Julia Hailes MBE

Sustainability Pioneer

Family friendly films – a rant (Aug08)

This is a rant! Why make a Batman movie that’s not suitable for children – and show it all through the summer holidays? I have to admit that I haven’t seen it but I’ve read enough to know that I don’t want to – and I’m not very keen on my three boys watching it […]

Car Troubles – Ford Ka Troubles (Aug08)

I’ve had a couple of prangs in my car recently. First, someone in a four-wheel drive reversed into me. They were trying to turn around because a lorry was blocking the road and they didn’t notice me nestled behind in my Audi A3. There wasn’t a lot of damage but the really boring thing was […]

Summer produce (Jul08)

The weekend wasn’t glorious – certainly not the weather anyway. But I’ve been really enjoying the delicious summer produce, either from my wonderful food delivery service – Somerset Local Food Direct, from my mother’s garden or from our local pick your own. On Saturday night I had 15 people to supper. We started with broad […]

Reckitt Benckiser Sustainability Conference (Jul08)

“Julia had a great impact at our sustainability conference. As well as highlighting potential focus areas in her talk, she got stuck in with the brand teams in the afternoon to think about how we could innovate to change our products and consumer behaviours.” Joss Langford, Reckitt Benckiser, July 2008

NT – Energy efficient light bulbs (Jun08)

ABOUT TIME TOO – NATIONAL TRUST ENERGY SAVING LIGHT BULBS I was a tenant of the National Trust for nearly 10 years.  My husband and I rented Tintinhull House in Somerset from 1995.   It’s a beautiful house with gardens, made famous by Penelope Hobhouse, open to the public during the summer months. The public reception […]

A Trip to Waste Tip (Jun08)

Dimmer landfill site near Castle Cary in Somerset is unusual.  It has a rather beautiful wooden eco-building within it’s boundaries, housing the Carymoor Environmental Centre.  School trips for nature talks and wildlife walks are a regular feature – and they do a lot to educate the public on the benefits of recycling. I took my […]

Washing lines in Dubrovnik (Jun08)

Where bombs and missiles fell in the early 1990s, I stood looking at washing lines and cats. Swallows were diving over the rooftops of Dubrovnik in the evening sun – it was a magical experience, perhaps all the more so because I was there for such a short time. My trip to Croatia was arranged […]

Flash floods in Somerset (Jun08)

My local town of Crewkerne doesn’t often hit the headlines. Last Thursday it did. I saw the flash floods first hand. My sister-in-law had invited me – along with my mother and sister – to a birthday supper for my brother. It was rather a last minute event because she had forgotten about his birthday, […]

Sea Kayaking – Scotland (May08)

I’ve spent quite a lot of time mucking around in boats but surprisingly had never been sea kayaking – that is until the bank holiday weekend. Actually, I was on an outdoor philosophy course, which I discovered meant paddling in the clear waters near Mallaig, in Scotland, by day. And for the rest of the […]