I spent the day yesterday with the Soil Association at Highgrove. There was a mixed bag of guests, mostly Soil Association members. I was surprised at some of the products certified by the organisation, not just agricultural goods but toiletries and clothing too.

We spent the morning touring some of the 900 acres of farm owned by the Duchy of Cornwall. The Highgrove Estate gained full organic status in 1996; the impressive turnaround aside, in an industry perceived to be traditional the forward thinking attitudes were marked; sustainability and innovation going hand in hand.

Sustainability in agriculture is not just about ‘being green’, it’s about survival. Even those farmers who aren’t as forward thinking as those at Highgrove are turning to organic as a cheaper way of life. They can ill-afford the rising prices of oil and pesticides and are contacting the Soil Association for help.

How long will it be before other industries feel the pinch and look for an alternative way of doing things, and realise that sustainability is a viable way forward? The day really emphasised not only that sustainability should be and can be on everyone’s agenda, but that it demands innovation.

On Wednesday we had a lovely evening on the Southbank collecting our Sunday Times “Best Green Companies” award. We are really proud to come 18th in the UK Top 50 and 5th in the London region – here’s me and Shannon accepting the award from Richard Caseby, Sunday Times Managing Editor – in front of green background, of course …

We decided to get involved with this award because we are genuinely passionate about developing ourselves as a sustainable company. We have already learnt a lot about our approach, now we are looking at ways to start doing more stuff globally and make improvements wherever we can. Some of the others who made the list were The National Magazine Company, Morgan Lovell, Carillon, HBOS and Eurostar, with the overall winners being J C Atkinson, a small company who make coffins – and wow, they do some amazing stuff for a company of their size. Here’s just one example from many – they have installed a biomass generator, which takes all the sawdust and cut-offs from making the coffins and uses the energy to heat and power the factory, as well as selling surplus back to the National Grid!

In the spirit of learning and development we will be sharing some our ideas and practices back here, so watch this space.