Carbon Gold wins eco-friendly product award

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Carbon Gold wins eco-friendly product award: Carbon Gold, the leading supplier of biochar products to professional growers, tree care specialists and gardeners around the world, has been announced as the winner of the Eco-Friendly Products Award in the 2021 Great British Growing Awards.

The award-winning range, which includes environmentally friendly compost, seed compost, fertiliser, soil improver, tree soil improver and lawn improver, is made using biochar, a high-carbon form of charcoal that is proven to boost plant health and vitality when used in soil.

Carbon Gold wins eco-friendly product award

Carbon Gold wins eco-friendly product award

As well as benefiting plant development, Carbon Gold’s biochar-based products also have a direct impact on the user’s carbon footprint. For every kilo of biochar put in the ground, three kilos of harmful CO2 are permanently sequestered from the atmosphere, helping professional and home growers to directly counter the effects of climate change.

The Great British Growing Award winners were announced during an official award ceremony at Glee, the UK’s leading garden and outdoor living show. The prestigious awards were presented by presenter and author, Ellen Mary, and recognise the very best of the gardening industry, from sustainability stars, through to seed suppliers and gardening writers.

Mike Hartshorn, Managing Director of Carbon Gold, comments: “We are delighted to have been selected as the winner of the best Eco-Friendly Products Award. The Great British Growing Awards are renowned within the industry as the ultimate symbol of quality within the gardening sector, so to be recognised as part of the awards as a leader in eco-friendly gardening is fantastic.

“At Carbon Gold, we understand the impact that that gardeners and horticulture professionals can have on the environment and are passionate about ensuring that it is a positive one. If every gardener in the UK ditched the peat-based products and converted to biochar, we’d be making significant steps toward offsetting our carbon emissions. Our mission is to help more and more people to discover the benefits of sustainable gardening, and this award marks an incredibly positive step in this process.”

For more information about Carbon Gold, visit https://www.carbongold.com/

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Future proof the UK’s green spaces

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Future proof the UK’s green spaces: There is an urgent need to recruit young volunteers to care for and maintain UK parks if they are to meet the needs of current and future generations, according to Future Proof Parks – a partnership between Groundwork, Fields in Trust and National Youth Agency.

They say it is vital that we act now to recruit the next generation of volunteers, representative of the communities that enjoy and benefit from the UK’s parks and green spaces. A new series of free How-To guides have been published supporting friends of parks groups to recruit more young volunteers.

Future proof the UK’s green spaces

Future proof the UK’s green spaces

Our parks are amazing places. Across the country, volunteers work tirelessly to care for and protect their local green spaces, improving our towns and cities. They have been crucial as places to exercise, meet friends and relax during the Coronavirus pandemic. As council funding becomes further stretched, more work maintaining and improving our precious parks is being picked-up by friends of parks groups. However, these volunteers are not always representative of the whole local community that use the park – and they could benefit from a wider range of volunteers to support their growing workload.

Future Proof Parks is a National Lottery Heritage Fund programme – part of the £10m ‘Kick the Dust’ initiative –which aims to get more young people involved in preserving their local park and green space heritage. Throughout the programme young people have learned about their local historic parks and have been encouraged to join their local ‘friends of’ groups, volunteering to preserve the local spaces that matter to the communities they live in.

The project is also working with friends’ groups to give them the tools, encouragement, and support to get more local young people involved in their work and benefit from cross-generational working. To support volunteers inexperienced at involving young people, a series of How-To guides has been published introducing Friends of Parks working with young people in green spaces. The in-depth How-To-Guides which look at key areas including Recruiting young volunteers, safeguarding young people and how to fundraise with young people.

