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An Exciting New Venture for Commercial Composting Contract Food Waste Collections with the Inn at Whitewell Offshoots began in November a three month food waste composting trial with one of the County's most exclusive hotel and restaurant, The Inn at Whitewell. The Inn is located within the Duchy of Lancaster's Whitewell estate (HRH) in the Trough of Bowland. The hotel and restaurant have, for some time, been looking for a financially viable eco-aware food waste collection and composting service. The solution has been carefully crafted through the combined efforts of Global Renewables (the private waste organisation dealing with all of Lancashire's municipal waste), Offshoots and the Inn at Whitewell. It is the first third-sector (voluntary, charitable and faith organisations) service delivery trial and potential contract that has been created for a commercial composting service in the County and is one of the first nationwide. Having got through the Christmas and New Year period successfully, despite all that the weather threw at us (frozen roads, frozen food waste, frozen water pipes and frozen staff!), we are confident that we can negotiate a contract beyond the trial which finishes in February.

Upon the signing of a successful contract, Offshoots will be approaching many other establishments that generate food waste to offer the same service at a cost effective price for the customer. This, in turn, will go a long way to supporting financially the sustainable future of Offshoots and will be diverting significant amounts of food waste from landfill. We currently collect approximately 2/3rds of a tonne per week from the Inn at Whitewell and that equates to about 146kgs of CO2 per week, which in turn, measures roughly the output of 3 weeks travel in an average car. Should you be reading this and be in need of just such a service, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will arrange a site visit to discuss logistics and costs.

Offshoots entrance sign

Offshoots - a Member of the Permaculture Association's LAND Project

Offshoots is a registered member of the Permaculture Association's LAND project. This is a 4 year project run by the Association to create a permaculture learning and demonstration network across England. The LAND project is a Big Lottery Local Food funded project.

This is an exciting opportunity to provide training and skill sharing events, provide volunteer opportunities, promote Permaculture through talks, short courses, visits and practical activities, and generally make Permaculture more widely known and used across Britain.

Further information about the LAND project and Permaculture, please visit the Permaculture Association's website - CLICK HERE

Offshoots Wins!
Community Project Award at Elevate's Sustainable Stars Event

Offshoots Permaculture Project won the Community Award at Elevate's Sustainable Stars Event. The Award is in recognition of all the hard work and committment that the volunteers and community have put into the Project and its popularity within the community.

Hosted by Elevate's Constructing the Future programme, the glittering event at the Dunkenhalgh Hotel near Accrington celebrated the sustainable credentials of construction companies, organisations and individual projects within Pennine Lancashire. The Awards were created to ensure that those sustainable role models who are making practical improvements to the environment get recognition.

Elevate is one of the government's housing market renewal partnerships, charged with finding innovative solutions to the problem of low demand and housing market collapse in towns across Pennine Lancashire. See their website - http://www.elevate-eastlancs.co.uk/ for more information.

Offshoots is delighted to have won this Award.

Offshoots 'Working the Wood' Project
Wins a Green Triangle Award!

Offshoots won the award for Project of the Year - Environmental Action at Groundwork Northwest's Green Triangle Awards 2009, for its Working the Wood project.

The Working the Wood project looks at opportunities to access locally felled raw timber and convert this into various bespoke products for sale, ie. planters, fencing and construction materials.

This process greatly reduces the carbon footprint of a product as it is grown, felled and manufactured within a few miles of itself. The Project is also providing volunteers and site users with valuable skills, ranging from woodland management through to simple joinery techniques.

A video clip of Phill Dewhurst, Offshoots Manager, explaining the project is available by clicking this link -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoWmCK6KIcg

BRAND NEW FOR 2009 - Listen to the Music of Offshoots!

A musician and friend of the Offshoots site, Lee, has put together an electroacoustic track using sounds recorded at Offshoots - from the bees to the lighting of the charcoal kiln. Click here to listen!

Wooden Flowers

Team Building Events at Offshoots -

Groundwork Pennine Lancashire Challenge Day

Groundwork Pennine Lancashire held their Challenge Day here at Offshoots - a team building event for all staff. Many activities were carried out including tree planting, gardening, creating raised beds and path laying. The afternoon's activity was a treasure hunt centred around Towneley Park.

The day was a great success and enjoyed by all!

Lancashire County Council's Transport Planning Department - Away Day at Offshoots

The County Council's Transport Planning Department came to Offshoots for their annual team building event.

Members of the Department worked alongside Offshoots staff, local bodger (green woodworker), Glen Roberts and Andy Wild from the Community Restart team, to learn about charcoal making, green woodworking, insect box making and composting. The Event was a total success with a sea of happy faces and lots of useful, on-site tasks performed and valuable training received. Some staff even made wooden flowers to take home!

Offshoots Provides the Lead Article in Landscape

Landscape, the journal of the Landscape Institute, contacted Offshoots to help them with a piece on local food growing initiatives. They were so impressed with our activities that they choose to use the site as their lead article in the September 2008 edition.

Please click here to view the article.

School Visit - St Christophers C.E. High School, Accrington

We recently had a visit from St Christopher's C.E. HIgh School, Accrington.

The children were given a tour of Offshoots, together with many tips and advice for their own eco group.

They went away full of ideas and eager to try many things such as a mini greenhouse, growing herbs, a sensory garden and their favourite -an outdoor cob oven!

There was also a propagation workshop where children took some cuttings from around the garden and planted these up ready to take home.

If you would like to arrange a school visit to Offshoots, please contact Phill Dewhurst, Offshoots Manager or see the Group Bookings page for more information.

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Offshoots is managed by Groundwork Pennine Lancashire