Paul Mellia – A Little About Me

Married with three children I have worked in the HVAC, Renewable Energy and Organic/Health Food industry in

different positions up to management level, my dream is to help make a difference to people’s lives and our planet.

I have a beautiful family and friends who love me, I have a roof over my head and my family and I don’t go hungry,

so yes I am wealthy but not in a financial sense. I’ve know poverty, growing up in what was classed as a rough part

of Edinburgh, Wester Hailes in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, I was surrounded by it, by alcohol and substance abuse, crime,

however I was one of the lucky ones, my parents worked and put their kids before themselves, many others weren’t

so lucky, quite a few of them sadly no longer with us. Things weren’t easy by any means but compared to some I had

a good childhood, never went hungry and clean clothes on my back.

I left school at 15 on a YTS scheme then was kept on from my work placement only to be made redundant, I spent a

while unemployed before going back to college to obtain an HNC after which I started in the HVAC Merchant sector,

the rest they say is history. I am a very analytical person, with an aptitude for facts & figures analysis which plays a

large part in managing and developing our night team operation in my current role as Sales Support Manager with

an Organic & Health Food Retailer. However I also enjoy and like to get involved on a physical level as well and am

not afraid of hard physical work if required, in fact I enjoy getting in amongst it, getting my hands dirty.

I am very passionate about recycling, upcycling, sustainability, conservation, health and fitness. With my father, I run

an allotment, successfully growing our own organic fruit and veg. Built using mostly reclaimed and repurposed

materials, we have built a DIY Poly Tunnel, Hut, Fruit Enclosure, Wildlife Area & Pond using an old bath tub and

more. Fairly handy with a toolbox I also love to recycle/upcycle things and am in the process of building a workshop

in my back garden from used scaffold boards to give me the space to work properly, I have also built items like a

pallet sofa and garden table for my back garden, a cat run to allow my cat’s safe access outside and most recently

some scaffold board decking. I am a keen runner having run many Half Marathons, Trail races and Obstacle Races

and this year I stepped up and ran a Full Marathon and organised a charity fundraising night for a local charity SiMBA

who support parents of still born babies, so far we have raised in the region of £3k. I also enjoy Hiking, Mountain

Biking and Archery. I am honest and ethical, raised by two fantastic parents, my father a Buddhist taught me to

always be true to myself & others, he instilled a good set of ethics in me to which I try to apply to all avenues of life

(below images of my DIY Poly Tunnel at my allotment site).

As I get older I have learned to appreciate what I have and how lucky I am, I also enjoy raising money to help out

those less fortunate than myself. We live in a world were Climate Change poses a real threat to future generations of

all species not just humanity. However it’s not the only threat, humanity itself needs to change, NOW! We cannot go

on consuming resources at the rate we do, we need to re-evaluate the way we use energy & resources, to use them

more efficiently, re-use/recycle/repurpose far more of our existing materials & resources instead of constantly

wasting energy producing more, we have to be more responsible managing the current finite natural resources we

have.

We also need to act more responsibly in managing the habitats and ecosystems that we still have left. Deforestation,

ocean pollution & acidification, species extinction, underground aquifer depletion, soil erosion, polar ice cap melting,

rising sea levels, more severe and devastating weather happening at an alarming rate and we need to address these

issue NOW, we have reached the precipice as the 1.5C - 2C tipping point approaches and are now in danger of

exceeding it.

We need to educate not only our children but adults alike, it is their values and ethics that can greatly influence a

child’s outlook on life, we must look after our fellow human beings, animals and our planet, after all it’s the only one

we’ve got, I firmly believe that as the old Indian saying goes ‘We do not inherit this planet from our ancestors, we

borrow it from our children’.

