Green&Blue: its sustainable growth journey with Tevi

Green&Blue, award-winning manufacturing company of eco-friendly products for the garden and construction industry, is the result of husband and wife team Kate and Gavin Christman’s love for beautiful design and wildlife.

From starting their business in their garden shed in 2005, the company is now established in Perranporth and employs 6 members of staff. In November last year, the company became one of the first four B Corporation (B Corps) in Cornwall. B Corps are a growing group of companies across the UK who are reinventing business, by pursuing purpose as well as profit.  B Corps receive the certification after having met rigorous social and environmental standards, which include responsibly sourcing their products and being a fair employer.

With sustainability being a core business value, working with Tevi was a natural fit. Tevi, which means grow in Cornish, is an innovative programme that focuses on developing environmental growth and circular economy initiatives across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, helping businesses improve their processes, save money and benefit Cornwall’s natural environment.

Through Tevi, Green&Blue received support with product development as well as, more generally, around enhancing their reputation as one of the county’s flagship environmental growth success stories.

Green&Blue’s Bee Bricks are made from up to 75% by-products from the Cornish China Clay industry. In this context, the company reflects Cornwall’s transition to a more circular economy, as laid out in the official Environmental Growth Strategy 2015-2065. The strategy aims to encourage businesses, communities and individuals to work together to increase environmental, social and economic prosperity in Cornwall.

“Green&Blue are a flagship company for our programme because their products, including the iconic Bee Brick, are made from recycled or responsibly sourced materials and, at the same time, are built to bring about large-scale environmental growth within existing and new infrastructure,” explains Tevi’s business-facing manager Edvard Glücksman.

Faye Clifton, head of sales and marketing at Green&Blue says “Tevi is a brilliant programme for Cornwall, recognising the importance of our environment and supporting businesses in protecting it.”

To date, Tevi supported Green&Blue with several reports which looked at material choices for new product developments and at possible camera use to enable species monitoring within the Green&Blue BatBlock, and to develop live streaming on the company’s website.

In June 2019, Green&Blue also received grant funding from Tevi to set up a new packaging project at their headquarters in Perranporth. The project will greatly reduce the amount of virgin grade material the company uses to pack their products and orders, and should also remove a proportion of recycling from the supply chain to be repurposed for packaging materials.

“Tevi have enabled us to progress projects that otherwise we just wouldn’t have had the time or resources to move forward with,” Says Faye. “With the support they have given us, we’re confident that we can reduce our packaging use on a daily basis, lessening our impact there and enabling us to avoid the need for plastics in our packaging. That they can help us to engage a wider audience in supporting our wildlife species via live streams on our website really brings our products to life.”

Tevi is a partnership between the University of Exeter, Cornwall Council, Cornwall Wildlife Trust and the Cornwall Development Company.  The programme received £2.4m funding from the European Regional Development Fund. For more information about Green and Blue visit: www.greenandblue.co.uk