THE SUSTAINABLE HOME

Sebastian Cox on his eco-friendly renovation project

During 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 watch 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 for shearing, too, so they are trimmed in an intense and profitless day. Our local shepherd took away most of the fleeces but left large amounts of seemingly low-grade fibre in the field to rot. And this year it’s worse than ever. Coronavirus closed the international wool market and compounded a decade-long decline in demand, pricing a ewe’s fleece at 25p, with shearing costs of £1.10 per ewe. Bafflingly in this instance, a renewable, natural material struggles to compete with its oil-based opponents, so we as consumers have to consciously spend more and look harder.

I remember this as I’m sitting in my draughty Victorian seaside terrace as a northerly gale hammers my window and up through the floorboards. I’m researching insulation, in some hurry with our second baby just weeks from arriving. Fourteen per cent of the UK’S emissions is from energy used in homes, and the Committee on Climate Change estimate that we will not be able to meet out legally binding targets of being carbon neutral by 2050 unless we eliminate this emission. Demand for energy must be reduced by better insulating homes. To meet this challenge, cheap, mineral-based fibre can be stuffed between joists and rafters to reduce heat leaks. This is a start, but this material comes with a carbon cost, around 3kg of CO2 per kg of insulation. Some manufacturers seem to be tackling their emissions, but wool can be carbon neutral and it’s using a waste stream, and so fighting two ecological battles at once.

Thermafleece offers wool insulation that’s carbon negative and made in the UK from British wool – a completely sensible product offering us hope in this climate emergency. I’m not a supporter of intensive sheep farming, always opting for wildlife-friendly farming, but I do believe in using natural over fossil materials, and local over global, so we should utilise this abundant domestic waste resource.

Aside from the material, what better way to get to know your house than to tuck it in with blankets of cosiness? Particularly, if it is wool, without having to don PPE to protect yourself from synthetic fibres. As my pallets of insulation arrive, I’m ready to give my house a big, warm climate-saving hug.