MISSION

Aims

Main Objectives of Organisation

The organisation has three main areas of interest all covered by the letters HBC:

1 - Highbury Builders Collective
We are an organisation made up of individulas who all have a passionate interest in building relationships with similar individuals and organisations committed to ensuring that we go towards a future which is far more environmentally sound.

As an organisation, we have striven to forge connections with various networks that we feel are making an active impact, for the good, on the UK environment. These partnerships are detailed under their respective headings. We look on this aspect as the core of our success - the more people who are invovled in initiatives, the more they will have a real-world impact!

2 - Honey Bee Collective
The UK honey bee is under threat of extinction - a fact that we can ill afford to ignore. Through pollination, these wonderful creatures are responsible for putting 80% of the food we eat on the table.

The Honey Bee Collective is the term we use to describe the various initiatives we have undertaken to promote the advancement of honey bees in our environment. We are members of the British Bee Keeping Association & North London Beekeepers and, through this association, have noticed that there are far more people interested in beekeeping in cities that there are beekeeping societies to cater for them.

As well as building beehouses, we are running training courses in urban beekeeping (theoretical and practical modules) over 2005. We shall also run courses to train people in building beehives and involve junior schools in bee awareness days to plant the seeds of interest which will produce the beekeepers of the future.

3 - Horticulture By Composting

On a ground level we are currently working in partnership with London Community Recycling Network and the Youth Hostels Association

We are very interested in "closing the loop" for composting. To this end we are about to embark on a major project which will encompass the introduction of an all-in food composting scheme in a high-density housing project. The food compost will be collected weekly and taken to a heat radiator to kill pathogens then turned into a high quality soil fertiliser. This fertiliser shall be used to grow vegetables and flower seedlings which will be used to green the stairwells and verandas of the contributors therby enhancing community pride.

We are optimistic that if this scheme is successful we can persuade various housing trusts and councils to work in partnership with us to instigate a Green Roof training scheme. This would provide training and employment for the disadvantaged in a new sector in th UK. Such a scheme was introduced to the USA in 2001 and to date has spurned the creation of over 200 separate businesses.

The environmental benefits of greenroofing large sections of urban dwellings would have the greatest impact of all our initiatives on the overall environment we live in.

Schools shall also be involved in a science research project where the various by-products of food compost are tested for their effectiveness as biological breakdown agents to create new products.

After the pilot has run its course, we hope to create a training scheme which will introduce those normally excluded from the workplace to a career as a small holder organic food producer. Participants in this scheme shall learn how the composting cycle works and learn how to grow vegetables and flowers and look after bees to form an organic food business.