World Earth Day 2022

A GREEN FUTURE IS A PROSPEROUS FUTURE.

As World Earth Day approaches, it is more important than ever that we all come together to invest in our planet.

‘This is the moment to change it all — the business climate, the political climate, and how we take action on climate. Now is the time for the unstoppable courage to preserve and protect our health, our families, our livelihoods… together, we must Invest in Our Planet.’ www.earthday.org

It is all about us acting together to make a difference and there is still time to ensure a prosperous and sustainable future to restore nature and build a healthier planet for our children and theirs, but we need to act now.

A green future is a prosperous future.

Lord Newborough, custodian of the Rhug Estate in North Wales and founder of the Wild Beauty skincare range, converted his family estate over 22 years ago from a traditional low output farm to the organic system – it took 3 years to fully complete the transition and it was not an easy process at a time when organic farming was in its infancy.

But he persevered and as a pioneer of sustainability, is always striving to do better to leave the planet a better place for future generations.

WE CAUGHT UP WITH LORD NEWBOROUGH TO TALK ABOUT WORLD EARTH DAY AND WHAT IT MEANS TO HIM.

“World Earth Day is important to me because it is when more than a billion people come together to help protect the planet from things such as pollution and deforestation. By taking part in activities, from high level policy to activities we can all do, including picking up litter and planting trees, we’re making our world a happier, healthier place to live.”

WILL YOU BE DOING ANYTHING SPECIAL TO MARK THE OCCASION THIS YEAR?

“Every day is World Earth Day for me – it is something we have been working on at Rhug for the last 22 years. It is part of our DNA to create a more sustainable and healthier world for future generations.”

HOW CAN WE ALL BE MAKING SMALL CHANGES TO HELP THE PLANET? WHERE IS A GOOD PLACE TO START?

“We can all make a difference by shopping wisely, buying organic produce that is sustainably produced whenever possible, planting trees, using long-life light bulbs, recycling, cutting down on waste, and conserving water.”

RHUG ESTATE HAS BEEN ORGANIC FOR OVER 20 YEARS, ARE YOU STILL LOOKING TO IMPROVE AND IF SO, HOW WILL THAT LOOK IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS?

“We are always focused on making improvements at Rhug. We have measured our carbon footprint on the estate and now we have a benchmark to work from, we plan to make further improvements which include more green energy projects.

We are installing a 16-point electric car charging station, we are teaming up with the local agricultural college and looking at using seaweed feed additives to reduce the methane emissions in our cattle by up to 90%.

We are also looking at ways we can improve our soil to increase carbon sequestration by using minimal cultivation.

We are running a moorland project to improve the biodiversity on our upland areas and many other projects that will be beneficial for the environment and further increase our reserves of carbon on the Estate that amount to 3760 tons.

We are further launching our sustainable organic and natural skincare range Wild Beauty into the global market – this is not only high performance but it is probably the most sustainable, honest, certified skincare range to be launched into the market in the last 12 months using many natural, organic, and wild foraged ingredients found on the estate.”

THE 2022 THEME FOR EARTH SAY IS “INVESTING IN OUR PLANET” – HOW ARE YOU AT RHUG IMPLEMENTING THIS?

“Apart from everything I have mentioned up until now, I would urge everyone to think what they can do to help the environment and remember that if everyone does something small to help be more sustainable, it adds up to something big.”

SMALL THINGS YOU CAN DO TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE:

Hang your clothes outside to dry or on a rack and avoid using a tumble dryer
Dishwashers use 3-4 times less water than washing up by hand – stack it well!
Pay attention to recycling and invest in a compost bin
Sign up to a veg box scheme or better still – grow your own!
Consider going back to getting milk delivered in glass bottles that can be re-used
Meal plan to eat seasonally and avoid wastage
Switch old-style lightbulbs for LEDs
Wash your clothes less – synthetic clothes shed microplastics every time they are washed.

Watch Lord Newborough speaking about World Earth Day 2022 and discover more about our sustainability story here.