Steve Maslen is an entrepreneur and an environmentalist and it‘s not a contradiction in terms.
30th September 2006
“There’s nothing fluffy about red squirrel conservation,” says Steve Maslen, Director of Yorkshire’s newest design and communications company Red Squirrel Media.
“The hard fact is that red squirrels, once a common sight across Britain, are now down to the last 160,000 and face extinction in England by 2010.
“It’s up to us all to do what we can to help save one of our favourite native species,“ says the eco businessman. “That’s why the company is donating five per cent of all our profits in the first year to the conservation of red squirrels and their habitats.”
It’s a clever move that should secure Red Squirrel Media a few extra column inches in the local press and curry favour with the kind of environmental, heritage and leisure-based organisations from whom the Otley-based media company hopes to attract business.
But if the cynic in you believes it’s little more than a PR stunt, think again. Steve Maslen and his team at the Wharfebank Business Centre may not be growing yoghurt or weaving their own denim, but they are serious about doing their bit for the environment and our heritage.
Maslen’s credentials speak for themselves. He’s a master of philosophy in landscape architecture (University of Newcastle upon Tyne) with a 20-year track record in working with local authorities and Government agencies on land reclamation and conservation projects.
He guest lectures and tutors at the Metropolitan University of Leeds and has presented at the Environmental Management Summer School at Cambridge, the International Land Reclamation Conference and the Annual Arboricultural Association Conference.
He’s also a committee member of the British Land Reclamation Society and a member of the Landscape Institute’s Education Annual Review Group, which accredits university courses in landscape architecture.
As well as being an environmental academic Maslen has also used his grey matter to grow a batch of successful companies turning sound green theories into everyday practice.
In 1988, he established his own landscape consultancy which was incorporated in April 2001 and renamed Maslen Environmental Ltd. We’re not talking landscape gardening here, we’re talking about the major reclamation of despoiled areas, regeneration projects, flood defence projects and recreation projects, among them creation of the Waters Edge Country Park and Visitor Centre on the edge of the Humber estuary.
Waters' Edge Country Park and Visitor Centre is among the celebrated projects Steve Maslen has worked on.
View of Humber Bridge in thick fog from the Waters Edge Visitor Centre.
Ten years ago he established Evolve EB, a not-for profit limited company specialising in funding and managing community projects through the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme. Since 1996 Evolve EB has managed more than 500 projects, distributing more than £15m in grants from over 24 different operators in the UK.
He went on to help build Enventure, a company working with local authorities across the UK on a variety of projects - doorstepping, communications campaigns, roadshows, attitude surveys and participation monitoring - to support waste minimisation and recycling.
Now Maslen, who positions himself at the ideas end of business development, is turning his attentions to helping other companies working in the wings of environmental improvements and those involved in conserving and interpreting our heritage.
“There are a lot of unsung business heroes out there who are developing great products that will help us create more sustainable communities in which we can all prosper without taking such a toll on the natural environment, from those working to perfect and improve environmental geothermal heat exchangers and wind turbines to those inventing clever widgets such as movement sensors that save energy by automatically turning lights on and off when you walk in and out of a room.
“They’re not vocal campaigning organisations, but they are making a difference while at the same time operating in a market economy, and much of what they do goes largely unrecognised by the general public.
“One of the fundamental aims of Red Squirrel Media is to raise the profile of these firms that are contributing to a better environment and help them prosper in a competitive economy.
“We are concerned about the conservation of our heritage and one of the ways this can be best conserved is through interpretation, and this in turn can be good for the local economy.
”Our strong track record in working in the environmental field means that our expert team of creative graphic and web designers, experienced journalists and marketeers will enable these organisations to get their message across.”
For the 48-year-old father-of-three it's all about the marriage of form and function. What flicks his switch is the notion, first expounded in the 1960's by environmentalist writer Nan Fairbrother, that our landscape, both urban and rural, is a living habitat that can equally meet the needs of man and nature.
He has no time however for cosmetics where organisations and companies pay lip service to environmental need by, for example, adopting environmental policies which are subsequently ignored when projects are planned.
“I hate ‘green washes‘,” he said. “Sustainability requires integral quality and design such as that currently being piloted at the BedZed modern housing development in London. It won’t be achieved by simply tagging things on.”
With the launch of Red Squirrel Media just weeks away - it officially and appropriately opens for business in national Red Squirrel Week (30 September to 8 October) - Maslen is currently applying himself to ensuring the new company delivers on its mantra ‘doing the business for you and the environment’.
Perhaps the new company’s success will be measured not only by the economic growth of the organisations it serves, but also in the amount of profit it is subsequently able to invest in the conservation of our very British red squirrels. Squirrel Nutkins everywhere are watching with bated breath…