Here at isla we think it’s important to practice what we preach, so in this series we take a deeper dive into what sustainability really looks like on the ground for members of the isla team. This week we hear from our Lead Engineer, Mark Glover.

Sustainability loves

Food: Last year I had a “hog” roast burger made from mushrooms that tasted just incredible. I doubt I could have identified the vegan from the meat in a blind taste test if you’d paid me to do so. These things give me hope when I find them.

Drink: Water. Freely available, no packaging required and can be obtained in an entirely resource-free way, if you can find a clean enough source. What’s not to like?

Fashion: “Fashion” is not a word many people would associate with me! I don’t enjoy shopping at all, so my clothing choices are mostly made sustainable because I wear my clothes to death, only replace them when I have to, and I use the old ones as rags.

Product/Service: Good Energy – whilst there is more to sustainability than energy, using 100% renewable electricity is an easy win for me, and allows me to further reduce my carbon footprint in future by switching other energy use to electric (heat pump, electric car etc).

Location: Electric Mountain in Wales. It predates current concerns about sustainability, but is a really good example of how we can balance renewables to provide round the clock electricity without fossil fuels.

Resource: TRACE of course!

Quote: “People consistently overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a decade.” – Unknown

How do you ‘do’ sustainability in your own life?

I try to make changes in as many areas of my life as I can, as it’s easier to make progress that way. I’m a big fan of train travel and try to use it whenever possible. When I worked in an office I used to cycle in. We plan all our meals in advance and only buy the food we need to cook them, which means we have little or no food waste. We reduce packaging wherever possible, including using refills and visiting zero packaging shops. Everything that can be recycled is recycled and I compost as much as possible of what’s left.

Are they any local sustainability initiatives that you’re excited about/have engaged with? 

I’m a member of Wilder Bramley, the local sustainability group in my village. We’ve run a number of projects to rewild areas of the village, including creating grass and wild flower meadows, organising a community watering campaign to save some local saplings, conducting hedgerow surveys and engaging with the local council on planning applications.

How do you connect to the natural environment?

I try to spend as much time in nature as possible. I have a book called Every Day Nature that gives me something in the natural world to look out for, each day of the year. I’m a member of the National Trust and regularly walk around their various estates. Simply stopping and looking for the nature wherever you currently are is the best way to connect to it. Watch the seasons change, the world around you is changing every day.

What one event that you attended really impressed you in terms of sustainability credentials and why?

It’s in the name, but I attended The Sustainability Show in London in 2022. Quite how sustainable the event itself was, I’m not sure, but it opened my eyes to how many different organisations were working to be more sustainable and were putting that aim at the heart of their businesses. The very fact that there was a show for what had felt like a very niche interest a few years ago was exciting in itself.

What was your biggest aha moment when it came to climate change/the environment? 

The publication of the Stern Review in 2006. I’d been worried about climate change for a long time by this point and didn’t feel it was being taken seriously by politicians. Stern was the first person to conclude that it was economically important to tackle climate change, as well as environmentally, and this gave me hope that the people in charge would start to listen at last.

Tell us something unusual about your sustainability journey…

For me it began with a school play about the Amazon rainforest when I was 10 years old. It covered the topic of slash and burn land management practices, and I remember being horrified, but thinking that now that the problem was known about, at least it would be solved soon…

What’s on your sustainability to-do list?

Top of my list is replacing my gas boiler with an air source heat pump. It looks like a bigger job than I’d hoped for, as much of my pipework needs replacing, but it will be worth it to be warm without feeling the guilt that crashes through me whenever I hear the boiler firing up.

Read more:

My Sustainability Story: Kate Kieran

My Sustainability Story: Dom Bemrose

My Sustainability Story: Miriam Habtesellasie

My Sustainability Story: Ieva Tarutytė

My Sustainability Story: Alex Camacho

My Sustainability Story: Malcolm Leach

My Sustainability Story: Susanna Zema

My Sustainability Story: Alex Schlacher

My Sustainability Story: Emily Shephard

My Sustainability Story: Megan Harris

My Sustainability Story: Kat Bednarczyk

My Sustainability Story: Rebecca Lardeur