Bob Johnson and I went to visit British Gypsum (BG) on 28th April for their ‘Lead and Grow Day featuring Environment, Health and Safety Day.’ We represented Wild About Barrow and Barrow Greener Living.

We were warmly welcomed and after a health and safety briefing, we joined a room of about 100 employees and permanent contractors for a talk on the day, the importance of mental health and looking out for each other – a great message for all of us.

On this day across the globe, 150 thousand employees of St Gobain (owners of BG) stopped work to take part in this special day – something they do every two years. Topics covered at the Barrow site included Tai Chi, All About Bikes, Healthier You, Nature Walk and Making Safety Personal. Another site in Yorkshire offered yoga with goats!

There is an established wildflower meadow, and cowslips line the long approach road off Paudy Lane. Rachel Blackham, an ecologist advising BG, led the walk around the lake. Growth around the edge has been cleared to allow light onto the water to encourage aquatic plants to grow. These are needed by newts to lay their eggs. One night survey also came across frogs, smooth and great crested newts and 25 toads, which is a significant population. Other animals living here include grass snakes and 50 species of breeding birds. In the surrounding woodland are bat and bird boxes including a barn owl box. One employee said he had seen the ground seeming to move with barn owlets.

It was heartening to see how much has been, and is being, done to increase the biodiversity of this large site. To further improve the environment and offset carbon emissions, a number of EV charging points are available and all company vehicles, including articulated lorries are changing to electric. Well done St Gobain! Look out for a future article on their sustainability aims.

Alison Rushton