How Green is Cornwall?

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How Green is Cornwall?

Mike Losban and Tess Ekins investigate some of Cornwall’s more unusual sustainable products and services

GREEN FUNERALS

Want to come back as a flower? The point of eco-friendly funerals is that when you die you give your body to Mother Earth to do with as she pleases.

Unfortunately, traditional modern cemeteries all too often destroy natural landscapes and chew up valuable open space: creating fertilized and herbicided environments with dense interments and plastic flowers. A tremendous amount of money goes into expensive “leak-proof” caskets, vaults and mausoleum crypts, and to “perpetual care”. The average cost of funeral, burial space, casket and vault is now exceeding £2,000, and can go considerably higher.

At an eco-funeral, a tree is planted on each grave and its position is recorded. Wildlife is encouraged to thrive and judicious grass management ensures a veritable wilderness of wild flowers

Eco-friendly coffins are de rigour at Penwith Woodland burial site, where you won’t catch even a glimpse of a headstone.

So, what exactly is an eco-friendly coffin? Well, it has to be made of a completely biodegradable material or wood from a sustainable resource. Home-made coffins are acceptable, as are shrouds, cardboard or even, we guess, completely commando. You can make prior arrangements for your funeral and even have your pet buried beside you.

Contact: Penwith Woodland Burial Place on 01736 731310.

TILTING AT WINDMILLS

Everywhere you go in Cornwall, you’re not far from a wind turbine. Miss one, turn round and see another two.

They’re everywhere, but how efficient are they? Well, they can extract 60 per cent of the wind’s energy at most. That’s not too bad, is it? No it isn’t, especially when you consider that the wind is free.

The trouble is, free or not, the wind just doesn’t blow all the time, even in Cornwall.

This leaves the average efficiency of a wind turbine at somewhere between 30 to 40 per cent. The rotors are often more than 60 metres in diameter, while the towers can be more than 100 metres high. Some complain they are ugly and noisy, but we at Cornwall24 think they are rather beautiful – an echo of Don Quixote’s quest and a reminder of the value of tilting at metaphorical windmills.

There are seven wind farms in Cornwall, Bear’s Down, Carland Cross, Cold Northcott, Delabole, Four Burrows, Goonhilly Downs and St Breock. What’s more, they’re all en route to somewhere equally stunning – be it Tintagel, the Earth Centre or the Eden Project.

Contact: www.bwea.com/map/cornwall.html

SUBTERRANEAN HOMESICK BLUES

Mother Earth makes the best natural insulator, and environmentalists searching for ways to escape the greenhouse effect have found the answer in her.

Why not build underground? The earth is extremely energy-efficient, it provides perfect insulation for the creation of eco-friendly, low impact accommodation.

The first earth-sheltered housing was built on the West Yorkshire moors in the late 70s by the architect Arthur Quarmby and attracted a lot of media interest.

The are several subterranean homes in Cornwall. Simon Omerod of Wadebridge set out to design a house that didn’t need mains gas or electricity back in 1994. He had a five year battle with local planners to get permission for his earth sheltered dwelling, but finally got all the right paperwork.

Costs in comparison to conventional house vary by plus or minus 10%. This low impact method of building can blend perfectly with the landscape. It is extremely energy-efficient, and requires very little maintenance, no gutters to clean, etc. The earth covering gives excellent sound insulation and the whole building is well protected from the elements.

On the down side, these buildings can be more expensive to construct, could be difficult to sell on, and planning permission and mortgages can be difficult to obtain.
For more information and advice contact The British Earth Sheltering Association on 01993 703619.

CREATING A VIRTUOUS CIRCLE

Sustainable woodlands hold the key to the future of energy supply on Cornwall’s 600-year-old Trelowarren Estate.

Coppiced from the estate’s own forests, wood will be used to fuel a new seven tonne binder boiler that will generate 300kw of energy to supply power to all the buildings on the estate, including 38 new timeshare properties.

Sir Ferrers Vyvyan, whose family have owned Trelowarren since 1427, said;
“The wood is on our doorstep. It has to be coppiced to promote healthy growth…it’s sound economic sense because it creates a virtuous circle.”

Contact the estate on 01326 221 224.

Eco-Friendly Learning Space

One of only 12 Department of Education and Science funded classrooms of the future, the CPR Learning Space in Camborne is an innovative, flexible building with three generous classroom spaces: the X-Change, which seats up to 100 people, the Dome for up to 35 people, and the Pod for up to 35 people, and with two seminar rooms.

The building is futuristic in terms of its ecological function and facilities and has also been designed to be self-sustainable. It features timber frame wood taken from sustainable woodlands, solvent free paints, made with natural pigments, recycled paper and sheep’s wool used as insulation. There is solar powered electricity, sun pipes for natural light and hot water is heated by the sun in black glass pipes on the roof. Rain water is collected and used to flush toilets.

As well as being eco-friendly, the space offers programmes on rainforest conservation.

CPR Learning Space, Cranberry Road, Camborne, Cornwall TR14 7PP, tel: 01209 610146, email enquiries@cprielearning space.co.uk.

It looks as though interest in promoting and building environmentally friendly projects is growing on the peninsular. Applications to build self-sustainable cultural and art centres are already pending from organisations as diverse as The Taoist Cultural Arts Association (01926 612560) and The Tree of Life Gardens in Drift (01736 719338).
Incidentally, the research involved in writing this article produced a volume of paper equivalent to at least half a tree, so we’re off to plant a few.