place practical solutions that demonstrate how we can live within our fair share of the Earth’s resources.

Read about all the amazing award winners on the Skoll Foundation’s web site


Read articles about Sue and Pooran's approaches to green entrepreneurship on How to make a difference a web site that captures the faces and ideas of people whose determination, originality and entrepreneurialism is making the world a better place.
Sue Riddlestone article
Pooran Desai article

B&Q opens New Malden eco-store – 50 % less carbon emissions and the biggest range of One Planet Home products

New Malden's wind turbine - the biggest on a UK building

As part of B&Q’s commitment to be a sustainable One Planet Living® business the company has opened its greenest ever store, at New Malden, Surrey, UK, and it stocks the largest range of One Planet Home products.

The 159,000 sq ft store will reduce its carbon emissions by at least 50% compared to the rest of the chain's stores through innovative developments such as the biggest single wind turbine on a UK building and 108 underground bore holes, 100 metres deep which heat and cool the store with energy from the Earth. The store will become the latest benchmark for meeting B&Q's objective of a zero carbon store by 2012.

BioRegional has accredited over 2,000 products in the One Planet Home range - eco-products that help customers to make their homes greener and save money. The range includes water butts, energy monitors, solar hot water systems and more. BioRegional and B&Q are working to further develop the range.

Read the full story

Missed out on One Planet One Day?

Then watch the presentations on-line now

In our last e-newsletter (Jan 09) we reported the success of our One Planet One Day convergence which brought together our international partners to share their practical experiences of applying the One Planet Living® sustainability framework with delegates
– a framework that we believe could be used widely around the world for positive change.

For those who weren’t able to attend the event you may like to view videos of the presentations and speeches which have been made available through Gleeds TV.

Presentations and interviews include:
Nick James, BioRegional Quintain - One Brighton
Professor Sir Ghillean Prance - How much space should we leave for wildlife?
Hank Dittmar, Prince's Trust for the Environment
Geof Syphers, Codding Enterprises - Sonoma Mountain Village
Sunand Prasad, RIBA
Kevin McCloud, TV Presenter - greener choice (pictured right)

There are many more interviews and contributions from the event on Gleeds TV
You can also view the presentation slides from our on-line one planet learning community

New research highlights need to make carbon calculators more useful to construction industry

With the construction industry accounting for 15%-20% of the UK’s total carbon footprint, carbon calculators have been developed to help the industry make informed carbon reduction decisions. Carbon Calculators for construction industry projects come in many forms but their basic function is to calculate the carbon embedded within a construction project.

BioRegional contacted a wide range of people across the industry from environmental managers to footprinting experts. We found that although carbon calculators are considered an important tool for use in the construction industry, they are not in widespread use. The two main barriers for this are concerns over the accuracy of calculators and the lack of added value that they currently bring to a project.

To overcome these barriers solutions could include having common underlying base data for tools that is openly accessible and supported by government and more legislation, and pressure for reducing carbon emissions that would increase the value of carbon calculators.

Read the full article

BioRegional offers a sustainability consulting service visit www.bioregional.com/consulting

Having a BBQ? Then why not choose our BBQ charcoal that helps birds and butterflies?

The BBQ season has begun and the great news for nature lovers is that sustainable BioRegional HomeGrown© BBQ charcoal is in the shops now.

• It’s great for nature lovers because it’s made in UK woodlands managed to provide habitat for birds and butterflies.
• It helps combat climate change as CO2 emissions from transportation are reduced by 85% compared to imported charcoal.
• It’s better to cook with, as it burns hotter for longer so a little goes a long way, making it great value.

BioRegional HomeGrown© BBQ charcoal is stocked in the UK by Homebase, Sainsbury’s and Tesco and B&Q and on-line at www.ethicalsuperstore.com
Find out more about how local charcoal can help wildlife and the network of woodsmen and women making it at www.bioregionalhomegrown.com

A Social Enterprise EcoPark for Nottingham - creating jobs, reducing waste, innovating

BioRegional are working with partners to develop a plan for Social Enterprise East Midlands to create a cutting edge EcoPark in Nottingham, UK. The EcoPark will be a base for social enterprises to build businesses which bring local sustainable solutions and employment.

This project will make it possible to target the top of the waste and carbon hierarchies for maximum effectiveness - principally: reuse, repair, remanufacturing and recycling as well as low carbon retrofit for buildings and renewable energy technologies. This will allow enterprises to provide a real alternative to landfill and energy-from-waste. It will also be linked-in to universities to provide opportunities for sustainable start-up enterprises.

The venture is particularly timely as it is estimated by the EU that initiatives like these will turn each existing land fill job (1 person for each 1,000 tonnes of waste per year) into 25 jobs in the recycling sector.

BioRegional are working with Red Ochre, Third Element and Bright Green the project is supported by the council, local businesses and universities.
Further information
If you are interested in getting involved please contact Jonathan Essex jonathan.essex@bioregional.com

Discover new opportunities in re-using building materials at our free event

In our last newsletter we reported on our plans to set up Re-IY Centres around the UK – social enterprises collecting excess building materials from construction sites and selling them on to the general public and small scale trade market. The project takes inspiration from the ReStore business model successfully tried and tested in the US.
Read more about the project here

We are holding our first conference on May 12th 2009 at 1 London Bridge to celebrate progress so far and plan for the future. The conference will include a public event for any organisations or individuals interested in starting up a Re-IY Centre in their area.

The public part of this event is suitable for:
• social enterprises, charities and training organisations looking for opportunities to expand;
• housing associations and construction companies looking at a greener business opportunities;
• councils looking to reduce fly tipping and demonstrate leadership around reducing business waste to landfill.

Meet with individuals and organisations currently developing Re-IY Centres. Speakers include BioRegional, Habitat for Humanity, London Community Recycling Network, Minchinhampton Architectural Salvage Company and more.

Please contact: Cara Whelan, Re-IY Project Manager, BioRegional.
cara.whelan@bioregional.com tel. 020 8404 4882

Come to the 11th community lavender harvest - just follow your nose to south London

This summer will see the 11th community harvest at the south London heritage lavender field set up by BioRegional and partners. Come along on the weekend of the 25th and 26th July to pick lavender, enjoy lavender arts and crafts and refreshments and breathe in the wonderful scent. New this year is a full size on-site lavender distillery so visitors can see the oil being extracted for essential oil.

The project has been run by local community group Carshalton Lavender since 2004. See their web site www.carshaltonlavender.org for details.

Want to hear more? BioRegional training and talks coming up...

7th and 8th April 2009
Global Cities Conference
Abu Dhabi
Pooran Desai, BioRegional's Co-Founder and Technical Director of One Planet Living will chair a session on “A panorama of the latest experiences in ecological neighbourhoods” .
http://www.globalcityforum.com/default.aspx