by Jodie Gray

River Cottage HQ in Devon doubled as Good Energy HQ for two days last weekend as we headed south as the sustainability partner for River Cottage’s Autumn Fair.

The team from Good Energy, led by our resident microgeneration guru Hugo, set out to spread the word about the work we’re doing with River Cottage to improve sustainability and energy efficiency at their HQ. The farm’s a real hive of activity with its huge range of courses, visitor days and special events. All that activity needs energy, and RC wants to make sure it’s as sustainable as possible.

After weeks of planning, arranging, booking and organising, we set off for RCHQ on Friday afternoon from our office in Chippenham down to the rolling hills of Devon. After a couple of essential stops (for hay bales, tools and, erm, ice cream) we arrived at Park Farm, River Cottage’s idyllic sprawling smallholding.

We set up base in the producers’ tent, next to some deliciously tempting honey and chocolate stalls, and installed four ‘sustainability spots’ around the site. These spots – wind, water, wood and sun – provided specific information on RCHQ’s sustainability projects; from the newly-installed wind turbine to their reed bed system for treating sewage.

Once everything was looking good, we headed to a local campsite to pitch our tents. We raced against the clock to hammer in the last tent pegs just as the sun set, then it was off to the pub for locally-caught fish and chips, before crashing out.

We awoke bright and early and while the girls raced the rest of the campsite to the showers, the boys put the obligatory morning coffee on to brew. After bacon and egg sarnies (local, outdoor-reared and free range) we set off back to RCHQ for the big event.

Visitors started pouring in as soon as the gates opened, and their first port of call was our wind sustainability spot. Manned by Good Energy Shop manager Katie and Toby from Freesource Energy – one of our fantastic microgen installers – it was crowded with families keen to find out about the new wind turbine and how Good Energy was involved. Further down the hill they reached the sun spot, and as they strolled towards the River Cottage kitchens they were met by our MD Barney, asking “Why is wood good?” on the wood spot and Head of PR Sophy on the water spot.

Hugo and Stewart from Satellite Architects addressed a standing-room only  audience about some of the eco-measures at River Cottage and offered lots of advice to people signing up to the 10:10 campaign about how to cut their carbon emissions.

The Good Energy was clearly spreading, as loads of people came to chat to us in the producers’ tent and find out more about how they could get our 100% renewable electricity; and more about generating their own. The next generation of sustainability experts got involved too, as the kids rushed around to collect a card from each sustainability spot and collect a tasty little reward.

On Sunday evening, as the last of the visitors were leaving, we enjoyed a well-earned cider with Hugh before packing up our van and heading home.

The Autumn Fair was a really brilliant event – Hugh and the River Cottage team at RCHQ made us really feel part of the action. The crowd was great too – it was great to get out there spread the word to people who didn’t know about Good Energy before, and also to catch up with some of our customers who stopped by to say hi.

Hope to see you next year!

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