News Headlines

A message from our Director

Good principles are at core of true corporate social responsibility and of course all good citizens too. This week we started to review the uptake of our 10 one planet principles sustainability framework around the world and were really encouraged to see that it’s being taken on independently of our involvement. This is what we’ve always wanted - to sow the seeds of sustainability by inspiring change through our own real-life projects.

There are now SMEs using the framework independently in 32 countries from Armenia to Australia and from the UK to the USA. The framework is very simple and holistic covering everything from zero carbon to equity and local economy to health and wellbeing. And the principles have been described by design guru, Kevin McCloud as “the most approachable, understandable and perhaps enjoyable principles on the planet”.

If you are involved in an SME and want guidance on how to operate sustainably then do please download our free toolkit. We’ve recently improved it and as always we are really keen to get feedback so do get in touch. Oh, and of course there’s the online calculator and action plan tool for us citizens too.

Sue Riddlestone

We're now helping to make all four eco-towns to be truly eco

Last month we were asked to officially join the Bicester eco-town team, meaning that we are now working across all four sites to help bring our expertise into the planning and delivery process. We have got stuck in because done well these projects will be excellent places to live and work and will help to expedite sustainable living around the country and perhaps internationally.

There has been much contention over the sites, Bicester in Oxfordshire, Whitehill and Bordon in Hampshire, Imerys in Cornwall and Rackheath in Norfolk, largely due to their semi-rural locations which makes sustainable travel a big challenge – and obviously a key area for anything calling itself an eco-town to grapple with. So creating workable solutions to reduce the need to travel and make it easy to use sustainable travel options at every life stage might be a way in which the eco-towns can really innovate in a world leading way. This will obviously be difficult with the small number of homes in the exemplars but we held a day long workshop for all the eco-town teams in March. They came up with lots of great ideas, for example thinking about how they could avoid using the car on the complicated multi-schools-drop-off-and-then- on-to-work trip.

Another key lesson we have learned is to approach the community from the perspective of the various types of people who are going to live and work there. What is going to make it easy for them to do the right thing and difficult to do the wrong thing in terms of reducing their carbon impacts and living a sustainable life? Then we can get creative and design a local community, economy and services to help achieve this. This process can be kick started with workshops involving the delivery team and key stakeholders, which also has the effect of helping those involved to develop a shared vision for the community.

If anyone would like the notes from the workshop please e-mail us. You can also read a longer article about our opinions and work on ecotowns here.

Croydon construction materials reuse centre gets go ahead

Great news! Last month The London Waste and Recycling Board (LWARB) confirmed funding for our Croydon reuse centre - selling construction waste such as bricks and tiles in Croydon, South London. The centre is the first of its kind in the UK and will lead to the creation of four new jobs, a training programme for 40 young and unemployed trainees each year and will divert over 3,500 tonnes of waste from landfill over five years.

A three-year fund of £500,000 will help to make use of unwanted building materials from housing developments and DIY stores. The items will be collected, transported to the centre in Croydon and sorted through for resale to the public or members of the building trade. The project will be led by BioRegional, working in partnership with ARC, a charity promoting reuse, helping low income families, and training for work. The reuse centre will be branded as ReIY (reuse it yourself).

It will sell products such as bricks and tiles to the trade and public, giving customers the satisfaction of knowing that they are not only saving money, but are contributing to saving the environment too. Carbon emissions will be reduced by an estimated 1,700 tonnes over the first five years of the project as the materials will be reused in their original form, with minimal reprocessing.

Jonathan Essex, Reclaimed Materials Manager at BioRegional, said: “We are thrilled that LWARB has supported our new joint social enterprise with ARC selling used but still useful construction materials – helping to address market failure in the reuse sector. Reuse is high up the waste hierarchy and vital if we want to tackle the massive 25 million tonnes of construction, demolition and excavation waste sent to landfill each year. It will also create training opportunities, equipping Londoners with the skills to make the city a greener, better place.”

