Friday 2 February 2007

Cornwall firm helps environment and employment

Sometimes one hears a good story that helps both employment and the environment and maybe we should shout about them a bit more! Well this is today's contribution from me.

Duchy Timber have a sawmill and timber business on the outskirts of the mid Cornwall town of Lostwithiel. They are investing in a couple of ecofriendly kilns to burn timber waste from their sawmill operations. The kilns are sophisticated enough to require very little external power to function and produce almost negligible emissions. Waste can be burnt in the kilns thus obviating the present five lorry loads of woodchip transported for disposal each week. It gets better - the kilns will permit the production of kiln dried timbers, products that are currently imported. And it will speed up the production of tanalised timber as Cornish timber is unsurprisingly pretty wet as a rule when it arrives.

The other bonus is job creation. This perhaps is some compensation for the loss of about a dozen jobs just before Christmas when the firm 'Darley Therapy Equipment' on Lostwithiel's Retormel Industrial Estate went bust.

There is much that is praiseworthy about these relatively small businesses particularly regarding plusses for the environment. We should talk them up a bit more!

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