Insight 43 - Magazine - Page 12
WEBINAR 2: SHAPING A GREENER ECONOMY
We can be green and grow was the
‘bothism’, as Mark Ritson would say,
at the heart of the latest Hertfordshire
Futures debate focusing on developing
a more sustainable economy.
Like the rest of the UK, Hertfordshire needs
to see economic growth but not growth
at any cost. This is a clear national policy
priority, and it is critical if we are to pay for
the services and the infrastructures that
we need. But economic growth also needs
to be sustainable in environmental and
ecological terms.
Nature too must be given space to recover.
According to the Herts & Middlesex Wildlife
Trust, 20% of the 7,500 species assessed in
Hertfordshire in 1970 were either extinct
or threatened by 2020. There are just 13
ha of heathland left in the county, and
despite an increase in woodland coverage,
a lack of management means that 35%
of the species that live in woodland
have been lost. But on the positive side,
Hertfordshire is the custodian of around
10% of the WORLD’s chalk streams. So we
have a real duty of care.
First in the hotseat was Neil Hayes, CEO,
Hertfordshire Futures, who was asked by
panel host Matt Deegan how Hertfordshire
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can manage the tensions between growing
the economy and achieving sustainability
ambitions.
Neil said: “As with any challenges, you
have to face these head on. It’s not an
either/or. We can have both. Hertfordshire
already has the components of a clean
growth sector and some fantastic clean
growth businesses here such as BRE,
Rothamsted and other research and
academic institutions. So how can we
support this sector to grow and also
encourage businesses to not just become
more sustainable but also more efficient?
There is no inherent contradiction here you can go on a sustainability journey and
also improve your bottom line.”
Ian Pigott is Managing Partner of Thrales
End Farm and Business Centre, a family
farm just outside of Harpenden which has
successfully diversified to provide offices,
meeting rooms and storage space for small
businesses from sole traders to 30-person
teams.
Ian said that while economic
considerations are vitally important, using
the analogy ‘you can’t farm green if you
are farming in the red’, they had a duty to
do right by the environment.
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He said: “If we mine the environment,
mine the soil that we as a family have
farmed for generations and generations,
but then recognise that what we have
always done is having a detrimental effect
on the environment, then we have to
change our practices. We have also taken
a view that isn’t just for the next five or 10
years but is for the next generation. And
that might mean you go through periods
of economic stagnation, but working with
the likes of Rothamsted we have seen our
soil organic quality double which we didn’t
think possible.”
He also acknowledged the vital role
farmers and landowners play in looking
after the natural environment but they
could not be expected to look after these
fragile ecosystems and habitats without
some public support.
"If we mine the environment, mine the
soil that we as a family have farmed for
generations and generations, but then
recognise that what we have always done
is having a detrimental effect on the
environment then we have to change our
practices."
Ian Pigott, Managing Partner of Thrales
End Farm and Business Centre
