21st Jun 2022
Next up in our client origin stories is the Wildlife Garden Project founded by Laura Turner. What I love about this story is how it shows that something wonderful can be created from a desire to make a difference, finding something you love and applying your skills to it. Such a positive story for the start of the summer and at a time when we can all take Laura's lead and do more for wildlife. Over to you Laura...
Hello! I’m Laura. Before I started the Wildlife Garden Project back in 2010, I was completely new to the idea of wildlife gardening. I was working as a freelance videographer making videos for small local businesses. I was loving my job, but becoming increasingly concerned with the growing problems facing our planet. I wanted to do my bit in some small way, so I started looking for a conservation based project I could work on in my spare time.
At the time, I had just started renting my first house with a small garden and I began researching things I could do to attract wildlife. The concept of wildlife gardening appealed to me straight away – this was somewhere where I, as an individual, could make a difference to help conserve the struggling wildlife in my local patch. Wildlife gardening wasn’t a new concept, but it was far less known about than it is today, and so I started forming a plan to inspire others to make these small but important changes in their gardens.
I believe film is one of the most powerful mediums we have to communicate important messages, and so I decided it was the perfect way to demonstrate how to garden for wildlife. With little to no knowledge myself, I gathered a team of experts and volunteers to help make tutorial videos on everything from building a bird box to growing a wildflower meadow. With the help of my little brother Michael, we built a website to house the videos as well as lots of articles, tips and advice to help people create their own wildlife gardens.
In 2014, I started my own company, Fuzzfox, making videos for charities and local businesses. This tied in perfectly with the Wildlife Garden Project. Not only did it mean I had the equipment and skills to make tutorial videos, but importantly, it paid my bills whilst I devoted my spare time to the Wildlife Garden Project.
In the 12 years since forming, I’ve learnt so much from my work on the project, as well as gaining knowledge shared by all the experts who so kindly dedicated their time and experience to help make videos and write articles for the website. A few years ago, I managed to buy my first house with a garden which I have been slowly but surely transforming into a haven for wildlife. Finally having my own patch means that I’ve been able to put more of the techniques I’d learnt into practice and I now get visited by a huge array of birds, insects and mammals, including badgers! I’ve even dug a small pond which the gang of sparrows that hang out in my hedges love to bathe in.
In 2019, I was lucky enough to acquire a stand at Birdfair, the UK’s biggest wildlife festival (nicknamed the wildlife Glastonbury!). A few weeks before the event I had a phone call from a wonderful woman called Tina. She’d found us on the Birdfair website and saw that we were new to the event. She asked me, ‘Would it be ok if I bring Chris Packham to your stand to do a book signing?’ After much screaming and excitement, I gave her a huge YES. The event was amazing, we met so many wonderful people and gave wildlife gardening advice to lots of new people. Meeting Chris Packham was the icing on the cake.
Tina and I stayed in touch, and many phone calls and fits of laughter later, we realised we shared so many of the same aspirations and decided we wanted to work together. I had been wanting to move the Project forward for a while, and so in 2021, we registered the Wildlife Garden Project as a Community Interest Company (CIC) along with bird and moth fanatic and expert Tom Shields.
As a not-for-profit, we are now able to apply for funding which will allow us to spread our wildlife gardening message even further. In fact, we have just secured our first lot of funding which will allow us to develop a project that Tina and I have been chatting about for over two years. Exciting times!
We have so many plans for the future, but at the heart of it all is to make wildlife gardening easy and accessible to everyone. We are all still working on the project in our spare time, but we hope in the future that we may be able to find a way to earn a small income from it so that we can afford to devote even more time to the cause. But for now, we have lots more videos planned, as well as the funded project which we hope to be able to announce in the coming months!
We are always looking for collaborations and so if you’d like to discuss working together, please get in touch!
Find Laura online at:
wildlifegardenproject.com
Instagram: @wildlifegardenproject
Twitter: @WildlifeGardenP
Facebook: @wildlifegardenproject
YouTube: youtube.com/user/wildlifegardenfilm
fuzzfox.com
25th May 2022
Next up in our Client Origin Stories series is Green Squirrel, created and run by Becca and Hannah. This story really is testament to how much a small yet mighty team can achieve and how the best way to run a business isn't always the traditional way but what works for you and those who benefit from what you do. Over to you Hannah...
Green Squirrel started life as Green City Events when in 2011 Becca, returning to Cardiff after a year of travelling, became frustrated with the lack of opportunities for city dwellers, particularly those on lower incomes, to pick up the skills for planet-friendly living. In 2012 Hannah got involved and together they began testing and trialling different ways of bringing green skills to the city, from bike repair and food growing workshops to pedal powered cinema, supper clubs, and swap shops. In 2015 we formalised our community focus by becoming a CIC and in 2018 we became Green Squirrel!
There has been a lot of learning along the way. Neither of us are ecologists or climate scientists so we work hard to make sure that the information we’re sharing and the skills we’re teaching are evidence based and genuinely impactful. We’ve had to learn every aspect of running a small business because - as a two person core team - we do everything, from marketing and project management to fundraising and HR. As a social enterprise sometimes traditional business advice, designed to maximise profit, doesn’t work for us, so we’ve sometimes had to find our own path.
Now in 2022 our work is across three main strands. First is our local work as we offer a wide range of workshops and activities across the Cardiff and Valleys area. You might find us popping up at local festivals or playschemes to run creative nature or climate activities or training a local business in climate communication.
Next we have Railway Gardens, our community resilience hub in Splott, Cardiff. Due to open in June 2022, this former derelict playground has been transformed into a multipurpose space for growing, learning, play and connection. It will feature small business spaces for social and ethical enterprises, a community room and kitchen, a mini allotment, an outdoor classroom and climate and nature friendly planting. Creating this space has been a six year labour of love, extremely challenging at times but enormously rewarding, and working so closely with local residents in that area is a privilege.
