Hi, I'm Ben. a plumber and Gas Safe Engineer, now living in Kingston Upon Thames. I come with 15 years good experience in the plumbing, heating, boiler and bathroom trades, but also with a good 15 years lack of experience in writing, so please bare with me :-)
I have decided to write my first ever blog to explain how and why I decided to start Plumbing For Good, and why I have recently come to the realisation that we all need to start actively paying attention to the whole renewable technologies thing.
After completing my 5 year apprenticeship in Mechanical Engineering at CNWL with The Beaver Co Ltd (big up Mr B for that) and gaining insight into the building game through my father over the years, I started trading on my own as Queensgate Plumbing. My business partner and I grew and ran this business for the best part of a decade but having recently relocated to Kingston I wanted to start fresh and employ a different approach, so I already had an idea for an ethical plumbing firm but recently the idea grew into more.
One Sunday evening not too long ago, I was sat down watching the outstanding new Netflix production 'Our Planet' by none other than the legend himself Sir David Attenborough. So, like i already mentioned, it's the wind down to the weekend, dinner's done, I'm looking to relax so I decided good dose of Attenborough should do the trick.
After an hour or so, I found my mood far from relaxed. What Sir Dave was telling me was not good news. The only chill I was feeling was the goosebumps starting to set in as the urge to want to do something more to help became very strong.
I am sure most of you have seen this documentary so I wont go into much detail. For those who haven't, not to alarm you, but it basically sets out the demise of the natural world as we know it within the next 50 years due to climate change. Put into context by Attenborough, from his own eyes over his lifetime of experiencing the decline of the natural world first hand, it made me think properly about what the not so distant future holds for us and our children.
Fortunately, it's not all doom and gloom. He follows on by explaining how we can indeed put practices into place and begin to start helping our planets' biodiversity re establish itself, allowing humanity to continue to exist on the planet in harmony with nature. Which lets face it, sounds much better than some sort of world covered in desert and forrest fires with whatever animals are left fighting it out for the scraps of food and water... Sounds bleak I know, but I'm barely even exaggerating. So there it is, the way I see it we have a choice. Keep doing what we are doing, or do what we can to try and avoid the fire desert world scenario.
Anyway, the whilst the energy industry in general is at the forefront of some of these changes that need to be made, I was still as a loss. What can a simple plumber do to help save the world? I must admit, that like most plumbing and heating engineers, I did not get into it for that reason.
It was a career which allowed me to learn practical skills and make some money. Over the years however, I saw many people and businesses who operated in ways that were not good for the customer, their employees or the planet. Truth be told, I probably got too desensitised to it to it over the years and accepted it as normal. But not too long ago I had a realisation that I wanted to change that, so I decided to start from scratch and form a new company, Plumbing For Good.
So I already knew I wanted to cut out all the crap and provide an honest, ethical, transparent service. Just by putting the customer first we would be ahead of most trades people, but there had to be more. So I thought and spoke to friends and colleagues and came up with a list of stuff we were going to do to justify the name. We wanted doing good to be built into our business model right the way through... You can see the full list soon in the About Us section of the site so we wont bang on about it all again here.
But still, there's more. That night we decided we wanted PFG to do even more than just all of the good stuff we listed before. We want to help change the world.. How can we do that as a plumbing company? Do everything we can to help people save water, reduce reliance on fossil fuels, and generally switch to sustainable options in the most efficient and cost effective mission. It's no small task but one that me and the team are passionate about.
We use the most sustainable suppliers we can and we try to encourage our customers to select the most efficient solutions to save them water and reduce gas usage but our new aim is to become a leader in sustainable and renewable solutions for homes and businesses. The technologies are getting more efficient and more affordable and we will be keeping a close eye on the technological advances in the industry over the next decade and learning all we can to ensure our customers receive the best advice but also we that we can develop better solutions then those currently available, or make the good ones that are available more accessible .
However, in the meantime, there is so much everyone one of us can do now, just by changing certain daily habits in regards to water and energy usage (as well as many other things). We will be doing a monthly blog with the aim to keep everyone up to date with the most relevant info we can find relating to the subject.
In the meantime, here are a few useful links to get you started:
Have a look at this company. Maybe it's time to switch your energy supplier? Go check it!
This company need to be noticed! They are at the forefront of new renewable technologies.
Save water at home with these nifty freebies from Thames Water. Just input your post code, order the items you want and follow instructions. If you have a job booked with us, then order them to arrive before we do, and we'll install them for free.
Thanks for reading. And if you or anyone you know in the Kingston Upon Thames area need a good plumber, you know where to find us ;-)
Ben & the PFG Team
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