Poole, Dorset, UK: Cosmetics manufacturer Lush is looking to drive down carbon emissions, reduce waste and improve energy efficiency by building what it claims is Europe’s’ first straw cold room.
Work on the straw bale cold room completed last week. The cold room will store and cool Lush’s fresh creams, shower gels and skincare products before they are filled and packaged to go on sale.
The project forms part of Lush’s Environmental Policy, which sets targets on waste, carbon, energy and water consumption.
Straw builders, Bee Rowan constructed the 5m x 18m room, which uses about 500 straw bales.
According to Lush, it chose to build the cold room using English straw, as it offered a much lower embedded carbon. The straw used was grown on a farm in Milton Keynes and is an agricultural waste product from grains production.
Green wood to make the poles to pin the straw bales together before compression were provided by Wimborne based firm Dorest Hurdles.
Ruth Andrade, Lush’s head of green development said: “Building a cold store for our factory out of straw bales is a visual representation of our values.
“We will be able to save energy while keeping our products fresh, we are using natural materials that are so much better for the environment and we can do all of that with the help of our own staff – training them as they help us build and hopefully developing in them a taste for eco building.”
