Julia Hailes MBE - News-2003

NEWS HIGHLIGHTS 2003

Haller Foundation Trustees, Louise Piper and Julia Hailes meet with Dr. Rene Haller in his old home in Lenzburg. Dr. Haller's parents looked after this splendid house, when he was a child. He says that he was inspired to visit and make his life in Africa from he beautiful books he found in the library. Today the house is a town museum but, as we discovered, if you get to see the attic rooms there are still some remnants of Dr. Hallers childhood - drawings he penned and posters on the wall!

One of five stakeholders, I was invited to a lunch-time meeting at Marks & Spencer hosted by Luc Vandevelde, their Chairman. "There is no such thing as a free lunch" our host proclaimed before asking for our opinions on Corporate Social Resposibility and M&S's CSR Review 2003. I was rather impressed by an original Lowri painting hanging in the Boardroom.
www.marks-and-spencer.com

The National Business Awards launched two years ago to 'celebrate the contribution of business to the nation'. Shortlisted for the Environmental Awareness Award were: BBC Magazines, Canary Wharf Group plc, East Midlands Airport and Scottish Power. As one of 5 judges we decided that the winner was....East Midlands Airport! Amongst other things they had reduced night noise, whilst increasing aircraft movements, recycled 30% of their waste and participated in innovative biofuels energy projects. www.thenationalbusinessawards.com

The largest landscape re-creation initiative of its kind in Europe, the Cornwall Heathland Project will: reshape significant areas of china clay waste tips, re-create at least 750 hectares of Cornwall's rare and endangered heathland landscape and manage a further 1,000 hectares of existing heathland. It is led by a partnership between English Nature (Ian Davies is project director), Imerys (formerly English China Clay) and the Cornwall County Council, amongst others. I spent a day being shown what had been done to get a perspective on a European restoration project to compare with Bamburi (see Haller Foundation).

Whilst visiting the Cornwall Heathland Project, Louise Piper (co-Trustee of the Haller Foundation) and I took the opportunity of visiting the Eden Project. Kindly shown round by Dr Peter Whitbread-Abrutat, Scientific Officer and National Partnerships Co-ordinator, we did a whistle-stop tour of the bio-domes and heard about some of the partnerships that the Eden Centre has forged with other like-minded organisations and projects. Of particular interest to us was the Mining Minerals and Sustainable Development Project, which is setting up a Centre of Excellence for Mining Rehabilitation.
www.edenproject.com

Project Carrot is an initiative set up by the Bulmer Foundation. Their Sustainable Land Use Programme is being developed through a unique partnership with Pershore Group of Colleges. I was asked to make a presentation on 'What supermarkets should be doing to promote sustainable land use' at one of their master classes held over a two week period. Mike Barry, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility, at Marks & Spencer did the afternoon session.
www.projectcarrot.org

The primary objective of the Haller Foundation, of which I am a Trustee is to support the work and principles of Dr. Rene Haller. I have visited him in Bamburi, just North of Mombasa on the Kenyan coast several times. During my visit in September, I participated in the International Coastal Cleanup, which recruited volunteers to clean the beaches - as well as divers to do some underwater rubbish collecting. I was particularly pleased to have encouraged a group to dig a nasty looking barbed wire fence out of the sand - and dispose of it. I also met the Kenyan Minister for the Environment.
www.thebaobabtrust.com / www.thehallerfoundation.com

Future Forest aim to make it quick and easy for people and companies to find out how much carbon dioxide they produce and suggest straightforward ways of reducing emissions. They also offer 'off-set' projects such as tree-planting and investing in climate-friendly technologies. I was invited to a stakeholder workshop to review Future Forests approach - they are currently reviewing all of our comments and planning their future strategy.

www.futureforests.com (Now called The Carbon Neutral Company)

Pooran Desai, Director of Bioregional, which runs BedZed, is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Consumer Products and the Environment (ACCPE). We were delighted to have our February meeting at Bedzed (see pictures) and to see this extremely innovative 'green building' both inside and outside. The ZED in Bedzed stands for 'Zero Energy Design' and they only use BedZED will only use energy from renewable sources generated on site.
www.bedzed.org.uk