Flagship's mobile gardening teams ditch the depot for solar power

With two of the Flagship vans fitted with solar panels are staff members, from left, neighbourhood operations manager Ryan Cox, neighbourhood services manager Charlotte Bane, health and safety manager Steve Ireland, fleet supervisor Peter Bilyard, neighbourhood services manager Jamie Davies, and neighbourhood gardeners Alan Todd and Matthew Pearman.

Gardening teams at Flagship are charging ahead of the pack, using nothing but sunshine to keep their tools running.

The housing provider has fitted 14 vans with solar panels and power packs, with six more on the way, creating what's believed to be a first-of-its-kind mobile charging system for social housing gardening teams.

The upgrade means Flagship’s 40 gardeners across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire can head directly from home to their first job of the day and skip trips back to the depot to charge.

Ryan Cox, neighbourhood operations manager at Flagship’s housing association Samphire Homes, said: “This new system is saving each gardener 1.5 hours in travel time each day.

“I've never seen this done elsewhere in the working environment so it’s a real step forward. It’s potentially the start of a new system of working for colleagues.”

Teams across Flagship worked together on the project.

Each van has two 100w solar panels attached to its roof, which charge a power bank while the gardeners are out and about.

The upgrade has cost around £18,500, which Mr Cox said would pay for itself through savings on power, petrol and working hours.

Mr Cox said: "The point of going battery-powered in the first place was to cut down on carbon emissions and noise in neighbourhoods.

“Solar charging is taking that one step further; we're basically running our gardening service off sunshine now."

The upgrade was a collaboration between Flagship’s neighbourhood, health and safety and fleet teams.

Charlotte Bane, Flagship’s gardening neighbourhood services manager, said it had been “fantastic” to see the project take shape.

One of the Flagship vans fitted out with rooftop solar panels

She said: “It’s a brilliant example of what’s possible when we think differently and it makes me proud to be part of this department.”

Flagship is part of Bromford Flagship, which owns more than 80,000 homes as well as thousands of green spaces across east, central and southwest England.