Legislating for Sustainable Development: Ecostudio's response to the Welsh Government's consultation

If you are interested to read our 1 page response to the recent consultation to legislate for sustainable development please click here to open the document.

In our experience the Welsh Government needs to act to ensure sustainable development is a reality in Wales and its important to do this because - aside from the commercial, environmental and community benefits - it offers a strong point of differentiation.

We don't think that the focus that the Welsh Government is putting forward is clear enough or practical to engage the majority of people or businesses - their approach is to obligate the public sector and this simply doesn't go far enough.

Let's push things forward....

Alternative land use, rural business development, food packaging waste...we're keeping busy!

Here's a taste of what we've been up to:

A land based production study with Torfaen Council’s Rural Development team – this first of a kind project focussed on land use and rural business links.

By tackling questions such as how the rural land is currently being used, what alternative land use options exist, and how these changes can bring economic benefits to the rural economy we’ve been able to work with the Torfaen Rural Development team to design a practical plan for sustainable tourism, biodiversity, forestry, community food production and renewable energy.

We’re also advising policymakers at the Welsh Government to engage small business on the issue of food and food packaging waste – building on our work from 2011 on the Food Manufacture Service and Retail Sector Plan Consultation to help implement their Towards Zero Waste policy.

Our capacity building masterclasses on sustainability (yes we need a better name for these!) are growing in demand, we're supporting the development of some social enterprises and working with the horticulture sector to provide accessible toolkits for small business use.

It’s exciting times…we’ll keep you posted...we promise!

Sustainably speaking at the 6th Organic Research Centre Producers Conference and 3rd Sustainable Food Planning Conference (AESOP)

We were delighted to be asked to present our work on sustainable business innovation and the practical tools and techniques that we’ve designed for food business to benchmark and improve their sustainable performance.

Our presentations and background notes are available for download directly from the conference websites:

3rd Sustainable Food Planning Conference (AESOP), Cardiff University, 28th-29th October 2011

6th ORC Organic Producers' Conference, Aston University, Birmingham, 18-19th January 2012 (cut & paste this link into search bar: http://www.organicresearchcentre.com/?go=Information and publications&page=2012 Conference O1)

Attending and speaking at conferences is a great way to learn from leading thinkers and doers from our sector. It’s also a great opportunity for us to connect, share and gain feedback from international specialists from industry, policy and academia.

We’d like to acknowledge our partners at BRASS, Cardiff Business School and Organic Centre Wales for their support with this – keep up the good work!

Please drop us an email if you’d like to find out more.

Food waste in the food supply chain: Radio Wales interview Ecostudio

Ecostudio were invited by Radio Wales to share experience on the problem of food waste that is created by food business in Wales.

The programme includes Rhys Lougher from Ty Tanglwyst Dairy, Rob Scoulding from the Co-operative, Caitlin Shepard from This is Rubbish and Iain Cox from Ecostudio. It was aired ealier today and lasts for 4 minutes.

Here's 3 reasons why this is worth listening to:

1. it explains how small and large businesses are preventing food waste in practical and profitable ways.
   


2. it illustrates how preventing food waste is a straightforward part of sustainable business.



3. it emphasises the urgenct need for the Welsh Government to take action and help Welsh business prevent food waste.

The programme is available through Radio Wales until 11th Nov 2011 (item begins 22mins in).

After that date you can listen to it by clicking here.

CALLING ALL FARM AND PRODUCER BUSINESSES IN TORFAEN

Ecostudio are working with Torfaen Borough Council to establish a new project called CREATE.

This project helps Torfaen farms, producers and businesses to get the best commercial value from natural resources - such as food, forestry and renewable energy.

For a limited time only we’re offering up to 7 Torfaen businesses the opportunity to WIN up to £3000 towards a project of their choice and FREE consultancy to help them do it!*

To register contact Susie on 08452 696105 or susie@ecostudio.org.uk

*registration closes 11 November 2011. Terms and conditions apply.

The Welsh Government’s Glastir scheme and the challenges of implementing sustainable development goals

The Welsh Government urgently needs to make sense of sustainable development goals and clearly communicate these with the food and farming industry in Wales or the Glastir scheme will fail.

We’re concerned to learn about the farming industry’s reaction to the Welsh Government’s new Glastir scheme as reported in today's Western Mail.

Unfortunately this response to the Welsh Government’s attempts to implement sustainable development goals within the new Glastir scheme is nothing new. This is frustrating for Ecostudio and many of our clients because we have worked tirelessly to provide evidence that sustainable business is simply profitable business.

The food and farming industry in Wales is facing significant challenges from global competition for cheap food, rising energy and input costs and increasing pressure on natural resources.

The Welsh Government recognises that sustainable practices are fundamental to our nation’s economic survival. Many farm businesses feel they are already contributing this goal.

So the issue has nothing to do with farm businesses not wanting to be sustainable producers or that they are somehow environmental terrorists – in fact many farmers understand that they must work in harmony with the land or they will quickly exhaust the very means they rely upon to keep them in a profitable business.

On the contrary the issue revolves around a lack of clear communication for what sustainable development actually means.

Put simply sustainable development is economic development that does not exploit people or the environment.

It’s about building profitable businesses that pollute less and bring more benefit to the communities they serve. It’s not about environmentalists and social scientists dictating how we should behave (although having been involved in the industry for many years and we can see why some people may perceive it this way).

The key challenge for the Welsh Government in implementing the Glastir scheme lies in understanding how to implement sustainable practices.

Here at Ecostudio we’ve been championing the cause for sustainable food and farming business for many years.

We have worked with many farm businesses to build strategies and action plans to do just that – Birchgrove Eggs, Calon Wen Organic, Dunbia, Llwynhelyg Farm Shop and Ty Tanglwyst Dairy to name just a few.

Essentially sustainable business requires vision, innovation and determination (skills that most small businesses need to possess in abundance to survive in a global marketplace) combined with the know-how and experience to do things better (this is where we are able to help).

However if these efforts go unrecognised by policymakers and their delivery bodies. The food and farming business and the sustainable development agenda in Wales will not move forward.

Clearly this is something we feel passionately about particularly because we are positioned to do something positive to help move this agenda forward.

We welcome comments on this.

Birchgrove Eggs featured in The Western Mail

Since winning the True Taste Contribution to Sustainable Development Award in 2010 we’ve been helping this busy farm business develop a strategy for practical ways they can promote awareness of their sustainable approach to consumers, retailers and supply chain partners.

Our work was paid for by Cywain a project sponsored by the Welsh Government to help develop farm based businesses.

The article describes Birchgrove’s new mayonnaise range and the results of their carbon footprint through a scheme led by Bangor University.

We’re delighted for Tony and Gwen and all at Birchgrove and look forward to hearing about more developments in the not too distant.

We also read on the same page about a different regional egg producer that has received funding through the same scheme that helped Birchgrove.

To achieve sustainability we need to create a supportive environment that encourages food and farming businesses to work together towards achieving more sustainable food supply chains and to do this we need to be sensitive to the needs of both farm businesses.