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HALLER
FOUNDATION MEETING IN LENZBURG, SWITZERLAND (Nov 03)
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!
 MEETING LUC
VANDEVELDE, CHAIRMAN OF MARKS & SPENCER (Oct03)
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
 NATIONAL BUSINESS AWARDS
(Oct/Nov03)
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
CORNWALL
HEATHLAND PROJECT (Oct03) 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).
EDEN
PROJECT (Oct03) 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 - SUPERMARKET MASTERCLASS (Sep03)  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
 
BAMBURI
- MOMBASA - KENYA
(Sep03) 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 STAKEHOLDER WORKSHOP (Jun03)
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)   BEDZED
(Feb03)
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
|
2003
HIGHLIGHTS
Visiting
Bedzed - Zero Energy Design Building