Finally, since 2021 we have taken our service UK wide with The Something Club, our online climate action community. This project arose in part from our own need for a friendly and genuinely non-judgemental space to share the highs and lows of being part of the climate and nature movement, and a way to pick up the skills we need to make a change. The Something Club offered a monthly programme of online workshops and events. We bring in amazing speakers and teach all kinds of skills, from food growing and clothes mending to campaigning and communication. A key idea behind The Something Club is that no one one person can do everything to fix the climate crisis, but everyone can do something, and with a little support we can each find our ‘something’ and make a big impact.
We - Becca and Hannah - have been working closely together since 2012, but in 2020, right in the middle of lockdown, we began a new adventure together as we decided to move to a smallholding for our two families to share! In early 2021 we moved to Bryn Ysgafn, a two acre site, where we share an old farmhouse and quite a lot of poultry! Since arriving here we’ve been working to make the land as productive as possible, with a veg garden and orchard, a food forest, bee hives, and plenty of wild space left for nature. This spring we began hosting hands-on workshops here too, such as fruit tree grafting and composting.
Living and working together is a new experience, but it’s working well! From breakfast planning meetings to foraging for wild crafting materials right here on site, we find lots of ways of making it work. We’ve also got something of a ‘no work at weekends’ rule where we take care to switch off entirely and enjoy working in our garden or messing about with geese and chickens!
We’re looking forward to what the next few years hold for Green Squirrel. We now have a wonderful Community Coordinator supporting our work in Splott and a great ‘Green Team’ of freelancers, and we’re keen to grow our team further in the next year or so. We’re always keen to explore new collaborations and partnerships too, so do get in touch if you’re interested in discussing working together!
Find Green Squirrel online:
Website: greensquirrel.co.uk
Instagram: @bemoresquirrel
Facebook: @BeMoreSquirrel
Twitter: @BeMoreSquirrel
11th May 2022
On this year’s Earth Day we talked about how we have decided to invest more of our time in asking those who have the biggest influence and impact to do more for our planet and the life upon it. We do this already in a more organic way but I want it to be more effective, build it into the structure of our day and have a focus.
The two main areas where we have chosen to concentrate our efforts are clean energy (for obvious reasons) and nature because we know by now that when we care for nature, nature cares for us.
The first campaign we are supporting is Nature for Everyone, brought to our attention by Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. #NatureforEveryone is about equal access to green spaces near to people’s homes. There is a huge disparity between who can and cannot easily benefit from the positive impact that natural environments have on our wellbeing and we agree with the Wildlife Trusts and 60+ other organisations that this needs to change. Many studies have shown that living close to nature and even views of nature from a window can support our physical and mental health, it can reduce crime and conflict in neighbourhoods and help children to learn. Everyone should have a legal right to nature and whilst the government are talking about their ‘Levelling Up’ plans and will be implementing new laws this is a great time to tell them that easy access to nature is vital for good quality of life.
So as a start to support this campaign we have:
We will continue to follow and support this campaign as it progresses. Would you consider supporting it too?
Find out more about it at:
The Wildlife Trusts
Wildlife and Countryside Link
16th Feb 2022
What do you consider to be the essential qualities of an ethical business?
In the ethical business world we often highlight practices such as waste reduction, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources, supply chains, cruelty-free, organic, Fairtrade and so on as marks of responsible ways of working. But what about customer care? Surely showing care for your customers is one of the most ethical things you can do as a business?
A couple of years ago I experienced uncaring customer service from a well-respected, large ‘ethical’ company. We had specifically chosen this company for their ethical track record, for the efforts they were making to raise standards in their industry and for the benefit of the planet. We were proud to say we were their customers. We had stayed with them for many years even though their service was a significantly higher price than others. However, when an issue arose (two mistakes made by them that were costly and stressful to us) and they demonstrated that money was more important to them than providing a caring service, we could no longer stay.
It is vital that we acknowledge we are all human and can make mistakes. But even more important is to understand that human compassion is needed when your mistake may have caused someone else an inconvenience at best and at worse distress. This was why, despite how much I had previously appreciated the provider mentioned above, I couldn’t keep our custom with them. They just did not show any compassion for the problems they had caused after the mistakes they had made. That lack of care is not ethical.
Despite the fact that we talk about our service being powered by renewable energy an awful lot, we know that green credentials aren’t our clients’ only concern. To be treated with care and consideration are just as important. We are all people, not simply an account or the sum of money we pay.
We receive lots of lovely feedback from our clients about how reassuring our service has been, especially when transferring their website to us. So we have added a new ‘Testimonials’ page to our website to show them all in one place. You can also see them in our ‘Happy Clients’ Instagram stories.
1st Nov 2021
COP26 is officially underway. Now is the time that we want to see world leaders make real commitments to reducing carbon emissions. Amongst other means, two proposed measures to achieve this are to accelerate the phase-out of coal and encourage investment in renewables.
There will need to be some bold pledges from those in power, and waiting for them to take action can leave us feeling a little powerless. However, as we know, every change can make a difference.
In our world of web design and website hosting, we know of a few ways that small changes to our online activities can collectively have a big, positive impact.
Here’s what we all can do:
Why should we do these things?
Despite the internet appearing to be an intangible thing, it is very much made up of physical resources and consumes huge amounts of energy, 24 hours a day. Read more about this in our previous articles...
How using Green Hosting can help reduce carbon emissions and exercise consumer influence
Reducing Waste in Our Digital Lives
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