A housing association’s gardening teams are running on sunshine after kitting out their vans with solar-powered kit to charge and power their tools.
Flagship – part of Bromford Flagship – has fitted 14 of its vans with solar panels and power packs, with six more on the way. The organisation believes it is the first-of-its-kind mobile charging system for social housing gardening teams.
The upgrade means Flagship’s 40 gardeners across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire can head directly from home to their first job of the day and skip trips back to the depot to charge.
Ryan Cox, neighbourhood operations manager at Flagship’s housing association Samphire Homes, said: “This new system is saving each gardener 1.5 hours in travel time each day.
“I’ve never seen this done elsewhere in the working environment so it’s a real step forward. It’s potentially the start of a new system of working for colleagues.”
Each van has two 100w solar panels attached to its roof, which charge a power bank while the gardeners are out and about.
The upgrade has cost around £18,500, which Cox says would pay for itself through savings on power, petrol and working hours.
Cox added: “The point of going battery-powered in the first place was to cut down on carbon emissions and noise in neighbourhoods.
“Solar charging is taking that one step further; we’re basically running our gardening service off sunshine now.”
The upgrade was a collaboration between Flagship’s neighbourhood, health and safety and fleet teams.
Charlotte Bane, Flagship’s gardening neighbourhood services manager, said it had been “fantastic” to see the project take shape.
She added: “It’s a brilliant example of what’s possible when we think differently and it makes me proud to be part of this department.”
Main image: Two of the Flagship vans fitted with solar panels with staff members (back row from left) neighbourhood services manager Charlotte Bane; neighbourhood services manager Jamie Davies; neighbourhood gardeners Alan Todd and Matthew Pearman; fleet supervisor Peter Bilyard, and (front row) neighbourhood operations manager Ryan Cox; with health and safety manager Steve Ireland. Credit: Flagship
Read next: Invest in supported housing to ease pressure on NHS, says LGA
Are you a social housing professional? Sign up for a FREE MEMBERSHIP to upload news stories, post job vacancies, and connect with colleagues on our secure social feed.