Fields in Trust Chief Executive Helen Griffiths said: “We are all thankful to the volunteers who helped maintain our parks throughout lockdown and now, coming out of the pandemic, we can all play our part to make sure local green spaces will remain a healthy part of the local environment contributing to our wellbeing, our community connections and mitigating the impact of climate change. Local parks have been vital over the last year, we must make sure they will always be there for the whole community and for future generations – helping to restore the natural world and providing safe places to meet friends and neighbours. To make that happen we have to ensure the next generation of volunteers are included and empowered to get involved now and become future leaders”

The wellbeing value associated with frequent use of parks and green spaces is worth £34.2 billion per year to the UK adult population and is estimated to save the NHS around £111 million per year through a reduction in GP visits. Parks are one of the most universal of our public services used by all members of our communities and multiple generations – so it is important that they deliver something for all the groups that use them.

Earlier this year, a report published by Groundwork drawing on contributions from 23 organisations recognising the need to reimagine parks for the 21st century, found major inequalities in people’s ability to access parks and other open spaces.

The ‘Out of Bounds’ report demonstrated the extent to which certain groups are not getting the benefit of regularly accessing ‘urban nature’ – citing evidence that girls and young women feel unsafe in public spaces, some disabled people feel uncomfortable in parks and young people from minority ethnic backgrounds have fewer opportunities to connect with green spaces.

The How-To Guides are available for free download www.fieldsintrust.org/future-proof-parks

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Outlandishly electric from Etesia at SALTEX

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Outlandishly electric from Etesia at SALTEX: SALTEX 2021 will prove to be a great opportunity for the grounds management industry to learn more about the recently launched ET Lander – a new fully electric utility vehicle from Etesia UK.

Unveiled earlier this year, the ET Lander is the innovative product that everybody is talking about, and the industry will finally be able to get up close and personal with it on stand C085 at the NEC Birmingham on 3 and 4 November.

Outlandishly electric from Etesia at SALTEX

Outlandishly electric from Etesia at SALTEX

Built for use on road and off road in both the town and countryside, the ET Lander is 100% electric, spacious, well-equipped and user-friendly. It is built on a robust chassis and has an array of options including a three-way tipper bed with dual control from the fully-fitted two-seater cab or by remote control when outside the vehicle.

With a length of just 3.72 meters, the ET Lander is very compact. Thanks to the power steering, the short turning radius of 4.40 meters and 360 ° visibility, it goes anywhere. Fitted with lead acid batteries (72V 220 Ah – producing 15.8Kw), the autonomy of the vehicle lasts for a full working day – without noise pollution.

The ET Lander can transport loads of up to 940kgs and can also tow up to 750kgs. With its all-road tires and powerful transmission, it is a real all-terrain vehicle for use in a variety of conditions on slopes and difficult terrain. Furthermore, life is made easier for its users through the integrated loading ramps – which allow for the transport of materials, ride-on mowers and other grounds maintenance equipment.

In addition to the new ET Lander, SALTEX visitors can expect to see the new MK124 ride on mower with a 124cm Cutting deck and ground tip emptying During the pandemic the R&D team have been busy working on new innovative machines that will result in further additions in the coming months.

Etesia’s machines have long held a reputation for being the best at cutting and collecting grass in all weathers, so ensure a trip to stand C085 is on your SALTEX agenda to find out how this brand could significantly improve your operations.

For further information, please contact Etesia UK on 01295 680120 or visit www.etesia.co.uk.

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DLF Seeds announces facilities investment

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DLF Seeds announces facilities investment: DLF Seeds, the worlds-leading grass seed breeder is to invest £3.5M in new state-of-the-art mixing and distribution facilities at its main seed processing site at Inkberrow in Worcestershire.

This comes on the back of a £3M investment at its Scottish site at Broxburn, near Edinburgh in 2015, which automated and revolutionised the handling of forage grass and clover mixtures into the agricultural market.

DLF Seeds announces facilities investment

DLF Seeds announces facilities investment

“This investment will transform our current production facilities and bring much needed additional capacity and efficiency to cope with the future market demands in the amenity, consumer, environmental stewardship, cover crop and wildflower markets,” says Tim Kerridge, Managing Director for DLF Seeds.

“We have already seen increased demand for our products, especially for environmental stewardship, cover crops and wildflowers, in response to the UK government’s focus on habitat creation and carbon capture. In the amenity and consumer sector we have also experienced sustained growth and continue to see opportunities in these markets, as the economy recovers from Covid and embraces the sustainability agenda.”

