An interview with property expert Emily Grant, Director of Operations at Environet, a company which treats and removes the most challenging and damaging invasive plants in the UK, including Japanese knotweed and bamboo.
Tell us about yourself and the company
I moved to Devon over 20 years ago to study at the University of Plymouth and have never left! After completing a BSc in Environmental Sciences followed by a Masters in Education for Sustainability, I worked in the construction sector for several years as an asbestos consultant before joining Environet in 2015.
The company was established 28 years ago when the threat of Japanese knotweed was only first being understood in the UK. Knotweed was our sole focus then, but over time we’ve expanded and grown our expertise to deal with all kinds of invasive plants including bamboo – which now makes up a large proportion of our work – as well as Giant hogweed, buddleia, horsetail and others.
Awareness is much higher now, and there are laws around the sale of property with knotweed and dealing with encroachment, so people are more educated about the risks than they used to be.
What is your role at Environet?
During the pandemic, the ownership of Environet was passed on to our employees in the form of an Employee Ownership Trust – so now everyone who has been with us for a year or more has a stake in the business and its success.
After the founder retired earlier this year, we chose to no longer have a Managing Director, but instead myself and my two co-directors, Mat and Luke, run the company together and each take responsibility for different areas of the business.
In my role as Director of Operations, I look after all matters of governance and compliance, including HR and Health & Safety. I also spend a significant portion of my time in the Sales and Marketing Department and overseeing PR, helping drive business growth year on year.
Has Japanese knotweed always been a big issue?
In a word, yes – in the UK and other host countries, but interestingly it doesn’t cause major problems in its native Japan where the ecosystem, including soil, climate and insect populations keep it in check.
Knotweed was brought to the UK by the Bavarian botanist Philipp von Siebold, who had discovered the plant growing on the sides of volcanoes near Nagasaki in the mid-nineteenth century. He sent a box of plant specimens to Kew Gardens in 1850, a period of time when horticulture was big business, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Japanese knotweed was admired by Victorian gardeners for its bright green heart-shaped leaves and pretty tassels of cream flowers, but they were oblivious to its destructive qualities – and so began its spread around the country.
Knotweed has an incredibly robust underground root system which makes it notoriously difficult to kill. If left to its own devices it will spread over time and can push up through paths, driveways, underground pipework, cracks in concrete, and even exploit weaknesses in the foundations and cavity walls of homes.
Today knotweed is so rife within the UK that it will probably never be eradicated. But over the last two or three decades we’ve also learnt a lot about how to tackle it, so with professional help, it can always be dealt with.
Who is your typical client?
We often work with people buying and selling properties, since sellers with Japanese knotweed have a legal obligation to declare it.
They’re usually concerned about preserving the value of their property, so even though they may not be able to escape the stigma of knotweed entirely, as long as they can show the plant has been professionally removed and there’s an insurance-backed guarantee in place, they have the best chance of selling for close to the non-affected price.
We also work a lot with people who have an invasive plant encroaching either from or into their property – often bamboo. In this case, the owner of the property where the plant originated is responsible for paying for remediation, and if they don’t they can be sued.
People are often very stressed and upset when they first contact us, especially if they have read horror stories online – so a big part of our job is reassuring them that invasive plants can be dealt with, and separating fact from fiction.
Our commercial arm works with landowners, construction companies, contractors and local authorities to remove invasive plants from sites – usually because they’re going to be developed.
How is your industry evolving?
Working out in the natural world, we are acutely aware of our impact on the planet, so we’re doing everything we can to reduce our carbon footprint. As part of that, we’ve patented a method for converting the knotweed we excavate from the ground into biochar – a form of charcoal – which can then be charged with additives such as liquid organic fertilisers and returned to the soil.
It’s a means of harnessing the extraordinary CO2 scavenging powers of knotweed by locking the carbon away in the soil for hundreds or even thousands of years, rather than allowing it to be released into the atmosphere.
Our industry generates thousands of tonnes of plant waste every year which is consigned to landfill sites where it either regrows or decays, giving off landfill gases such as methane. We’re excited that our biochar method could offer a sustainable solution to this problem. The next step is figuring out how to upscale, with the ultimate goal being to treat all our plant waste in this way and become a zero-waste business!
What’s next on the horizon for Environet?
People are really only just waking up to the problems caused by bamboo, which is a feature of millions of gardens around the country – and is still sold in garden centres and plant nurseries, despite its propensity to spread. Continuing to develop our service to bamboo customers will be a key focus, and we’ve just become the first and only company in the UK to offer insurance-backed guarantees for bamboo removal.
Look out for us on the TV too, later this year! We recently filmed a segment with the BBC, looking at the problems caused by bamboo and what homeowners can do if it spreads into their garden from next door.
Visit: www.environetuk.com
