to test and market its new line of self-watering containers for growing vegetables. The "grow your own grub" project is aimed at consumers and is a move away from the self-watering planters Amberol has been manufacturing and selling to local councils since it first launched in 1969.
Amberol’s marketing manager John Williamson said the goal of its new sustainable product line was to give people the opportunity to grow their own food and become more sustainable, without investing a lot of time.
"Growing your own food is the topic of the moment," said Williamson. "We wanted to have a part of that market place so it kind of dragged us in. It’s important because we are in the market trying to help people. We’re trying to make it easy to grow your own
food."
Future Factory, a project partially funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and based out of NTU, worked with Amberol to determine the convenience and potential yield of growing vegetables in self-watering pots.
"Future Factory is a way of opening the door for businesses," said Phil Harfield, project manager. "It’s an opportunity to consult with experts. Businesses don’t always know what the questions are so we’re here to help with that. It’s about simplifying what’s out there."
Product design
Amberol, which employs 26 people, has developed six different pots designed for growing vegetables in urban areas and allowing gardeners to water only twice a week instead of twice a day. These containers are referred to as the 'Harvester Range', a part of the company’s original Aquafeed line of self-watering planters.
The tagline, 'the trick is in the wick' describes the containers’
technology, which uses a series of high capacity capillary action wicks to draw water up from a large built in water storage chamber. This water is then released onto an expander pad that disperses water evenly, releasing nutrients into the soil base, and ensuring that the crops are not over watered or allowed to go dry.
Gardeners only have to fill this reservoir twice a week and top watering is never necessary, saving water as well as time.
"Some people don’t have time to devote to a garden," said Williamson. "But we still want them to experience the taste of fresh carrots or lettuce just brought in from the garden. These containers allow that flexibility."
Sustainability assistance
The Future Factory team performed a series of blind trials to discover if constant moisture in the soil would yield more crops than top watering in a raised bed. The research determined that constant moisture like that present in Amberol’s pots produces a 14 per cent increase in dry weight for lettuce.
Williamson said third party scientific research was essential to back up the benefits of using the self-watering containers. As a company that markets itself as green, Williamson said it was important to take this next step toward sustainability.
Amberol will also be working with Future Factory on market positioning for the product as well as product
design. Williamson said they still need to research how people want to garden as well as what the price range needs to be.
Future Factory
The Future Factory project began in April 2009 and is scheduled to run until March 2012. The aim of the project is to help SMEs in the East Midlands draw on the expertise they need to develop more efficient and sustainable ways of doing business. They work with businesses in to create sustainable design projects and sustainable process innovations.
The project received an ERDF grant of £798,000, with the total project costing £1.99 million. Future Factory provides up to 90 per cent of the funding for eligible SMEs to work on a specially tailored collaboration with NTU academics and other experts, and focus on ways of initiating change within their organisation. Monthly workshops are held to offer
SMEs the opportunity to learn from experts about cost saving sustainable opportunities.
Harfield said the group aims to complete 100 collaborative projects with local businesses by the end of the project. To date, they have engaged in 44 collaborative projects as well as dozens more assists, with a goal of reaching 120 assists by 2012. An assist is a two-day build-up activity, which can be followed by the more in-depth collaborative project. Future Factory will develop a specific plan for each business, which designs a creative and innovative route to sustainability.
"The project has been very successful in engaging people," said Harfield. "It’s about looking at what you’re doing as a business and reducing your environmental impact. It’s quite easy to convince people to have sustainability, but it’s hard to get people in small businesses to step away and come learn about it. A lot of them just don’t have time and that’s part of our challenge."
