Newgrange Gold in fifth year of Origin Green plan

Overlooking the majestic Boyne River and on fields near Knowth, you will find the first place in Ireland where wild flax, or camelina, was cold pressed and bottled.

Newgrange Gold began cold pressing rapeseed oil and camelina oil over ten years ago.

Jack Rogers, managing director of the company says: "Camelina and Rapeseed are special oils. They are all from the Boyne Valley and they are cold pressed so they are very high in Omega 3, 6 and 9, as well as Vitamin E."

Newgrange Gold is currently in the fifth year of its Origin Green plan and has prestigious gold membership status.

Green for Micro has been a natural fit for the company as it looked at its energy use and planned for the future.

As part of Origin Green, which is led by Bord Bia, Newgrange Gold is committed to sustainable food production.

Some of the targets it has around respecting the environment and serving the local community include pledging to plant 500 native trees a year, in partnership with Reforestnation.ie, to help offset its carbon footprint and to help restore local nature and fight climate change.

They have also installed bat and bird boxes on the farm and have planted native trees on their grounds. Information on the beneficial qualities of the rapeseed and camelina oil is on their website.

Jack explains: "In 2021 and 2022 we received Gold membership and wish to expand upon that. We have been looking for alternative electricity generation on an ongoing basis and felt that we needed to get an up to date understanding of the electrical demands on the business."

"Green for micro allowed us to carry out such an audit and to then assess how best to implement the subsequent recommendation. The audit involved a detailed site walk through which took account of the various machines and their power usage. It also involved identifying roof space that could be used for solar or other renewable technologies."

To be able to get an audit carried out and have specific recommendations afterwards was very important for our green goals and I am glad we did it," he adds.

"As a result we are currently looking at ways to install solar panels and we hope that we will be able to do this in the very near future. Given the sudden rise in cost over the last year we feel now is a prudent time to do so."

We have worked very hard to maintain our Origin Green status over the last number of years and Green for Micro is another positive stepping stone in that journey and has given us the opportunity to explore alternative onsite power generation opportunities."

As the company looks to the future, Jack says their aim is to develop solar generation capacity on site.

"Then I hope to look at the potential to get the business to net zero. I also hope to explore some mentoring around this with Meath LEO."