CARBON NEUTRAL BY
2012
and other environmental issues
“We shall require a substantially new manner
of thinking if mankind is to survive.”
Albert Einstein
Foreword
Without wishing to sound too alarmist, or come to
it, too dramatic it would seem that now is the time to act if we, as
a human race wish to reverse the damage we are undoubtedly doing to
the planet. This damage is now escalating at a rate of knots, as many
events combine to snowball effects beyond their natural sphere of impaction.
One such example is the increase in average temperature; it has been
apparent for many hundreds of years that the ambient temperature of
the earth has been rising. This hasn't been dramatic in nature and
the rise has been in miniscule steps until quite recently – but
why the sudden escalation, why now? Basically the temperature has reached
the point where the Polar ice caps are beginning to melt, this means
there is less ice to reflect back the suns rays, so the temperature
continues to rise as the suns energy is absorbed, stored and slowly
released by our planet, which in turn melts more ice and so on…..
So who is to blame?
Well as tempting as it is to put the issue firmly
at the feet of large multi national conglomerates, the real answer
is uncomfortably simple – we all are. Whilst we live and thrive
in a fossil fuel driven world, we are all part of the problem. What
though of the man who lives down our street and recycles everything
(including the bath water), only eats and wears fair trade goods and
detests the automobile to the extent that his holiday consists of pedalling
his way through 800 miles of tortuous landscape. Kudos to him – but
has anyone stopped to think about the process and materials used to
manufacture his bike?
The biggest contributor to global warming would appear
to be carbon emissions and if these could be cut down or in a utopian
world, cut out, then the planet has a chance of a net discharge of
heat going forward, which will in turn, at least maintain the status
quo. So is this achievable and more importantly, attainable?
In short, yes but, and there is always a but, we
have to start now and because we are all part of the problem we all
have to be part of the solution. So in our individual lives we can
do all of the good things we have recently been encouraged to do – drive
a smaller more efficient car, perfectly insulate our homes, use rechargeable
batteries, replace our lightbulbs with state of the art energy savers
and so on. This is laudable and patently will not do any harm but this
only covers about 40% of the carbon attributable to us on an individual
basis – the remainder is in indirect emissions – our clothes
we buy, the computers we use, the food we eat – all of the these
things are made, grown or transported with the help of fossil fuels.
So business needs to do its bit more than most and
as such responsible businesses need to be pathfinders. There will always
be those whose shortsightedness goes no further than a quick buck today
but with companies such as Sainsbury, Marks & Spencer and HSBC
all pledging carbon neutrality within 5 years, I believe that Growing
Success should once more lead the horticultural sector on matters environmental – let
us make the pledge and then aspire to fulfil it; we have always marketed
ourselves as commercial environmentalists so now let’s live up
to the ego. Can we measure up to the challenge – who knows -
but one’s thing is for sure, the world will be a slightly better
place for us trying.
Steve Chalk
Operations Director
Growing Success
The Plan
Following on below is the proposed plan for
Growing Success to work towards over the next 5 years. It’s
an outline and in many instances deals with issues using broad
sweeping strokes as opposed to providing minute detail. The
substance will come as avenues are explored because in many
instances the ‘answer’ isn't yet known and as such
awaits discovery.
Broadly speaking the plan has three main
axes which should become the mantra of the proposal going forward:
Minimise Energy Use
Maximise Renewables
Use Offset as a Last Resort Only
These central themes then translate down
into a simple 10 point plan:
- Growing Success Organics proposes to become
more energy efficient wherever possible and to move over
to green energy sourcing. Scottish Power for example will
supply electricity under their H2O green scheme. This means
that for every unit of electricity consumed, Scottish Power
feed a unit of hydro-generated electric into the national
grid. We will urge our supply base to do the same.
- Wherever possible we will source from
UK suppliers.
- We will enter into discussion with our
supply base with a view to reducing all plastic componentry
by utilising and developing new technologies such as polymers
derived from maize.
- Clever logistics – reduce vehicle
movements by utilising back loads, inter company/other company
distribution hubs and so on. We will also work with transport
providers towards conversion onto bio fuels.
- Offsetting will only be used where there
appears to be no imminent ‘green’ technology
solution to the problem at hand.
- Growing Success will work closely with
its supply base to investigate and where applicable, adopt
best practice across all aspects of the business. A good
example being the encouragement of suppliers and customers
to stop using and/or selling normal light bulbs and to only
use and/or stock energy saving bulbs.
- We will target a reduction in the packaging
used for our products by 25% and to utilise only recycled
or sustainable materials within our packaging. Our overall
target is that within 5 years there will be no need for Growing
Success packaging to enter landfill sites.
- All company personnel will be encouraged
to significantly reduce the printing off of emails and to
store communications as electronic media wherever possible
and practical. Sending of letters via the postal system to
be discouraged in favour of electronic mail.
- Packaging materials will have to be able
to be easily recycled or compostable. This effectively limits
usable materials to polymer derived from corn starch or the
four forms of re-cyclable plastic (PLA, PP, PET and PE).
- We will investigate and initiate a policy
of ethical fair trade.
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For more information about our plan – and our
products – contact Steve Chalk - Steve.Chalk@monrobrands.com -
01747 841401
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