Blenheim Estate has unveiled an ambitious collaboration with innovative environmental consultants Tumblebug, marking a pioneering six-month pilot initiative aimed at transforming all of the estate’s organic waste into a self-sustaining circular ecosystem.
Named the “Country Estate Carbon Demonstrator Project,” this groundbreaking venture, the first of its kind in the UK, will witness Blenheim Estate adopting revolutionary practices to extract value from its diverse organic waste streams, including food, coffee, compostable packaging, card, manure, green horticultural waste, forestry waste, and sheep wool. Leveraging Ecobot machines and Tumblebug’s patented biochar filter process, the project aims to create a closed-loop system that maximizes resource efficiency.
Blenheim Estate plans to deploy two Ecobots during the pilot project. These machines will convert all organic waste into dry, sanitized, odor-free, and nutrient-rich material. The resulting material can be directly used as a soil conditioner, an additive for compost, or as an ingredient in organic fertilizer production.
The entire venture, financially backed by Innovate UK, a part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), is envisioned as a potential model for the UK’s approximately 6,000 other landed estates striving to achieve sustainability targets.
Roy Cox, Managing Director – Estates at Blenheim Palace, emphasized the significance of such initiatives in their sustainability journey, stating, “To become a net zero business by 2027* means we must look at every part of our operations and reduce our emissions, and we see this project as a major step towards achieving that as well as creating circular businesses from our waste.”
The Blenheim/Tumblebug collaboration will not only encompass the Ecobot waste transformation but will also feature the establishment of an organic mushroom farm on the Blenheim Estate. Additionally, the project will experiment with pyrolysis carbon removal technology to convert estate organic waste into carbon-rich biochar. This biochar has versatile applications, including being a core ingredient in Tumblebug’s peat-free carbon-negative growing medium, a component in manure management to reduce ammonia emissions, and a means to curtail nitrogen and phosphorus runoff into surface water.
If proven successful, the pilot Country Estate Carbon Demonstrator Project will undergo further development, contributing to the acceleration of Blenheim Estate’s Net Zero commitment.
Sylvie Verinder, Founder and CEO of Tumblebug, expressed enthusiasm about the opportunity to showcase their circular economy model at Blenheim Estate. She stated, “Tumblebug was founded to demonstrate to the World that we must, and can, go beyond sustainability to create a regenerative economy. We are honored to be given the opportunity to demonstrate our Recover – Rotate – Regenerate circular economy model at this prestigious UNESCO World Heritage site. We look forward to building the human-centered design project and delivering the carbon data evidence of its impact with the incredible Blenheim Team.”
*One of Blenheim Palace and Estate’s 10-year goals is to become carbon neutral on scopes 1-3 of the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) protocol across all operations by 2027.