The Green House diary

We have now pretty much completed our move into the new phase two of The Green House, and are starting to settle into our office area with its views over our woodland and across the valley where Ryde town is situated.

As a company, we are committed to growing responsibly, and I thought you’d like to know about some of the things we’ve done to minimise our environmental impact. While our building may have doubled in size, it certainly hasn’t doubled its energy usage.

Lighting
All our offices are now lit with LEDs. These clever little specks of light are bundled together into a lighting panel that looks exactly like any other office lighting, but the energy it uses is a fraction of even compact fluorescent tubes. As they switch on and off instantly, we can make full use of motion sensors to ensure we don’t light any empty areas that aren’t being used.

Heating
We have expanded our geothermal heating system – the entire building is heated completely from heat extracted from the soil. Instead of air conditioning, which pumps energy-intensive cold air into our server rooms, heat generated by our computer servers is extracted and fed back into the heating system. This keeps our servers cool and our energy use down.

The result of our heating system and building design is an energy footprint lower than an average family house – which is pretty impressive for a building that houses over 300 people!

Energy
We have installed solar panels on our roof to generate electricity. As we have a large open roof area, we can generate a sizeable amount of power.

Water
We are now collecting even more rain water than before. Collecting and conserving water is becoming increasingly important as our individual water footprint increases.

Outside
All food waste generated on the premises will be composted in our ‘Rocket’ industrial composter – this will create wonderfully rich nutritious compost from our kitchen waste, which will feed our allotments and our herb garden. We have built allotments both for staff use and for educational projects involving growing and using local foods.

The decking on our patio is made from recycled wood fibres and waste HDPE (also found in our Sheer Skin Tint tubes). Any unused decking is bought back by the company that makes it and recycled into new decking. It is also FSC certified, so the wood content is sustainably sourced.

We’re constantly looking at ways to minimise our environmental impact and will update you with any future progress. If you would like to help us on our greener journey or have any feedback, please do get in touch.

I’m sure it won’t have escaped your notice that the UK is experiencing a very mild autumn this year. In fact, the first half of October was at least 3 degrees above normal, and we’ve had the mildest November since records began over 300 years ago.

Here in the south we are used to milder weather; but even so, our woodland area at The Green House has apple blossom, daffodil shoots and primroses appearing at the end of November when we should be expecting frost and bare twigs. Most of our leaves haven’t dropped yet either. Although this is unusual, we should expect mild autumns every so often as part of the natural scheme of things – the last exceptional one was 2006, which was also a record-breaker.

Another thing you may have noticed is the lack of birds in the garden. Around this time last year, I had blue tits, coal tits and plenty of blackbirds feeding from the bird table, but this year…nothing. It’s actually pretty normal for birds to disappear from gardens for a while, as wild birds will tend to go out and about to forage and fatten up for the winter ahead. They probably have a little longer to do so this year. When the wild food dries up, they will return to gardens to enjoy whatever we have put out for them. Food shortages for birds can happen at any time, so keep an eye out for increasing visits to your bird table, which may mean they are starting to look for more human-supplied food.

What do birds need?
In times of hardship, birds need high-calorie, fatty food.

• Unlike humans, they need plenty of saturated fat: lard, suet, but no margarine or polyunsaturated oils, and definitely no used cooking fat as this can stick to their beaks and feathers. I stick with beef suet, which is clean and easy to put out.
• Whole nuts are for winter feeds only – at other times of the year use nut flakes. I use peanut, hazel and brazil nuts. (Chopped nuts you can buy from the supermarket in packets are ideal as they will be fresh and free from aflatoxin).
• Grated mild cheddar cheese is another favourite, as are raw porridge oats, although never give cooked porridge as this can harden around their beaks.
• You can also try cooked rice, flaked maize, cake crumbs, dried fruit and seeds, such as millet and sunflower (especially black sunflower seeds). Fresh water should always be available.
• Lastly, clear any dirty, mouldy or old food from your table regularly, as this can cause illness in some birds.

Birds of all kinds are particularly susceptible to environmental changes, and cold or unseasonable weather can badly affect them. Robins in particular will suffer very quickly from weight loss when food is scarce, but many garden birds suffer from starvation during the winter months, so a bird table could literally be a life-saver.

Woodland watch
The mild autumn has meant there are more insects around than you would normally expect at this time of year. Birds that would normally be supplementing the decreasing numbers of insects in their diet with fruits and seeds, have found there are both to choose from. There has been a lot of commotion in our woodland recently, mainly, I suspect, because the wild food I mentioned earlier is in abundance.

Flocks of starlings, one of the UK’s most common birds, but sadly declining rapidly in some other European countries, have been noisily feeding on the bright red holly berries at the edge of the woodland. They sometimes make so much noise you would think they were being attacked! Blue tits have also been flitting about – they love hawthorn berries – and sometimes a jay, who is probably after our acorns. We’ve also been enjoying regular visits from thrushes, who seem to love the vast numbers of sloes we have on our blackthorn trees, along with a few solitary robins.

(Pictures by Alison Bettenson from fulfilment)

As always, we’ve been looking at ways to make sure you get the full benefits of our range, while trying to minimise unnecessary waste.

With the launch of Sheer Skin Tint, we’ve made available samples of all three shades, so you can find the right one for you before you buy the full-size version. Ensuring you have the right shade should reduce the number of tubes that get returned to us, which in turn helps the environment – as, if a tube has been opened by a customer, we automatically have to dispose of it and it would almost certainly end up in landfill.

When you first order a full-size tube of Sheer Skin Tint, we’ll also include a sample of all three shades, so you can try it out before you open the full-size version. Then, if you discover the shade that best suits your skin is not the same as your full size version, you can call our customer centre on 01983 813913, return the unopened tube to us, and we’ll send you a replacement in your preferred shade free of charge.

We’ve looked at every aspect of Sheer Skin Tint with an environmental eye: the sample envelope is made from sustainable FSC accredited paper, is printed with vegetable-based inks and can be recycled with other paper – or composted. And the Sheer Skin Tint tubes and caps are made from HDPE (High-density polyethylene), which can be recycled as a single unit when empty.

Unfortunately, although we tried, we couldn’t make the sample sachet recyclable due to the many layers in its construction, (we’re working on sourcing a recyclable version). But the sachet itself contains a fraction of the plastic of a full-size tube, so disposing of a sachet will have a much smaller impact on landfill than disposing of a tube. Why not share the unused sachets with your friends, so they can experience our new Sheer Skin Tint too?

Why is landfill such an issue?
Last year, the Local Government Association warned that we might have as little as eight years of landfill left, as we dispose of more waste to landfill than any other European country (19 million tonnes last year).

So, why did we choose a plastic tube for our Sheer Skin Tint?
The main function for any packaging has to be protection of the product inside. HDPE has exceptional barrier properties; keeping the contents safe, and is one of the easiest and most readily recycled polymers available. Even so, demand for recycled HDPE is far greater than supply (source: recoup.org), so there is still a long way to go.

As make up is new for us, we’re on the start of a long journey to tweak and refine all the environmental aspects, but for now you know you can try our Sheer Skin Tint and we can all work together to reduce waste!