Richenda Van Leeuwen and Bob Ward
Turning Green
A cliché would have it that people can turn green with envy. Currently with climate change hard upon us, turning green is the wisdom of the age. What is called for is a state of consciousness where one seeks to live without overtaxing the resources of planet Earth. Moreover, it needs to become a community approach, fully accepted and well supported.
How does one grow into this cast of mind? For me it’s been a case of a mild interest gradually becoming a matter of focussed attention. In the 1970’s my family were privileged to have the occasional use of a simple cottage in mid-Wales, Nant-yr-nele, that was so remote even the foresters no longer wished to live there. But we could roam the hillsides, dabble in streams, gather fallen branches to supply the wood-burning stove, indulge fantasies of simple living. About eight miles away the town of Machynlleth was within reach of our modest car bumping along rough tracks while avoiding sheep. At the edge of the town was an abandoned slate quarry.
We discovered that in 1973 it had been taken over by a community of engineers and architects among others who recalled that they’d set out to act ‘as a testbed for experimenting with alternative types of technology in response to the 1970’s oil crisis and a growing concern about the environmental impact of fossil fuels.’ In 1975 the site was made open to visitors, and we went a couple of times, it proved so intriguing. Some people did find aspects rather way out. I overheard a man complaining to his wife in a section dealing with options for making human waste productive: ‘I’m not going to pee over our garden just to grow better cabbages.’ However, our younger daughter, aged ten, latched onto the overall message strongly, as she explains below. The Centre for Alternative Technology continues to flourish, with an emphasis these days on post-graduate environmental education.
Not far from where we were living, the new town of Milton Keynes initiated a visionary scheme in the 1980s whereby developers brought in novel designs for thermally efficient houses. For a while the completed estate was opened to the public. We were impressed both by their practicality and style. This was a way ahead.
Subsequently we moved from central England to a new home close to the East Anglian coast. Once there, we fitted economy light bulbs, lined the cavity walls, upgraded the double glazing and improved the roof insulation of the conservatory. Then in 2011 we installed solar panels upon our south facing roof, among the first in our neighbourhood to do so. These fed electricity directly into the National Grid, for which we got paid. Not only did this provide us with income, enough now to have covered the initial outlay, but we genuinely felt that we were aligning ourselves with the green cause. Currently a new estate is being built beyond our garden fence. Each house is being provided with an array of solar panels, that’s progress.
Bob Ward, Solar panels, e-car charger, and e-car, photograph, 2025.
Our most recent change has been to switch from driving an elderly diesel to an electric car. We are pleased with it. A great advantage is that we can recharge it cheaply at home, using some of our self-generated electricity. The picture shows the car on our forecourt connected to the charging unit and the solar panels on our roof.
Bob Ward, Wind Turnbines, photograph, 2025.
Turning to the bigger picture, on a clear day when we gaze from the nearby ridge that overlooks the North Sea, stretching along the horizon a dozen miles away are turbines like a troupe of graceful dancers whirling to the music of the wind. The underground cables that bring the electricity ashore cross local farmlands. Here is England trying to live up to William Blake’s description of it as a “green and pleasant Land”. (Introduction to his poem Milton)
Bob Ward, Norfolk Offshore Windfarm, photograph, 2025
Richenda Van Leeuwen adds her story:
All four of us children were force-fed nature as soon as we could toddle, as our parents are both lifelong keen birdwatchers. So those long ago trips in Wales invariably involved winding down car windows – often in the pouring rain – to try and spot a then elusive Red Kite.
But those early nutrients fed us well. As a 10-year old, I was struck by the small wind turbine turning on the roof of the Centre for Alternative Technology, and impressed that solar panels could provide electricity, even in such a rainy place. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, it became deeply imprinted in me and shaped things to come.
Fast forward 30 years and I was offered the opportunity to join a global renewable energy investment firm to lead their work in emerging markets, across Asia, Africa and Latin America. I jumped at the chance, remembering my interest from long ago. While solar panels were still pricey, a new technology was beginning to illuminate the path forward – LED lights – which enabled a much smaller solar panel to be used to light up a home and provide basic lighting at a far lower cost than in earlier years.
I was fortunate to be able to invest in and support philanthropically several emerging companies that were taking these innovations into parts of the world where communities lacked electricity. Also, I played an early role in developing a United Nations initiative focused on energy access that has brought solar power to hundreds of millions of people over the last fifteen years.
Richenda Van Leeuwen, Solar Panels, Central Bank of Kenya, Institute of Monetary Studies, photograph, 2023
To me the most fulfilling part of this work has been to use solar power in remote health clinics and hospitals where the grid is unreliable in places like the neonatal health unit in Bo General Hospital in Sierra Leone. There, solar panels and batteries provide reliable power for the oxygen concentrators and baby warmers that help save the lives of premature and critical newborns.
I am proud of my parents for many things, including showing us that even at 90+ years old you can make a difference. And also, not least, for (probably being at their wits end) planting valuable seeds in taking four rambunctious kids out for the afternoon to an offbeat small alternative technology centre on a very rainy day. AQ