Engines on the world's biggest ships can be as tall as a 4 storey house and as wide as 3 London buses. That’s a lot of fuel and a lot of carbon being emitted. So why does so much of the landscaping material we use in our gardens have to come from places as far afield as China and India?
To the unwitting customer they appear cheaper, but your patio may well have been quarried by children, perhaps as young as 5 years old, given the evidence of the child labour of thousands within India’s sandstone sector.
Beyond price tags, we see the cost truly is hefty. Increasing emissions are being driven by rising demand for shipping and the associated consumption of fossil fuel even though development has been ongoing to make the ships more efficient.
It seems madness that we import so much of our garden’s hard landscaping from afar when we have an amazing selection right here in Britain to choose from. Such as CED Natural Stone's British Isles Paving collection.
You can make a positive difference to your carbon footprint when you question the origins of the products you buy. I encourage clients to see beyond price tags by specifying locally sourced stone. Such as one of my favourites, the brilliant quality and hard wearing (Norse Stone) Caithness flagstone… from right here in Scotland