Yorkshire is a fantastically green place !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, all of a sudden we seem to be much in demand throughout the Eco and green fraternity which is good news indeed !!

Firstly we've been contacted by an extremely knowledgeable chap from Passive House Plus magazine, informing us that the Eco kitchen that we created up in Leyburn, North Yorks. last year is going to take centre stage in their next issue of the magazine.

Here's a quick reminder of how it looked, it does feature in more depth in an earlier blog ! The Eco spec on this kitchen was very high, in fact the best it could be at the time, as described by the text below that I've sent over to the magazine !!


Carcase material for the main kitchen units is 75% recycled material particle board, ( composed of 30% waste stream timber products & 45% recycled factory waste ) with 25% Fsc certified material. 

The particle binder has a formaldehyde content of only 0.1 mg HCHO/ sq.m at 18mm thick which is way lower than the current limit value of 3.5 mg and at 0.1 is the same content as would be found in a naturally growing tree.

The Maple for the worktops is from a sustainable source /Fsc certified and finished with 'Osmo' Hardwax oil

The wall hung unit cabinets and doors are all built from solid American PEFC certified Tulipwood and finished with a 'Liberon' Eco friendly low VOC, wax free, finishing oil.

The main kitchen unit doors are also made from an American PEFC certified Tulip wood and finished with an organic paint from Ecos Paints ( now Lakeland Paints ) from their Feng Shui range. 

The kitchen was also something of a first for us in the fact that it was the first kitchen we built using our unique and original Integrated handle Shaker door.

 
We are, of course, very proud for this to be going in to such a prestigeous Eco building publication. And are very much looking forward to seeing the article !

There's talk of an editorial featuring all that we do here at Milestone ... Woo-hoo !, we'll see how that pans out .


Secondly, and of equal importance, when we won the PEA Award for our Eco work, which was a proud moment, they have been back in touch wanting us to join the organisation !!


Wow, Milestone Design finally getting national recognition for all the sheer hard work we've put in developing our Eco products over the last ten years..... now all I've got do is get our website up to date with all the new stuff we've been working on. One item is, in fact, the kitchen that features in the article I've just talked about above.

See, there is a plan !!

This is definitely one for Yorkshire !! Not all the groundbreaking work takes place south of Watford. 

Yorkshire is a fantastically green place and not just with regard to the countryside ! 

We just need more people to recognise it !

I need all your help to get the message out there, so spread the word !

Jules

Stay well and stay hydrated.... for free !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, been on my jollies but I'm back now and full of exciting news I feel you all need to know about. 

A fantastic scheme called "Refill" is out there in the UK, helping to cut back on bottle waste and provide places where you can refill your water bottle for free !!

We are now listed in this great new scheme and helping to cut back on the mountains of plastic bottle waste that we generate every year. When you're out and about, either at home or on holiday 1,000's of us buy and carry a water bottle around when the weathers hot but what do you do with your bottle when it's empty. I suspect a lot of you already know the answer to that ..... you see them littering pavements, forests, moorland, beaches etc and not being taken away and recycled properly. 

Well now .... there is an alternative and it get's you something for free ! Call into businesses displaying the sticker shown below and you can get your bottle topped up for nothing, how good is that ?

Inserted below are some clips from the website : refill.org.uk  Go on and have a look for more details.

Single-use plastic bottles are expensive to produce, use up valuable natural resources to make and transport and create mountains and mountains of waste once we’ve gulped down the contents. And recycling’s not the answer either, here in the UK an estimated 800 plastic bottles a MINUTE are either ending up in landfill or as litter, which will too often make its way into our waterways and out to sea.

Refill is a national, practical tap water campaign that aims to make refilling your bottle as easy, convenient and cheap as possible by introducing refill points on every street. We know water fountains can be expensive to install and maintain, so now friendly cafes, shops, hotels and businesses are welcoming you in to refill your water bottle – for free! Refill is currently happening in Bristol, Cornwall, Dorset, Devon, Bath and Bradford-on-Avon with Brighton, Norwich and Hunstanton launching very soon!

How does it work? 

Participating cafes, bars, restaurants, banks, galleries, museums and other businesses simply put a sticker in their window – alerting passers-by to the fact they’re welcome to come on in and fill up their bottle – for free! Download the free Refill rewards app to see where you can Refill on the go, or add new places to Refill yourself! 

You can go on either of these and download the app and find all the locations where you can take advantage of this fantastic scheme and help with the re-use of the dreaded plastic bottle, doing yourself, nature and the environment a favour, all at the same time. What's not to like.

As you will see, the scheme at the moment is predominantly in the South West, where it started. So let's raise awareness and try and put Yorkshire up there on the map with the best of them ! 

A lot of you, I know, have been following the progress of our new showroom display "Eco goes Coastal", well we've decided to incorporate a working sink and tap into it to provide our refills for people in the local area. We are the very first business in Ilkley to do this and we hope others will follow suit. 

Milestone ..... again...... leading the way with new developments !!

Stay well and stay hydrated people .... Jules

Think I'm in love ?

Ey up my faithful blogworms, after months of planning, it's finally coming together, Eco2 goes Coastal !!

Using our brand new cabinet colour in Grey Linen, a modern colour with a retro twist, we've also taken a fresh look at how your kitchen units can be used. Exploring different ways in which space can be used, these new cabinet arrangements are a direct result of listening to what our customers have said they want. 

The unit doors are in the brand new Denim colour which is currently going a storm through Europe at the moment. We're usually 12 months behind them here in the UK, so we're actually ahead of the game ..... that makes a change !

As is becoming normal for me ..... me ! normal ! that's a laugh but anyway, I'll let the pictures do the talking. This is an early appetite wetter showing progress so far, needless to say, full pictures will be up on a future blog when we get it all finished.

It's probably the most environmentally friendly display we've ever put together, full details of which will follow in the future blog  .... Eco Friendly and Gorgeous .... it doesn't get much better than this !

Taking a different look at how wall unit space is used has driven the new layout within our units shown here, easy reach everyday space with not so often used space above. Bring back the concept of the much missed "Midway" units that sit on your worktop with commonly used items within easy reach. These can be open or with doors, your choice but we've shown one of each.

Bringing the idea of smaller more convenient drawers individually with a bigger drawer pack has been a much requested idea, so we did it. Probably better seen in the pic above, you keep the big pan drawers under which have grown in popularity steadily over the last few years anyway. Makes for a more versatile drawer pack with more than a passing nod to the old Apothecary chest of years gone by.

This has become our good old stand by, split shelf corner base which has been so well received since we brought it in, we just had to include again in the new display.

That old chestnut !!! The kitchen bin unit, takes up too much space you said, not enough bin space you said, need more segregation for recycling you said, well here's our version !
A double decker .... a 300 wide unit, taller than normal putting your bins at an easy working height, 3 in the top and 2 slightly bigger in the bottom, loads of bin space in a small footprint, easy to use ..... what's not to like ?

This little baby is the latest feature for this display. Speaks for itself in appearance and colour wise it couldn't work better with everything else on the display. Technically it's way more efficient than a lot of other fridges, clever areas for differing needs for differing foods you put in it should promote a longer life for your food and cut down on shameful food wastage !! Something we're very keen on !

Not only that but ..... come on ..... it's got to be the "coolest" fridge on the market, inside and out !!!!


Think I'm in love !!
Jules