Coastwise members learned some very practical approaches to reducing their energy footprint from sustainability guru and local businessman Mukti Mitchell.
Mukti told members about a life devoted to sustainability, influenced first by his parents, who ran the Resurgence magazine devoted to eco issues, and then by James Lovelock, of Gaia fame.
Mukti takes a very pragmatic approach to his work and reasoned that he could take his message to more people the better he was at marketing. He therefore sudied this at Petroc and has spent the ensuing time furthering the eco lifestyle. After travelling to the USA as crew on a yacht to learn sailing, he was inspired to build his own sailing boat, with oars instead of a motor, having seen the influence that a unrepairable engine had on many sailing adventures.
His yacht was built using his carpentry skills, and used an innovative retractable parallelogram fin keel to combine sailing stability, and the capability to use shallow waters. He proved this design by sailing round Britain, prudently avoiding Cape Wrath by using the Caledonia Canal. The trip was punctuated by visits to Glasgow, Southampton and London to broadcast the eco message. In London, he was able to enlist Torridge MP Geoffrey Cox to distribute his eco brochure to all MPs and peers in Parliament.
Muktin now runs a local company that can offer home insulation, and, unsurprisingly, and innovative method of double glazing existing windows in character houses.
Overall, an informative and entertaining message that was well-received by Coastwise members.