ImagesMagUK_December_2021

IS DECORATOR PROFILE www.images-magazine.com 46 images DECEMBER 2021 I t was a visit to an airbag factory that set Phil Millar on the path to building ‘the most eco-friendly garment decoration facility in the UK’. “They told me that every year, they’ve got to produce an airbag 10% cheaper. And you can’t have a dodgy airbag or you’ll kill people. The quality has got to be there. “I thought, ‘Wow, I don’t know anyone who’s been killed with a T-shirt yet – but everyone wants everything cheaper. How do we go about producing a garment more cheaply?’ So that’s how we started looking at solar power, LED lighting, all these things that use less electricity.” Since then, it’s fair to say the plans have snowballed as with every step forward, Phil and his team discover new ways to ‘green’ the build, from talking to the Wildlife Trust about plants for the roof garden to installing air-source heating, and with the aim of eventually being off-grid. Edible plants Phil set up Creative Apparel in 1988. The Stockport-based print and embroidery company now offers a Rebel with a cause Phil Millar at Creative Apparel has a bold vision – to create the most eco-friendly garment decoration facility in the UK. He talks to Images about growing crops, mega fans, and the need to finely examine every aspect of this ever-expanding project What we’ve got is a brownfield site, a building that is giving, that’s turning carbon dioxide into oxygen and feeding people wide range of services, from screen printing to rhinestones, and employs more than 80 people. In 2017, it was clear a new factory was needed, and in March 2018, Phil eventually got the keys to a site one mile away. The easy route forward would have been to pull the existing factory down and build a new, ultra-green factory from scratch – but Phil wanted the building to be scored ‘excellent’ by BREEAM, a global sustainability assessment method. “A lot of people build these eco buildings and they greenwash it,” he says. “It would’ve been cheaper knocking the whole building down, but we haven’t, because what BREEAM is interested in is recycling. The wall that we did knock down, the bricks were picked up, minced and used in the foundation.” The aspect that really sparked Phil’s interest was the building’s flat roof. “Everything has got to have a purpose,” he states. A way of saving on water rates is to collect the rainwater that comes off the roof, ie rainwater harvesting, which at Creative’s new factory will be stored in a 10,000-litre container. “Now, that isn’t a lot of water to take off a roof, so we had to find interesting ways to get rid of the water. So, the easy one is washing cars, that sort of thing. That was an easy one. But we’ve still got more water. “I met up with the Wildlife Trust, and they said to me, ‘Have you thought of a rooftop garden? It can help get rid of your water rates.” I thought, ‘I’ll have that.’ The problem is, in the ‘70s and ‘80s, everyone was tarmacking everything, so when it rains, the drains can’t take it. What they’re saying to people, ‘Look, stop stuff going down the drain, and we’ll give you some money back on doing that.’ Agreeing to create a rooftop garden was, however, just the beginning. The Wildlife Trust recommended selecting the right type of plants to help increase biodiversity. “There may be a local butterfly that likes a certain plant, for example. We said, ‘Okay, we’ll put those up there.’ There’s no difference putting a rose compared to a whatever, it doesn’t make any difference. I was, however, thinking, ‘Oh god, I don’t know anything about bloody plants.’” Phil approached Salford University and was put in contact with lecturer Dr Michael Hardman, an expert on growing food crops on buildings. He asked if they’d be interested in growing food as well – so now the living wall, The new factory will have a roof garden to attract local wildlife Phil believes interior living walls might boost productivity