Sustainability at the Heart of Business and Refurbishment

10 January 2013

How green and sustainable is essential for longevity

Just over 10 years ago, Doug Stewart sold his car dealership to set up business in an entirely different field. Inspired by a conversation about alternative energy sources at a chance meeting at a party, Doug founded green energy uk in 2001 with the goal of demystifying the process of obtaining and using sustainable energy. Not only is the business growing stronger, with its values becoming increasingly relevant in the current climate, but the purchase of a refurbishment project has enabled it to facilitate further business growth and practice what it preaches when it comes to sustainability.

Our business is green energy – electricity from 100 per cent sustainable sources, to be precise. That chance conversation whet my appetite to start a business where the ethos is to help people make a significant difference for the environment without making a huge effort, and I haven’t looked back. The business has come a long way since the start-up operation in my dusty attic, not just in our approach to alternative energy sources, but also in that we refurbished our current business premises to house our employees, make room for further growth and to put our money where our mouth is when it comes to green credentials.

Prior to the refurbishment, which we completed late last year, the building had been a tanning and nail salon with a small disused office that had fallen into disrepair. The structure is an original 16thcentury coach house and renovations took nine months to complete. The development's potential was attractive to us, although it’s fair to say it needed more work than we anticipated! It was more costly because we discovered that the chimney, which forms the core of the building, had a very large crack in it – so it had to be stabilised and reinforced. The building was stripped, the roof removed, and the interiors were insulated. On a preservation front, we discovered and restored the wattle and daub walls, a 17thcentury painting on the chimney, and the original floorboards. A significant amount of oak was used to reinforce the building’s structure. We’re delighted with the results as we’ve been able to modernise the building whilst still allowing the expression of its historic feel and nature through its unique features. We spent around £350,000 to achieve this.

Our refurbishment project has created a one-of-a-kind home for our innovative work. It allows us to continue expanding and championing what we do – supplying green electricity to domestic and business customers through a variety of creative sources. Green energy is certainly now more of a talking point, not least because of the prevalence of news coverage about governmental policies on the topic. However, I don’t really want to get into the politics of it – that’s for another time – but I can say that we are committed to the pioneering methods of generating energy using waste. The technology and processes in this area have really evolved and give a double environmental benefit of low carbon generation along with waste recycling.

Think power, think farm animal excrement – no? Actually, that’s one of the sources we champion! It uses the process of anaerobic digestion, which is a fancy way to describe the process of breaking down organic microorganisms without any oxygen. Through this process, a methane and carbon dioxide-rich bio-gas is produced which is then burned to produce energy. None of the harmful effects of methane go into the atmosphere as they would if the waste was left to decompose, and the nutrient-rich solids left after digestion can be used as a fertiliser. A similar process is used to convert energy from skip waste, and we also source energy from tomato growers, using CHP technology.

There’s a place for wind power, but wind is intermittent and so developing technologies to be able to generate a supply from other sources is vital if we’re to build a solid future for renewables. Whether from an individual or a business point of view, the issue of reducing our carbon footprint is a pressing one for many these days. It is not just an environmental concern anymore, but has become a real factor in economic, political, and cultural development. Our mission is to allow for people to do this without major effort or cost. For companies, it offers a great potential to boost their CSR policy and provide a feel-good factor – what’s not to like? The government’s stance on green energy and the way forward may be changeable, but one thing is certain: the definite prospect of fossil fuels running out because supplies are finite. If there are ways to delay this, then we should grab the opportunity with both hands.

Doug Stewart