The quest for sustainability can cause anxiety, but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Here are three sustainability news stories focusing on innovations that give us all reasons to hope that our future will be sustainable.
Our first story comes from the United Kingdom and looks at a new sustainable innovation taking place in the agriculture industry.
The world’s largest vertical farm will be built in Lydney, Gloucestershire, on the site of a historic forge, following an announcement made in June by the British vertical farming firm ‘Jones Food Company’.
According to the company’s CEO, James Lloyd-Jones, in ten years the UK may be producing all of its leafy salad, soft fruits, herbs and even flowers in this way – he said:
“Vertical farms will become the norm within the supply chain, and probably take away greenhouse production and imports.”
“Vertical farming can grow anything. It just grows lots of things too expensively to be commercially viable, so here is where we are learning how to commercialise it.”
Farming this way does have its advantages as Charlie Guy, one of the founders of LettUs Grow based in Bristol states:
“It also means we can focus more of our land on things like tree planting. So, from a biodiversity standpoint, there are massive benefits.”
One of the biggest challenges to vertical farming is the energy use, energy is needed 24/7 to run the lights, heaters, humidifiers and other equipment.
The Lydney Farm found a solution by using a roof covered entirely in solar panels, with the capacity for more panels and a wind turbine on neighbouring land.
This farm will eventually supply 1.5 hectares of growing space, which is comparable to roughly 60 tennis courts.
Food with less impact that can be distributed to people in the local area – that’s something to celebrate!