The investment encompasses a new fully automated mixing plant for amenity and consumer products, whilst freeing up existing mixing capacity to triple the throughput of environmental stewardship, cover crops and wildflowers.

“This is a very exciting time for our industry where we must invest to ensure our customers can continue to receive the highest levels of service and the quickest delivery times for their orders,” Mr Kerridge continues. “Covid and Brexit have presented many challenges over the past two years, but this investment will ensure we are well placed to serve our customers in the decades to come.”

Work, which has already started, is expected to be completed by spring 2023.

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Milestone in sustainable golf development

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Milestone in sustainable golf development: Second edition of the international voluntary sustainability standard for golf developments demonstrates golf’s continuing proactive leadership and progress in the construction industry.

Developed through close collaboration, both within and outside the golf industry, the release of this latest edition of the Sustainable Golf Development Standard represents another major step forward in golf’s journey to becoming a leader in sustainable sport, land use and development.

Milestone in sustainable golf development

Milestone in sustainable golf development

Available to all new developments from September 2021, this simplified new edition raises the bar on sustainability expectations and focuses on the most relevant issues and challenges in the current climate. Renewed emphasis is placed on areas such as increased transparency, carbon impacts, flexible construction timelines, circular economy and the impacts of agronomic decision-making.

Facilitated by GEO Foundation (GEO), six months of open public consultation and dedicated work by the international expert working group for sustainable golf development has led to the release of the second edition of this credible, accessible and relevant voluntary standard for any golf development. The milestone document provides a tighter framework, which can guide the process of delivering any new golf developments and renovations, from site selection through to opening day – delivering positive social and environmental value throughout.

Sam Thomas, Director of Golf Development for GEO, the international organization dedicated to helping advance sustainability in and through golf said: “The process of working with public comments and the international expert group’s knowledge was a great insight into what we’ve seen change in the sustainability space over the past five years. There were invaluable inputs shared into the ways in which everyone felt that golf developments, done in the right way, can continue to make real positive contributions to their environment, climate and community. Going forward, we are excited to adopt this 2nd edition of the standard at all new golf development sites seeking to gain GEO Certified Development status and, over the next five years, see how we can all push on to deliver even greater positive impacts.”

The seven members of the International Expert Working Group, which helped shape this latest edition, included representatives from the Society of Australian Golf Course Architects; American Society of Golf Course Architects; The European Institutes of Golf Course Architects; Golf course builders – through Landscapes Unlimited; Australian National University, Former European Commission representatives and Wetlands International.

Richard Holland, Director, Operations and Network Development, Wetlands International commented: “Congratulations to all involved in this significant milestone for the golf development industry. The 2nd edition builds on the solid foundations of the original standard and raises the bar for new sustainable golf developments. These voluntary standards can also provide valuable guidance for policymakers and regulators in their responsibilities to deliver the best possible outcomes for the environment and local communities.”

The revision of the standard was carried out in line with ISEAL Alliance’s Code of Good Practice for Standard Setting. GEO has been part of the ISEAL Alliance since 2015 and the rigour and credibility of that code are central to the revision of the voluntary sustainability standard. These same codes of good practice are followed by other well-known sustainability bodies including Fairtrade, The Rainforest Alliance and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).

Tom Mackenzie, Director at Mackenzie & Ebert and Past President of European Institute of Golf Course Architects stated: “It is great to see the release of the 2nd edition of this standard. It now better represents the current sustainability issues we face as designers and I was very pleased to be able to represent the European Institute of Golf Course Architects (EIGCA) on the expert working group. Along with EIGCA’s Raising the Standard of Sustainable Golf Course Design educational programme, which was created with GEO, this renewed sustainability standard represents another meaningful point of connection with GEO for our members.”  

The document and further explanation can be viewed here along with information on the OnCourse Developments programme, which provides practical support to assist all types of golf developments and the GEO Certified Developments mark, which provides credible recognition to new projects.

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