Sir Terry Pratchett to open SKYShades Solar Chelsea Garden

Show Garden to be officially opened by Sir Terry Pratchett and Ashley Leiman OBE, Trustees of the Orangutan Foundation with Dr Robert Carpenter – Managing Director of SKYShades UK Ltd.

SKYShades UK Ltd is delighted to announce that Sir Terry Pratchett will be officially opening the SKYShades Show Garden at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show.

Sir Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular authors writing today. He is best known for his hugely popular Discworld novels, a fantasy series, which feature the Librarian as an orangutan. This prompted Sir Terry Pratchett’s curiosity about orangutans and his long-term support of the Orangutan Foundation. In 1995, Terry visited Indonesian Borneo with the Orangutan Foundation to see orangutans in the wild. The film ‘Jungle Quest’ was shown on Channel 4. Sir Terry is a Trustee of the Orangutan Foundation and with his interest in conservation and the environment, it is very fitting that he is opening the SKYshades garden together with Ashley Leiman OBE, Director and Founder of the Orangutan Foundation.

SKYshades and the Orangutan Foundation have the same purpose. Whilst the organisation’s approaches may be different, they both share the same goal - a more eco-friendly and biodiverse world.

As increasing numbers of people are choosing to work from home, the SKYShades Garden will show how, in a relatively small area, it is possible to create a work environment that is both bio-diverse and eco- friendly. The office is set amongst plantings of wild flowers, herbs, water and woodland and is powered by the very latest solar photovoltaic panels. It is hoped that visitors will be inspired to include renewable energy solutions into buildings, whether it’s an energy self-sufficient home office in the garden, farm barn or warehouse. By finding alternative uses of energy the threat of climate change will be reduced.

Energy powered by fossil fuels is the largest cause of climate change with deforestation close behind. The Orangutan Foundation works to reduce deforestation of tropical forests.

SKYShades and the Orangutan Foundation are both playing their part to mitigate climate change. SKYshades, by using solar photovoltaic technology to reduce the need for fossil fuels and the Orangutan Foundation by protecting critical tropical forest habitats.

Notes to press:

Media contact: Lesley Hoyle, Lesley.hoyle@skyshades.co.uk, Tel: 01480 498297

About SKYShades (www.skyshades.co.uk)

SKYShades (UK) specialises in lightweight, thin film flexible solar power roofing solutions. They are sponsoring this garden to celebrate the official launch of the company because it represents core company values.

They are unique in the way that they bond this solar panel film with a tensile membrane structure (a well- known tensile example is the O2 Arena). This enables them to install solar power systems where traditional glass panels cannot be used such as fragile or awkward shaped roofs. As this technology continues to improve their systems are easily upgraded for less than half the cost of the initial installation.

The garden is the only show garden to be eco-friendly centric and demonstrate how clean, renewable energy can be harmoniously incorporated into the design.

About the Orangutan Foundation (www.orangutanfoundation.org.uk)

The Orangutan Foundation, a UK charity founded in 1990, is the world's foremost orangutan conservation organisation. They are saving Asia's endangered great ape by protecting their tropical forest habitat, working with local communities and promoting research and education.

The approach of the Orangutan Foundation goes beyond that of purely protecting the orangutan. Critically it also includes a recognition that orangutan habitat is unique in its richness of biodiversity and crucial for local communities, who are as dependant on the forest as is the orangutan.

Conservation is more than protecting a species, it is about saving nature which includes us, 'the fifth ape'. The efforts of all of us to prevent global warming will be seen as a defining moment in history, for humanity's sake and for the health of the whole planet. Tropical forests can play a significant role in guarding against climate change.

About SKYShades (www.skyshades.co.uk)

SKYShades (UK) specialises in lightweight, thin film flexible solar power roofing solutions. They are sponsoring this garden to celebrate the official launch of the company because it represents core company values.

They are unique in the way that they bond this solar panel film with a tensile membrane structure (a well- known tensile example is the O2 Arena). This enables them to install solar power systems where traditional glass panels cannot be used such as fragile or awkward shaped roofs. As this technology continues to improve their systems are easily upgraded for less than half the cost of the initial installation.

The garden is the only show garden to be eco-friendly centric and demonstrate how clean, renewable energy can be harmoniously incorporated into the design.

Media contact: Lesley Hoyle
lesley.hoyle@skyshades.co.uk
www.skyshades.co.uk
Tel: 01480 498297
Skyshades UK Ltd
Manor Farm, Low Road, Fenstanton, Huntingdon, Cambs PE28 9HU

This release was published on openPR.