Donation of pallets and barrels

Description

A community growing project in Edinburgh has received a donation of wood pallets and water barrels thanks to Robertson Construction, who are currently building the National Robotarium – one of the projects within the Edinburgh & South East Scotland City Region Deal’s Data Driven Innovation programme.

They have been gratefully receieved by Edinburgh Agroecology Co-operative (EAC) , which is developing community growing projects at the former farming site.

They aim to address some of the issues around access to local, affordable fresh produce, environmental degradation and lack of opportunities for people in cities to gain experience in food production resulting in a greater understanding of the wider food system.

Robertson responded to a request from EAC through the ESES Communities portal as part of their delivery of community benefits for the project.

Lisa Houston, Director of EAC said: “There’s a lot of people who live near here, living in flats who don’t have access to spaces to grow stuff, so wouldn’t have the confidence to take on an allotment. We’re trying to create pathways for people to get access to green space.”

“Being able to access these donations from Robertsons through the ESESCommunities.org portal is invaluable. It’s a massive project and it’s a very ambitious project – and it can be hard finding everything we need”

“Donations of materials and volunteer help will help us to make it all happen”

Since being permitted access to begin their work on the site, they have already undertaken a number of initiatives to make the fields more friendly to wildlife.

Having completed an initial phase of fencing projects, they are now building upon their ambition for a community growing space in partnership with those living locally and other good causes. Part of this is building raised beds and planters with pallets and the barrels.

David Cairns, Managing Director of Robertson Construction Central East said “During the construction of the National Robotarium, we aspired to deliver much more than a high quality facility.

Using the ESES Communities portal allows us to identify organisations in the local area requiring community benefit support.

We were delighted to be able to offer resources from the Robotarium site, and it was a we were only too happy to hire a van and send some of our site staff down with the pallets and barrels to see first-hand the ambitious work that Edinburgh Agroecology are doing"

To find out more about Edinburgh Agroecology Co-operative, visit https://www.lauristonfarm.scot/ 

The National Robotarium

Located at Heriot Watt’s campus, the National Robotarium wil research and design how robotics and artificial intelligence can drive innovation and enterprise in the region.

As well as the two universities working in partnership, the facility will collaborate and host input from global industry and academics from across the worlds to address sustainable development.

Key areas of research application will include hazardous environments, offshore energy, manufacturing, construction, healthcare, human-robot interaction, assisted living and agritech.