On this page you can read my Environmental Policy and a Personal Statement written by me about my Environmental views. I will be regularly adding and updating my issues on this page. The opinions I express in my personal environmental statement are purely my views and noone elses.

Natural Benefits for Business NB4B Pilot Project

During the last two years this pilot project has been running in Cumbria. This has been a joint project funded by Natural England, NW Regional Development Agency and SITA.  Other key partners have been the NW Biodiversity Forum, Cumbria Biodiversity Partnership and Cumbria Rural EnterpriseAgency.  This project has enabled businesses to get advice on the benefits to them and the natural environment of directly engaging with biodiversity. I am pleased to have taken part in this project as a case study. This report and other Natural Economy Northwest reports are available from their website  www.naturaleconomynorthwest.co.uk

Environmental Policy  

Edge Ceramics manufactures and sells a range of individual, hand-made ceramics.  The business is based in a dedicated ceramics studio and also uses a home-office.  Sales are made via craft fairs, independent galleries and via Edge Ceramics’ website.

The owners of Edge Ceramics recognise our responsibility to manage the impacts of our activities on the environment.  We have assessed our activities and have identified that our significant environmental aspects/impacts include:

Use of raw materials, in particular clay, colourings and glazes.Use and disposal of packaging materials

Use and discharge of water.Electricity consumption.

Travel and transport of goods by private car, public transport or third party vehicles.

Our policy with regard to promoting good environmental practices is as follows:

Identify significant environmental impacts of our activities.

Develop suitable objectives and procedures to minimise environmental impact during normal, abnormal and emergency conditions.

Comply with all relevant environmental legislation and regulations.

Minimise utility usage consistent with the nature of the business.

Recover, recycle and reuse materials wherever practicable and thereby minimise outputs to waste disposal facilities.  

Minimise pollution as emissions to the atmosphere and sewers.

Communicate our environmental policy to major suppliers, contractors and customers, and encourage them to adopt a responsible approach to environmental issues.

Consider and respond appropriately to the views of all parties interested in the business, in particular neighbours, customers and suppliers.

Strive for continuous improvement in overall environmental performance

Steve Valentine
Edge Ceramics

The Environment and Edge Ceramics   A statement by Steve Valentine

In this day and age it seems that the Environment and good business practice go hand in hand. As a responsible owner of a small ceramics studio/workshop, I am very aware of my impacts and the Environment. I am also aware that my studio practice is located at Shap village in the midst of three very important and very fragile areas of England. The Lake District National Park, The Yorkshire Dales National Park and the North Pennines AONB.  I would like these areas to stay exactly like they are and I would not like my business to affect the fragility, natural beauty and importance of these areas and to ensure they are still the same for our future generations to witness.

I have always made sure that I run my little business with the Environment in mind, I try to minimise wasteage by reducing, recycling and reuseing throughout my practice that is from the clay I use to the packaging. It is fundamental that I minimise waste, as I am a firm believer in the little things you do, can make a big difference in the long run.  I am very proud of what I have done and continue doing. I am very proud to have retained my Gold Award in recogniton of achieving excellence in environmental practice from CBEN (Cumbria Business Environment Network) throughout 2008 to 2009.

Biodiversity in my Business

Biodiversity is also an important aspect of my business and I strive to encourage wildlife biodiversity in and around my studio/workshop and home, I received a "most improved" award in 2007 from Natural England and the Wildlife Trusts. My actions have encouraged a lot of varied wildlife into my garden and as a consequence around my studio. In our recycled nest boxes (made from old wooden pallets) in 2008 and 2009 we had several continueous sparrow broods, I have made ceramic housemartin nests aswell to help them along as mud for building their nests is scarce around here. We have a wildlife pond which is full of frogs and toads and countless other wildlife including damsel and dragon flies, it is alive with activity in the summer months. We also know we have had hedgehogs in our shelter as we have seen them in the evenings around the lawns. Bats can often be seen at twilight flying around feeding on the wing. We believe the bats are colonising our disused water tower on Brackenber Lodge.

We have had countless birds including housesparrow, housemartins,swallows and swifts, pheasant, grouse, plentiful blue and coal tits, greenfinch and chaffinch,robins,wrens,fieldfares and woodpeckers. Our insect hotel (made from all sorts of recycled materials) proved to be a worthy shelter, especially in last years bitter winter, of that I am sure. So it seems it is possible to encourage wildlife in and around your business practice and maybe protect it by providing shelter and food year round. I can assure you it has all been worth it, because when I hear the different bird song and wildlife noise just outside my studio, that is priceless and that speaks volumes in my opinion.

I have very strong views on Renewables and Windfarms in rural places especially the one proposed for Shap village please click on the www.nowindfarm.co.uk  for more information.

Lakes to Dales proposed expansion

I am also fully supportive of the proposed expansion of the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks to include Whinfell, Wild Boar Fell, Orton Fells, the Howgills and Birbeck Fells and the remainder of the Shap Fells SSSI, although the proposed expansion will not include the villages of Shap, Tebay and Orton, which will be blanketed over or cushioned by the proposed expansion upto these important and historic villages. I believe this will undoubtably help in their future protection, I still feel this will indeed protect the areas immediately around these villages even more so from inappropriate and unsympathetic development, please visit  www.lakestodaleslandscapes.org.uk  for more information

Shap village has come a long way since the days before the M6 was put in, the days when the only way over "the Shap" was via the minor A6 enroute to the North and the villagers of Shap gave shelter to countless people who got caught out in the days of heavy snowfall. Nowadays even the A6 is kept clear most of the time. Yes we have our quarries and our limekilns and these have and continue to provide work for local people. Companies in Shap have thrived and continue to do so. But we must not lose sight of the fact that we are located in a very beautiful part of Cumbria (and often it is only the local residents who know that as a state of fact). But the privilege of living in such an area comes with responsibilities and its those responsibilities that we must strive to action.

If we all do, and continue to do our own little bit in relation to the environment it will grow into a force for good in the future. 

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