Having an open chimney is like leaving a window open all the time. When ecologist Sally Phillips became aware of how many open chimneys there are in the UK, she was shocked at the amount of energy and money that was being wasted. In total, 60% of the UK housing stock, around 11 million homes, is built with open chimneys. These are often retained as an attractive feature in the home. There’s a perception that chimneys need to be left open to ventilate the home. However, 80 cubic metres of air flow up a chimney per hour. This is far too much ventilation! Wool has excellent insulation properties, and is breathable, an important consideration for older homes. Sally developed the Chimney Sheep™, a chimney blocker made of Herdwick sheep wool. Herdwick wool is coarse and wiry, which are ideal properties for the product. It needs to be rigid enough to hold itself in place in the chimney, but malleable enough to conform to uneven chimney surfaces and to fit a range of sizes. Simplicity and sustainability were fundamental aspects from the outset. The product needed to be simple to use and simple to understand. It is durable, will last at least a decade, but at the end of its life the wool component can be composted and the plastic component can be reused or recycled. Chimney Sheep Ltd
Sally developed the concept into a marketable product. This was launched in 2012 and has grown over the years. Chimney Sheep Ltd has 11 employees and has sold over 150,000 units. “I’m delighted to have won the Queen’s Award for Business,” says Sally. “In these difficult times, the Chimney Sheep has a role to play in reducing energy bills. A Chimney Sheep saves around 5% of household heat loss – at present that equates to around £95 off a typical heating bill. Winning Demonstrating Chimney Sheep to Prince Charles at a farming diversification event
Receiving acclaimed BBA certification at the Homebuilding & Renovating Show
the Queen’s Award gives us all at Chimney Sheep a boost, a warm glow of success. But it is also raising awareness of heat loss up chimneys, which has been largely ignored by the insulation industry.” CHIMNEY SHEEP LTD 24B Solway Trading Estate, Maryport, Cumbria CA15 8NF sally@chimneysheep.co.uk • www.chimneysheep.co.uk @ChimneySheep ChimneySheep @ChimneySheep
ColourTone Masterbatch Ltd
Colour Tone Masterbatch is delighted to have won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation, for its development of a colouring technology which has, to date, diverted over 10,000 tonnes of plastic from landfill. The company achieved this through the development and commercialisation of patented Near Infra-Red (NIR) detectable colourants, which enable the automatic sorting and therefore recycling of post-consumer mixed plastics. Colour Tone Masterbatch Ltd, part of the dynamic Luxus group, is an innovative manufacturer of colour concentrates [masterbatches] for use in thermoplastics. It is a pioneering supplier, addressing major industry challenges and
developing novel solutions to overcome them. These include Vynacol, the patented polymer specific masterbatch for PVCu, Cool Plastics to reduce the environmental warming effect on outdoor products and their range of NIR detectable masterbatches, which can be automatically sorted from post-consumer waste. There is a common misconception by many consumers that black plastics are unrecyclable, but all thermoplastics are recyclable when separated into their individual polymer type. The use of NIR
spectroscopy is a highly efficient method of sorting mixed plastic waste into polymer types and is a technology already adopted by plastic waste sorting centres. The main issue with this process is that if the plastic is coloured with pigments that absorb light in the NIR spectrum, the automatic sorter is unable to identify the polymer, resulting in its diversion to landfill; even when it is perfectly recyclable. Utilisation of Colour Tone’s NIR optimised colourant technology solves this challenge and enables the consistent sorting of material for recycling. Simon Atterby, General Manager at Colour Tone, says: “We are incredibly honoured to have been recognised via this prestigious award. The
management of plastic at end of life is a significant global challenge and one which we are proud to be developing sustainable solutions for.” Colour Tone also offers a consultancy service to customers wishing to adopt more sustainable packaging solutions with a reduced carbon footprint and an inbuilt design for end of life. COLOURTONE MASTERBATCH LTD Unit D, Pant Glas Farm Industrial Estate, Bedwas, Caerphilly CF83 8YE Tel: +44 (0)2920 888910 www.colourtone-masterbatch.co.uk @ColourToneWorld
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