Alison goes for a little stroll...

Sometimes the people of ECUS stop working and do something for charity! This time it was my turn. The three peak challenge - up and down Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell in Cumbria and Snowden in Wales in 24 hours.

Most of us at ECUS love the outdoors and I will happily spend hours outdoors in my free time - but usually it's for fun! My husband and I have walked Snowden and Scafell on separate occasions, but this time it was much tougher - we always thought Snowden was not that tricky but after no sleep for 36 hours and two other mountains it proved equally as challenging. The beer and snickers at the top in the sunset was well worth the wait. However I would recommend the challenge to anyone - the sense of achievement is immense and my body is aching but my mind is content this morning!

The hardest part is travelling between all three mountains in the time allocated and staying awake enough to get up when you arrive at the next mountain and put your walking boots back on blistered and tired feet!

So thanks to everyone who sponsored me - you helped to raise about £300 for the Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice (http://www.bluebellwood.org/) which I know will be greatly appreciated.

The Glorious Leader has left. Long live the Glorious Leader

So, Danielle Taylor has left us, heading for an undoubtedly illustrious career as Sustainability Manager for South Yorkshire Police. As the head of the Environmental Management Department she did an excellent job and we all loved the ‘chocolate and bubblebath bonus’ method of management (hint). We’ll know that she has changed the world when the uniform becomes locally sourced, environmentally sound and pink! In the meantime I’m expecting that she will help the local police focus with the sustainability of all their operations and will do a grand job for them. We gave her a jolly good send off, as can be seen in the photo of Danielle looking sad, and all the team and many of the company blubbed copiously.

Sad though we are that Danielle has left, we are thrilled that Alison Fanshawe has taken on the role. Ali is a very good manager and, having come from a financial background, has a solid grasp of the financial bottom line section of the triple bottom line of sustainability. She is a talented trainer, very organised and we, the team, are very pleased that she has agreed to be our new Glorious Leader. I have asked her to write a little something about herself but in the meantime, here are her (summarised) thoughts on sustainability. There will be more information on each topic over the next few weeks.