Inspired by Arundel Forest Garden and the way nature creates matter, I set out to find the most ecological materials that I could to build the Green Camp System That I designed (pannelised modular habitat). After attending the JEC Composites conference in France and speaking to just about every exhibitor there I discovered some amazing biomaterials and started to test these materials to see if they would be suitable for making our Green Camp System from, exploring various manufacture approaches including vacuum bagging with recycable bags and wooden tools, heated presses with second hand MDF presses and metal tools and finally additive manufacturing which was the final method chosen.
The three main materials that we tested and are still working with are:
is a 80% biobased thermosetting Expoxy system. We tested the product neat making incredibly strong transparent panels and with both natural and glass fiber panels. Boats and transparent visors for aircraft are made with this resin so it's well understood but the boat builders we performed the tests with could not believe the couldn't smash the pure resin test panels we made even when Dave was driving the biggest hammer they had at the test panel.
were developed by Martin Jensen, the CTO behind the resin systems for Seimens Windpower. They could not publish the extensive material testing that they had conducted with IKEA, Niike, NASA and others but assured me that the material propperties were just as good as conventional resin systems. Again, none of the community I was working with in the composite industry would believe we had a 1 for 1 replacement for the toxic composite resins that was 100% non-toxic so I engaged with tests with The National Composite Centre, the UK national lan to create test panels and perform basic mechanical testing including testing stregth at different temperatures (Temperature Deglassing). The full data can be provided on request but some of the pages from these tests are in the gallery below.
When we realised that manufacturing the biocomposite panels for The Green Camp System with heated presses would be expensive to set up, with each tool costing about £10k even if we just needed to make small changes to the design, I decided to focus on Additive manufacturing. Martin at Pond had not testied his bio-composite pellets out with AM so we started working with UPM Formi, The World's largest paper company that have developed a 99% biobased material for additive manufacture. We started tests with their material and many of the world's leading large format 3D printing companies. Eventually I designed The Big Green Machine as the only thing that I could afford to access was a machine I would build myself: off the shelf products were costsing anywere upwards of £50k - botching together refurbished robots would cost about £20k and need a dedicated industrual space; I only had my garage and wanted this technology as accessable as possible so I pushed ahead with UPM Formi's donated materials and am still building with them experimenting with Ponds 100% biocomposites in blends too.
To view a long album with all the pics and short vids of the testing of these materials see here
Green Campus Delta is hosting a charity fundraiser and powwow in the Delta Yoga Studio at Sunset on Friday, May 24th at Sunset with:
Watch the sun go down over the sea during a screening of "I Could Never Go Vegan" with a follow up talk & Q&A with the film's maker: James Pickering
A talk by Georgia Pine from the @WaveProjectUK about supporting their mission to aid vulnerable children through surfing and yoga where 50% of the funds from ticket sales for this weekend will be going.
Amazing healthy raw vegan organic seasonal local food from Toni @Feed_Me_Momma
Live beachside music around the fire by @FinneganTui
Guests have the option to join for the Friday evening activities or to join a weekend powow with early morning sea swims, meditation, yoga With Georgia, workshops with James and Finnegan, amazing vegan food with Toni, more yoga, more green juice, more fires, dancing for those who can not dance and sleeping by the sound of the sea.
Friday Evening - Film Screening and Discussion
The Weekend will begin with a screening of Riverwoods (click the poster to see the trailer) in The Vicar's Hall at Chichester Cathedral with a presentation from the film maker Peter Cairns from Scotland Big Picture all about their incredibly inspiring ecosystem restoration projects in Scotand. Proceeds are being donated to the project's charity which is currently raising funds to reforest The Dark Isle in Invernessshire. The film details how their restoration projects have a massive positive effect on the environment and local communities in scotland and how these inspiring restoration models can be applied anywhere...
We will then head back to Green Camp Ellanore to our eco-domes, cosy around the fire by the sea to spend the rest of the weekend wrapping on about these solutions with a program of Yin Yoga, meditation, healthy vegan food, music and other nature based activities led by the amazing Alex Rogers and the rest of The Green Team. Our focus is on being inspired and supported by positive and working nature based solutions and their people and restoring our own mental and physical health.
