SPRING / SUMMER UPDATE :

Its been a crazy winter/spring for Green Island this year, we’ve been working on lots of projects and have nearly hit the 100 mark in terms of registered businesses in the Green Island Awards. New members include the National Trust, Goodleaf Tree Climbing, Wight Walks, Koala Cottage, the Bike Shed and Ventnor Brewery.

Green Island Awards 2006
The 2006 Green Island Awards Ceremony is upon us and this year’s event is to be held on May 25th at Cowes Yacht Haven. This year’s event will feature all the usual best of categories alongside a special

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All Change at Afton Park :

In an inspired change of ownership Green Island Gold Award winner, Afton Park has been purchased by Paul & Michaela Heathcote of Chinashop Rare Breeds of Bathingbourne. Both businesses are members of the IOW Farmers Market Group and share a strong ethos in supporting all things local. With this amalgamation... MORE >

IFCA Launched :

Wednesday evening (8th Feb) saw the launch of an exciting new initiative to create a central organisation to help develop and promote the Island food and craft sectors. The organisation is known as the Island Food & Craft Association (IFCA) and will form the hub for all things to do with local food and craft production, sales and consumption on the Island... MORE >

Autumn Winter Update :

Well it’s been a pretty crazy time of late for the Green Island team, we’ve been on BBC1’s Country File, taken a trip to Finland, entertained a bunch of Norfolk artists, created a local produce organisation for the Island, developed wildlife & arts tourism packages, secured £25k for a heritage arts project in Yarmouth, held the Green Island ‘Big-Air’ contests... MORE >

Green Island Supported Garden Scoops Gold! :

Green Island teamed up with Afton Park to develop a show garden for the New Forest Show (July 26/27/28) this year and helped scoop a Gold award! The garden was based on the Freshwater Way, a well defined footpath between Yarmouth and Freshwater and included its own 'footpath', oak sign-post and a collection of coastal and meadow plants... MORE >

Green Oscars 2005 :

April 28th 2005 saw Green Island celebrate its second birthday with the third annual awards ceremony (the first being the launch!). This year was Green Island's biggest to date with over 60 members vying for the 7 main awards, over double the number from 2004. This year's venue was Brading Roman Villa's new £3 million exhibition centre, which seemed to be... MORE >

New Look Website :

Yes the new version of the website is online for the beginning of the 2005 season, hopefully this will make it easier to find 'green' alternatives for your holiday on the Island as well as provide more information on things to do while you're here! We have also been busy engaging more businesses over the winter period and have expanded to include over 70 businesses, so this year... MORE >

New Grading System :

When the Green Island Awards were launched during 2003 they were based on a system where businesses had to implement up to 130 measures against 10 criteria sections, each of the measures was worth 1-3 points and the totals then translated into a percentage figure against which gold, silver and bronze standards were awarded. Since 2003 there have been a number... MORE >

Expansion of Membership :

Membership has been expanding rapidly this winter with a number of high profile businesses committing to improvement environment management. We began with 17 pilot businesses during 2003, this grew to 35 last years and we are already at nearly 70 so far this year, hopefully we will top the 100 mark over the next few months!... MORE >

Projects :

Alongside Green Island's certification duties we have been busy setting up projects and initiatives to support the work we are doing with businesses. The West Wight Landscape Partnership was one of the first products of 2004; we secured £60,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund to do that background research and are looking to submit a £2 million bid during... MORE >

Events :

Green Island will be in action at the Garlic Festival and County Show again this year; we recently reviewed these events and so are hoping to do something more significant this coming summer. We are currently in negotiations with White Air over sponsorship of the freestyle Mountain Boarding at this year's Isle of Wight Festival, this is still in the initial stages... MORE >