Page 56 - Homes amp Gardens UK February 2021

LIFESTYLE

T H E S U S T A I N A B L E H O M E

Desig ner Seba st ia n Cox cha r t s the renovat ion of h is home,

i
t
i
i
one nspi r i ng a nd n novat ively eco -f r iend ly dea at a i me

uring 2020’s first lockdown, I was in

rural Lincolnshire, escaping our flat
for my mum and stepdad’s farm. It
was an idyllic setting from which to

Dwatch summer come to life. Amid
the wildlife in hedges and woodland, the 10-acre field
next to the house contained intensely reared ewes and
their lambs. By high summer the grass was overgrazed

to billiards and the only vegetation above ankle height
was thistles which held snagged wool. The hedges
were sheep-shape sculpted too, reaching into the field

only above three foot, with more snagged wool held
in the fence or branches. I reckoned I could have
gleaned a barrow full of fibre with ease. My designer’s
mind set about thinking what could be done with it.

When shearing day came, I discovered a tragic
waste: wool is barely worth shearing. It has declined
in value since the 1950s because of modern taste for

microplastic-rich synthetic fibres. A shepherd’s main
income is from meat, but the sheep have been bred better insulating homes. To meet this challenge,
for shearing, too, so they are trimmed in an intense cheap, mineral-based fibre can be stuffed between

and profitless day. Our local shepherd took away most joists and rafters to reduce heat leaks. This is a start,
of the fleeces but left large amounts of seemingly but this material comes with a carbon cost, around
low-grade fibre in the field to rot. And this year it’s 3kg of CO2 per kg of insulation. Some manufacturers

worse than ever. Coronavirus closed the international seem to be tackling their emissions, but wool can be
wool market and compounded a decade-long decline carbon neutral and it’s using a waste stream, and so
in demand, pricing a ewe’s fleece at 25p, with shearing fighting two ecological battles at once.
costs of £1.10 per ewe. Bafflingly in this instance, a Thermafleece offers wool insulation that’s carbon

renewable, natural material struggles to compete negative and made in the UK from British wool – a
with its oil-based opponents, so we as consumers completely sensible product offering us hope in this
have to consciously spend more and look harder. climate emergency. I’m not a supporter of intensive

I remember this as I’m sitting in my draughty sheep farming, always opting for wildlife-friendly
Victorian seaside terrace as a northerly gale hammers farming, but I do believe in using natural over fossil
my window and up through the floorboards. I’m materials, and local over global, so we should utilise
researching insulation, in some hurry with our second this abundant domestic waste resource.

baby just weeks from arriving. Fourteen per cent of Aside from the material, what better way to get to
the UK’s emissions is from energy used in homes, and know your house than to tuck it in with blankets of

the Committee on Climate Change estimate that we cosiness? Particularly, if it is wool, without having to
will not be able to meet out legally binding targets of don PPE to protect yourself from synthetic fibres. As
being carbon neutral by 2050 unless we eliminate this my pallets of insulation arrive, I’m ready to give my
emission. Demand for energy must be reduced by house a big, warm climate-saving hug. &

H O M E S A N D G A R D E N S . C O M 55