Having recently taken a more detailed look at my life, I realised that I spend around a third of my life working, a third

sleeping and a third leisure/family time. If I’m spending 66% of my time away from my family and friends there is

little I can do about the 33% spent sleeping as I need this to live healthily, however the 33% spent working I can

change, I want to focus it on making a difference, something that doesn’t benefit shareholders but benefits our

planet and ALL its inhabitants. We all need money to live, however, I have no ambitions to be a millionaire, as long as

I can provide a comfortable lifestyle for my family I am happy with that, as are they. However, please do not take this

as me not being ambitious, I am and I want to succeed in everything I do, however my ‘Bonus’ for this would be to

see others benefiting and knowing what I am doing is making a positive change to people’s lives or the health of our

planet (below images from my allotment).

The Pipe Dream – A Place of My Own

We need more projects, organisations, charities, social enterprises to help to educate adult and child alike on the

value of living a more frugal and sustainable lifestyle. I would love to start or get involved with a Social Enterprise

that encourages more reuse, repurposing, recycling and upcycling, shows adults and kids how to grow their own fruit

and veg whether they live in a block of flats, on their patio or in a plot in their garden, but not only growing their

own showing them how to keep the balance of replenishing what we take, a more permacultured and organic way.

To help get the homeless of our streets, the long term unemployed another chance, to give them the tools and skills

to re-integrate back into society and the work place. Change starts from the ground up and I want to help equip the

people who need it the most with the skills and power to make changes to theirs and their loved ones lives.

RRRR &U

We must educate people on the importance of Reduce, Reuse, Repurpose, Recycle and Upcycle. We can reduce

carbon emissions and landfill hugely by utilising and better managing what we resources we are already using

instead of constantly producing more. It is so much more rewarding repurposing or upcycling something that was

bound for landfill into something that can be reused again (below images are examples of my own work).

To me it is beyond comprehension why with all the plastic waste we have that we are not more focused on recycling

what we have instead of producing more, every piece of plastic ever made still exists one way or another so why

isn’t it a global priority to recycle first? We still have so much waste that goes to landfill from both commercial and

domestic sites that can be repurposed/upcycled into recycled raw materials or fantastic products that can be re-sold.

Growing Your Own

There is so much potential to grow our own food, I do it at my Allotment, we need to encourage more people to

utilise their green spaces or create their own, as well as encouraging and petitioning Local and National Government

to free up disused spaces for Allotment Sites, Community Gardens/Urban Farms (images below from my allotment).

To do this we need to give the people on the ground the knowledge and tools to do this but in a way that works with

nature, showing them how to utilise what resources they have and replace what they have taken through

Permaculture methods. Show them how to grow in sacks, pots, raised beds on their patio or in their conservatory,

show them how to grow in a window box in their high rise flat, show them the benefit of having a living wall or

vertical growing in their tiny gardens or converting their garden shed roof into a green roof, teach them how to turn

part of their garden into a growing space (below examples from Google images).

Explain the benefits of keeping your soil healthy and the challenges commercial agriculture and food industries now

face due to soil mismanagement and erosion. Show people how to use lesser known techniques and technologies

like aquaponics or hydroponics, just imagine the benefit if we could get 20% of the population growing their own

basic vegetables like potatoes or carrots, if we could turn derelict areas in our most impoverished housing schemes

into community gardens or farms and get the community to grow and eat their own fruit and veg, directly benefiting

the people who currently cannot afford good, fresh organic food (below examples from Google images).

Environmental Issues

We have to make people more aware of current environmental issues like Climate Change, Deforestation, Ocean

Acidification & Pollution, Ice Cap Melting, Methane Pockets, Sea Level Rise, 1.5-2C Global Temperature Rise Tipping

Point, Severe Weather, Species Extinction, Over Fishing, Dairy/Meat Industry, Soil Erosion/Over Farming, Finite Fossil

Fuels and their Pollution, Alternative Renewable Energy Technologies, Food Waste......the list goes on!

I call it my pipe dream but it is everyone’s responsibility to make sure this doesn’t continue to happen:

It’s time for change! “all I need now is around an acre of land and a philanthropist who shares my vision ”