Sherwood Energy Village (SEV) is a pragmatic organisation. We have
not gone for a one-dimensional view of sustainability – i.e.
concentrating on just environmental impacts; nor have we taken the
road of economic development first and foremost – even though the
initial driving force had been job creation to replace those lost
through the pit closure programme (see About Us).
The Sherwood Energy Village concept is about identifying what
actually works – things that make sense – things that meet local
economic, environmental and social needs, rather than imposed schemes
derived from a formulaic approach. More importantly, SEV being a Social Enterprise, brought about practical
delivery, not being swayed by received opinion about what could be
achieved “to” ex-mining communities and sticking to what could
be done “by” us.
In 1994, not many organisations were embracing this approach. Now
that they have, a whole new mostly public sector industry has grown –
social enterprise support organisations; benchmarks; checklists for
sustainability; training initiatives; guidelines; criteria, etc.
What SEV has found is that despite these developments, there is
still a need for actual practitioners. As UK leading television
gardener, Alan Titchmarsh said writing about the Energy Village in
the BBC’s “Radio Times”:
“It strikes me that there are two sorts of folk when it comes to getting things done: the ‘theys’ and the ‘uzizz’. The’ theys’ are the folk who say that “they should do something about it” and the ‘uzizz’ are the ones who get off their butts and do it.”
By owning the site, sticking to the vision and concept, we have been able to deliver a quality site where people would want to live, work, learn and play.
