Over the past year, I have been lucky enough to visit many businesses across the UK that are working hard to move towards a more sustainable future.
Like other businesses, the big challenge for me and my Isle of Wight-based company OC Group is to work out how to continue to develop, evolve and do exciting and
rewarding projects in a sustainable way.
Though the idea of sailing round the world may appear to be a fairly green and romantic thought, I am as guilty as anyone of consuming the planet’s resources in an unsustainable way; I have flown to places for work, we have built boats on the other side of the world, I have driven long distances for meetings.
When I came back from breaking the solo, non-stop round the world record in 2005, I had the chance to spend some time on the remote island of South Georgia studying albatrosses, the birds that have so often kept me company at sea.
Visiting such a remarkable place made me stop and take in what was around me and reflect on my experiences and all that I have seen in a decade of life on the ocean. It was a stark reminder to me of just how important such wild and virtually untouched places are, and I spent a lot of time thinking about the differences in the way we live in different situations – how dramatically life there contrasts with life back home. Investigating and understanding better this chasm has become a passion for me.
I am now deeply committed to wanting to make a difference, to speed up my learning, to understand the issues and to try to solve them.
A few weeks ago, I attended a ‘
Power to the Parishes’ conference on the Isle of Wight, where I live and work.
To me the whole idea of “power to the parishes” means “power to the people”. Parish Councils are the first tier of Government and exist to represent communities’ views, which would be unlikely to be taken up by the regional councils. In theory, whole communities are represented and have a voice through Parish Councils, including young and old. Not an easy task to find out what the people of your area have as needs or wishes though.
I was pleased to see members of the Isle of Wight Youth Council at the Power to the Parishes meeting. Young people will ultimately play the most important role in the Isle of Wight’s future and its own
Eco Island project to become carbon neutral. It is not just about the green agenda, it is about developing a way of life on the island that is good for everyone and sustainable in the future, supporting local business and local people.
In the past, the Isle of Wight used to be known as the ‘Market Isle’. Now the majority of our produce is exported and a staggering 98 per cent is imported. Wouldn’t it be great if we could maximise food processing on the island and consume more of what we produce here, importing only minimal items off the island?
With rising
food prices, more people are starting to grow their own, like the parishioners of Northwood on the Isle of Wight, who have just started a new allotment scheme.
Isle of Wight charity Island 2000, meanwhile, has come up with the great idea of encouraging more fruit and nuts to be grown on public land for all to benefit from - the aim is that eventually every town and village will have a community orchard. There is already so much abundance locally, let’s make the most of it!
