“The production and supply of food is the second largest cause of carbon dioxide emissions per domestic household in the UK.”

“The external costs of agriculture in terms of damage to water, air and soil have been estimated by the Environment Agency to be £1.25 billion per year in the UK.”
(Sustainable Land Use and Organic Farming Joy Greenall and Mark Measures, 2003).

The concept of Zero Emissions Farming or Zero fossil Energy Farming – ZfEF – arose from this preliminary work indicating that a vision of a zero fossil energy farm is viable and potentially replicable through the farming industry.

Preliminary analysis by leading eco-footprinter, Best Foot Forward, suggests that:

As a first step towards this vision, Commonwork has been supported by the Kent Energy Centre in initial investigations into renewable power at Bore Place.

Helen Bentley Fox has reported on our greenhouse gas emissions (1400 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per annum) and we are now exploring the farm of the future at Bore Place. We know that we want to continue to grow food, but what and how – and how it is distributed – given the impact of and on climate change, are big questions. If you would like to contribute to our discussions, contact Susan Fallmann

ZfEF Documents (pdfs):

ZfEF Project Summary
• ZfEF "Low-carbon Roadmap to 2050"
• ZfEF "Vision of the Future"

The Woodchip Boiler
– number 5 of the 9 step ZfEF plan, achieved in 2008

Delivery Cladding added Finally Finished!	The 85kW Froling Woodchip Boiler (manufactured in Austria) arrived in spring 2008 and was officially switched on Monday 6th October to heat the Trust’s study centre and heat all the hot water for washing up and bathing. Many thanks to Kent Downs AONB and SEEDA for grant support towards the costs of this. The woodchip is currently being supplied from a local company headed by Jonathan Latham using locally felled timber (within 8 miles). He then delivers	The Grand Opening! (Opening photo with permission of the Courier Media Group)
	this to us chipped and ready to load into the hopper (storage tank for wood chips) to heat the house. Please see the attached diagram for how it all works! We have coppiced our own woods last winter and the drying wood will be ready for chipping and using next winter. A fully closed sustainable system. Currently we are monitoring its success in terms of financial and carbon targets. It has not been all smooth running and there have been some teething problems. Hopefully these will settle out for the next winter. Further details on the wood chip boiler (PDF)

Recycled chip oil and the Bio-diesel plant
– number 2 of the 9 step ZfEF plan, achieved in 2007

Our biodiesel plant on site has been successfully running for over a year now. Local waste chip fat oil is collected from three local shops and turned into biodiesel for use in farm vehicles. It has been highly successful with production keeping up with farm demand. The vehicles run well on it and there have not been any technical problems. A very simple, low cost and effective low tech system. Thanks to David Hawkes who operates the plant and Mike Cottrell who collects the waste oil.

For further information please contact:

Susan Fallmann
Project Coordinator for the Zero Fossil Energy Development
Commonwork, Bore Place, Chiddingstone, Kent
TN8 7AR
Tel 01732 463255 extension 212
Email: susanf@commonwork.org