BioRegional working with ARC, aims to use this working example to kick start a network of three centres across London. If you’re interested in setting up a ReIY Centre you can download the business plan here.

www.reiy.net

Our new video shows you how to light a barbecue without any firelighters - Ray Mears would be proud!

Summer is officially here and as always we are selling the best, and most sustainable, barbecue charcoal in the country! And as a helpful extra this year we have made an online video showing you how to light your barbecue without the need for firelighters or lighter fuel. Which means no food tainting from those nasty petrochemicals.

The video stars our friend Andrew Horsell, he’s South African and we know how much those guys like to barbecue, or should that be braai?

Come to south London’s 12th annual heritage lavender harvest

Everyone is invited to the 12th annual Carshalton Lavender Harvest which will be held on the weekend of 24-25 July 2010. The beautiful 3-acre lavender fields in south London were originally set up by BioRegional and partners and are now run by Carshalton Lavender - the Observer Ethical Award-winning community group. Visitors can pick their own lavender, with the remaining flowers used to produce lavender oil to sell throughout the rest of the year.

See www.carshaltonlavender.org for details of the event.

highlights from the One Planet programme

One Planet partner B&Q wins at Observer Ethical Awards

Congratulations to our One Planet partner B&Q who were named last month as winners of the Ethical Business award at the Observer Ethical Awards 2010.

The company's strong heritage in sustainability was recognised by the judging panel, who were impressed by the huge achievements made in 2009 such as an absolute reduction of 16% CO2 against a 2006 baseline.

B&Q has committed to becoming a One Planet Company – and is working in partnership with BioRegional to reduce its direct impact to sustainable levels and helping its three million customers achieve One Planet Homes and lifestyles.

BioRegional's Executive Director Sue Riddlestone who was at the awards to see B&Q receive the award from actor Colin Firth said: "I congratulate B&Q on winning the Observer Ethical Business Award, which provides well-deserved recognition for the genuine commitment to sustainability that B&Q has shown for many years. B&Q can truly claim to be at the leading edge of responsible retailing, and BioRegional is proud to be B&Q's sustainability partner."

Euan Sutherland, CEO of Kingfisher UK & B&Q said: “We have achieved a 16 per-cent absolute reduction in carbon emissions over the last few years and are working towards our target of a 20 per-cent reduction by 2012. Sustainability is the right thing for our employees, suppliers, customers, shareholders and, of course, ultimately our planet. Given we only have one of those it’s important that we get our own house in order, whilst we also work to help make it easier for our customers to green up their homes.”
Watch highlights from the award ceremony

One Planet Sutton - latest developments from the UK's first One Planet Region

BioRegional making tracks into South America?

Daniel Viliesid represented BioRegional at the 5th UN-Habitat World Urban Forum in Brazil at the end of March. Formerly the Sustainability Integrator for One Planet Communities partner, BioRegional Quintain Ltd, Daniel has moved to back to his home country, Mexico, and is working to set-up a BioRegional office for Latin America. He reports…

At the warehouses and docks of “Pier Maua” in Rio de Janeiro, Brazilian President Lula da Silva opened the forum themed “The right to the City: bridging the urban divide”. Around 20,000 people attended the event over 5 days. There were a great number of debates addressing issues from sustainable cities, social justice, slum rehabilitation and post-disaster reconstruction to participatory design and budgeting.

BioRegional is now pursuing connections made with Governments, international organisations, and private developers in Latin America in order to extend the One Planet Communities programme and wider One Planet programme into this fast growing region.
Find out more about the World Urban Forum

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

20-22 September, 2010
3rd annual Green Building Council of SA (GBCSA) Convention & Exhibition
Cape Town International Convention
As part of this three day forum Pooran Desai, co-founder of BioRegional and Technical Director of One Planet Communities, will explore how the One Planet Communities approach can work in South Africa based on BioRegional’s work in the country since 2002.
http://www.gbcsa-convention.org.za