Published: Thursday, 29th October, 2009 12:00pm

Richard makes it easy to be green

by Alan Bunce

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WHEN Richard Boothman first wanted to work at helping the environment, he discovered he was 20 years too early.

Now, redundant from his job, he has set up the kind of consultancy he had always wanted, helping other businesses become greener.

But before his career began in the 1970s Richard, pictured, had wanted to get involved in green issues at a time when few opportunities existed.

He went into agricultural insurance and later trained in environmental studies and began teaching environmental issues at the Open University. In 2002 he began a consultancy focused on the rehabilitation of people who have suffered injuries, sold it in 2007 and was finally made redundant from it last year.

This year, with his wife, he set up Ideostone, helping small and medium firms meet modern environmental standards. He has just got his website up and running.

He said: "In some ways I have been working towards this ever since I started. I suppose you could call this my vocation."

He said there is plenty of desire among firms to have environmental policies in place but many don't know what to do. Bidding for local authority contracts is often much more difficult without those policies in place.

But Richard, who lives in Caversham, says he is not out to make a fortune from the business. Once profits are high enough he is considering setting up a trust so any excess money can be donated to environmental charities.

He added: "We have no intention of making excess profits. What we make over time and reasonable expenses we plan to plough back into the sector."

Visit www.ideostone.com

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