Business parks and biodiversity

It seems that every business park I pass has space for rent, which begs the question of why I can also see more offices being constructed!

However I wonder whether business park owners should do more to try and sell their office space by doing more with the environment around it.

When we buy a house it's location and what we can see out of the window is important, so why not adopt the same principles for where people work, after all most people will spend the majority of their waking hours in some sort of workplace environment.

So here is an opportunity for business park owners to do something for biodiversity and 'green' their estate. But they need to do it properly. This is not just about chucking in some plants at the entrance.

You need a plan. From the plan to you can tell a story. The story becomes part of the attraction of the site.

You can attract birds, butterflies, bats, small mammals......think about sacrificing some car parking spaces (which are lying empty at the moment) for green spaces where people can relax, install a pond or wetland area. Have your buildings and the site surveyed for the suitability of bird, bat and invertebrate homes.

And then ensure everyone knows what you have done. Simple interpretation boards around the site that explains what you're doing and hoping to achieve will bring the initiatives to life.

It doesn't have to cost a fortune, it can be done so that it's easy to maintain but when so many offices are empty it could be the point of difference that makes your business park stand out.

Wise words

The following are some paragraphs from a speech reportedly given by Chief Seattle a native Indian in 1854.

The very last sentence is the one that strikes a chord.

"How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?

You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of our grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the Earth is rich with the lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the Earth is our mother. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. If men spit upon the ground, they spit upon themselves.

This we know - the Earth does not belong to man - man belongs to the Earth. This we know. All things are connected like the blood which unites one family. All things are connected.
Whatever befalls the Earth - befalls the sons of the Earth. Man did not weave the web of life - he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."

Technology: saving money, time and the environment

A client will be doing a multi-camera, live streaming, webcast next month. 1000 employees in the UK will watch saving each person an average of 3 hours travelling time. That's 3000 working hours or about 75 working weeks for one person. If that person was earning £25k per year, the business is saving over £40k.

Add to that a delegate rate of £50 per head and the saving jumps to £90,000.

Assuming half the people were going to drive in average efficiency cars they would have generated 20 tonnes of CO2.

For an investment of around £15k the business has saved £90,000 and prevented at least 20 tonnes of CO2 entering the atmosphere.

What method of working can you challenge in order to save money, time and the environment?

My favourite gloves

As we were about to embark on what I thought was a leisurely walk, my friend donned his breathable, techno, micro, performance, endurance gear. All lighweight and cost a small fortune.

An hour later did he feel any more refreshed than I did? Not really, and I was wearing cotton jeans and a hemp polo shirt - nothing techno about them.

We then turned the conversation to gloves. I'm one of those people that gets cold hands, I believe it is because I have a warm heart but that is often disputed. In my quest to prevent my fingers falling off in the bitter winter months I have been seduced by the expensive gloves promising to provide a technical solution that means they can be worn in the North Pole without any loss of heat. Rubbish.

Over the years I have spent a small fortune on man-made fibre clothing all promising to keep me warm but when it comes down to it only one pair of gloves actually works. And surprise, surprise, they are no-nonsense, no-preservatives-added, sheepskin gloves.

I bought them on Skye, where they are made as a by-product of the meat trade. They are cut and stitched without finesse but are functional, presentable and they actually keep my hands warm.

Which reminds me, what's happened to big woolly jumpers? It's hardly surprising that we're using so much energy heating our houses when people dress as if it's summer all year round.

Biodiversity: What is it and why should we care?

Biodiversity, or biological diversity, is an unhelpful way of describing what we all understand to be ‘nature’. Plants, flowers, trees, insects, birds, mammals, fish and all the other species that we can and can’t see that make up the living natural world. It’s basically everything apart from humans, anything humans have made, rocks, air, soil and water. 

We measure biodiversity as the number of different species in an area and the abundance of the species. The higher the numbers, the greater the biodiversity.

It is thought that for every species we have identified there may be 10 more yet to be discovered. The race is now on to discover them before they disappear.

What many humans have failed to appreciate is how reliant we are on the plants and animals that we share the planet with. It seems really obvious but plants generate the oxygen that we breathe, without plants humans would be dead and yet we continue to remove forests at an alarming rate.

115 of the 150 most prescribed drugs in the US are derived from plants. Scientists studying plants are discovering potential cures for diseases every year but they are worried that we’ll destroy plants before they are even discovered.

We all know about bees and how they take nectar from plants and in doing so also remove some pollen, which they deposit at the next plant thereby facilitating the reproduction process. However, it’s not just bees that are pollinators it is moths, butterflies, beetles, flies and even some birds and mammals. Without these pollinators we’d have fewer and fewer plants and in 2011 the National Ecosystem Assessment valued pollinators at £430 million per annum, but of course we actually get them free of charge.

The natural world is a complex web of inter-relationships, which for too long humans have disassociated themselves from. In fact we are in it and we influence it, and it is time that we took responsibility for our role and realized that we need the natural world more than it needs us.

Are villages sustainable?

As I sit looking at the Devon countryside I am reminded of a recent workshop I attended that explored the development of cities.

A good city has networks, links, green space, amenities and resources that should all ideally be within a 5-10 minute walk of where everyone lives. We can see from recent developments that the regeneration of inner city areas has become more favourable than the out-of-town developments we have been used to in the past. Large areas of most towns and cities are slowly being pedestrianised so we can see a trend towards creating the ideal city.

So what does this all mean for the country village? Villagers have long had to put up with inflated prices for fuel, food and other provisions because of their rural locality. Local shops that once thrived have been put out of business because of the large out-of-town developments that provided cheaper goods and a larger choice so are villages sustainable?

I look at the village I am in and think about the increased cost of fuel, the lack of choice and inflated prices of the local shop that opens when it is convenient for the owner not the customer and I wonder whether the community will be able to afford to stay here as the cost of commuting increases and rural villages become more and more penalised for wanting a quieter life than the city offers.

Or will the death of the out-of-town parks see a revival in village life with more shops and services opening, essentially becoming mini-cities.

I hope so.