Glenn Surry of BMW, Lizzie Ray and Samantha Gibson with Ian Ray, Waterless Valeting, at BMW. DB2872P1

SERIAL entrepreneur Ian Ray has set up a business that is bound to get the pulses of the green lobby racing.

Ian's previous enterprises have included personalised musical instruments and an e-time capsule, a collection of data on microfilm on 21st century life for future generations to discover.

Now he has turned his attention to cars and has come up with a waterless mobile car cleaning service, called Greenclean.

"Every time we wash our car we use up to 180 litres of water," said Ian, who lives in Harnham.

"If every car were washed once a month using five buckets of water, millions of litres of polluted water would enter the watercourses every year."

He said many commercial car washes used chemicals that, along with the dirty water, ended up in the river system.

And whereas household waste water enters the sewers or septic systems undergoing treatment before discharging into the environment, water running off a car goes directly into the storm drains - and eventually into rivers - along with petrol, oil, exhaust fume residues and detergents.

"Our product is environmentally-friendly and does not use water, so does not get into rivers," he said.

World of Pine managing director Mark Hotson with his staff. DB3356P3

The waterless car cleaning system involves the car being sprayed with a solution and wiped with a micro cloth, which lifts dirt, tar, diesel and petrol fumes, and waxes at the same time, without scratching or smearing.

"It takes about 20 minutes," he said.

"And you can even use it in the rain!"

Glen Surry, sales manager at BMW dealer Wood in Salisbury, said motorists were now demanding more environmentally friendly cars even at the top end of the market.

And they were keen to hear of any car products that would help reduce the impact on the environment.

Ian said a number of local authorities were keen to use Greenclean in their car parks and park and ride sites.

He has a team of six people who do the cleaning.

They travel in electric cars to people's homes or company premises, or to retail outlets, where people can have their car cleaned while they go shopping.

Ian said: "The franchise model is now up and running and I would like to see Greenclean operating in every car park in the country. So, next time you see a dirty car, rather than writing clean me' in the dust, write Greenclean' and all the rivers will be grateful!"

Furniture that really does grow trees
A FURNITURE company with a branch in Salisbury and two more in Dorset has come up with its very own green initiative.

A World of Pine has launched Furniture for Trees', a scheme that involves it imposing a "green tax" on itself.

It is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK furniture industry.

Mark and Lucy Hotson, who set up the company in Salisbury 15 years ago and employ 23 staff, say their industry attracts a negative image because it is about "cutting down trees and driving vans around loaded with furniture".

That is why, said Mark, they decided to set up the scheme - to help redress the balance.

Furniture for Trees was launched last month, with the pledge to plant one deciduous or coniferous tree for every piece of oak or pine furniture purchased from its stores in Salisbury, Blandford and Poole.

Over the festive period, that pledge was raised to two trees for every piece of furniture sold.

The scheme works by the company subsidising the Forestry Commission's planting of trees in the New Forest, Ringwood Forest and Wareham Forest.

Mark said: "We came up with this green tax' idea because we want to help sustain a resource that our industry is directly responsible for diminishing. The scheme will be on-going and with the assistance of the Forestry Commission, we hope to subsidise the planting of many thousands of trees every year."

Pulling the 'green' pint
CUTTING down on food miles' is a familiar phrase to most people, encouraging them to buy goods made locally.

But did you know you can reduce your beer miles as well?

Alasdair Large is a keen exponent of this particular policy.

Alasdair, a former Army officer, runs Keystone Brewery on the Fonthill Estate in Berwick St Leonard.

His aim is not only to make his ale the beer enthusiast's pint of choice, but also to source the ingredients for those ales as locally as possible.

To this end, he uses water pumped from the estate's borehole and malting barley harvested from the surrounding fields.

To reduce beer miles, he delivers as much of his product as he can to local pubs and he has installed a bottling plant so he can supply bottled beer direct from the brewery.

"We live in a wonderful grain growing part of the country," said Alasdair, "and we want our beer to be from the south Wiltshire chalkland.

"Apart from Bath, Swindon and Southampton, I deliver everything within a 30-mile radius."

The brewery, housed in a former carpenter's workshop, is a family business: Alasdair's wife, Charlie, is in charge of sales and marketing and his brother-in-law, Nick Browne, who ran a pub for nine years, helps with the brewing.

Alasdair concedes his green ethos may seem sentimental to the business community.

But, he says: "It makes good business sense to use as few expensive resources as you can.

"We have always lived in rural areas and always bought locally, so our environmental ethos is driven by that local ethos."

Keystone tries to patronise as many of the businesses on the estate as possible and has used a company in Semley for adaptations to the brewery's equipment and pipework.

"It's about local sustainability," said Alasdair.

He added that everyone needed to use less oil and that alternative fuels must be found.

As well as helping at the brewery, Nick runs Soltrac, a solar water heating initiative, with Hugh Synge.

Thanks to them, the brewery's roof now sports a set of solar panels.

"One of our major costs is heating water," said Alasdair.

"We can use 2,000 litres of hot water a day, (the average household uses about 300 litres), so this helps us reduce our costs as well as save energy."

Alasdair is proud that, despite being in business for just 18 months, Keystone has already won a Gold Award for its Gold Spice beer from the Society of Independent Brewers.

He brews twice a week, 800 litres at a time, but knows there is scope for expansion.

"I do not want to get much bigger, but I hope, eventually, to have four or five people working with me," said Alasdair.

10:01am Thursday 3rd January 2008

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