This feature length Documentary has been a labour of love by Otto and Ludo Brockway for the last 8 or so years. Narrated by our Kate Winslet, the film explores the most important, effective and accessible solutions of our time. We look forwards to exploring this with you, the producer of E2E Mark Galvin and some of the E2E team! We are also grouping the leading functional medical and nutritional scientists on the island, some of our absollute favorite artists, herbalists, nature protectors and healers. To book for just the screening and not the whole Yin Yoga retreat click here.
Tawai is a word the nomadic hunter gatherers of Borneo use to describe the connection they feel to their forest home. In this dreamy, philosophical and sociological look at life: Bruce Parry (of the BBC's Tribe, Amazon & Arctic) embarks on an immersive odyssey to explore the different ways that humans relate to nature and how this influences the way we create our societies. From the forests of the Amazon and Borneo to the River Ganges and Isle of Skye, Tawai is a quest for reconnection, providing a powerful voice from the heart of the forest itself. Bruce will be present for a Q&A after the film and will be at Green Camp Ellanore all weekend for the forest gardening, meditation, music and other options that weekend. See create.green/screen for more info.
GREEN TEAM
The Pond Bio-Resin comes in felt rolls of 1m width and up to 50m in length. These 100% non-toxic biocomposite resin sheets can be laied up between the layers of natural fibre re-enforcement (Flax, Jute, Hemp, meadowgrass, old shirts etc). It has to be a natural fibre because the resin forms a covalent bond (shares an electron) with the fibre which is responsible for it's great strength. Recommend 50-50 fibre to resin ratio. Sold in rolls of 10metres minimum. 10% discount for 100 meter orders. 100% non-toxic, 100% plant based, Tg of 140C, Strength 108MPA (with natural fibres in report below), Stiffness 40GPa (Young's modulus).
Green Camp Ellanore is in the beautiful village of West Wittering, a quaint little cottage in the middle of a field by the sea. Here is some basic info about how to get here:
The Green Campus Journal chronicles the latest journal entries from all green team members. Look out for the monthly Green News Show for an in-depth update about what's been going on!
For more articles see the full jounal page
Here I tell the story of the people and processes that won the final debate of the 200th aniversary of The Oxford Union on the motion: This House Would Go Vegan. The effort was intended to shine a light on the arguments of Dr. Sailesh Rao and Gerard Wedderburn-Bisshop that insist we must include the Carbon opportunity Cost of deforestation, the carbon that can not be sequestered by forests that are cut down, in the IPCC and therefore national carbon accounting conventions. Including COC in Carbon accounting conventions shows that livestock is responsible for 87% of Global Temperature Change Potential and focusing on fossil fuels is actually speeding up climate change. The event allowed us to meet researchers at Oxford who argue for and against the position and yet we continue our work to find written arguments against the position which was won on the day. We are very Grateful to The Oxford Union for supporting this event and allowing us to use it to shine a light into this all important place. The story follows:
The Green Campus Business model grew out of Arundel Forest Garden where we were trying to work out how to live as harmlessly as possible. Check out this article for links to the original Facebook groups with loads of pics and videos of starting that forest Garden and the first Green Camp in Arundel Forest Garden: Arundel Green Camp
For more articles see the full journal page
Provide for your needs and comforts in ways that are of benefit to you and every other being: or at least do their best to cause as little harm as possible.
The Pond Bio-Resin comes in felt rolls of 1m width and up to 50m in length. These 100% non-toxic biocomposite resin sheets can be laied up between the layers of natural fibre re-enforcement (Flax, Jute, Hemp, meadowgrass, old shirts etc). It has to be a natural fibre because the resin forms a covalent bond (shares an electron) with the fibre which is responsible for it's great strength. Recommend 50-50 fibre to resin ratio. Sold in rolls of 10metres minimum. 10% discount for 100 meter orders. 100% non-toxic, 100% plant based, Tg of 140C, Strength 108MPA (with natural fibres in report below), Stiffness 40GPa (Young's modulus).
99% bio-based biocomposite for 3D printing. A PLA like product with wood celulose fibre re-enforcement. UPM Formi biocomposite has high performance qualities with lower carbon footprint than fossil-based materials. The biocomposite combines mouldability of plastics and strength and sustainability of wood. Compared with traditional oil-based plastic, it reduces the product’s carbon emission by -50 %. It is a cost- and resource-efficient alternative for reducing the environmental impact of products.