Greendale Farm Shop has been awarded gold for The Sustainability Pioneer Award at the 2026 Food Drink Devon Awards.

We are extremely proud that Greendale Farm Shop has been awarded the Sustainability Pioneer Award which recognises its commitment to sustainability-led initiatives. This year, we launched our Powered by Cow Poo campaign, to raise awareness of Anerobic digestion (AD) plants and demonstrate how we’re turning poo into power at Greendale.

The campaign focused on how we use our own AD plant to generate clean renewable energy using a special mix of crops, water and cow poo, to power everything electrical at Greendale Farm Shop and Greendale Business Park.

Not only does our AD plant remove the need to rely on fossil fuels for electricity, but it also provides a vital link between farm waste management and sustainable energy production.

Crops grown in our fields and dung from our farming cattle provide an ongoing source of organic waste for our AD plant, in addition to rainwater run-off which we harvest and store from the roofs of our farm buildings. During the Anaerobic Digestion process, the special mix of crops, water and cow poo is broken down to produce biogas, which is then used to create electricity.

The steady supply of organic matter from our fields and farm means our AD plant can be relied on to produce a consistent supply of biogas and therefore electricity; unlike the energy we get from our solar panels, it’s not affected by the weather.

We also re-use the by-product (digestate) from our AD plant to either feed the AD plant again, or to spread on the fields as a nutrient-packed organic fertiliser (approved by the Organic Farmers & Growers Association) to support the crops we grow for the AD plant and for our cattle.

With our long-standing family tradition of farming and working the land here in East Devon, and a deep respect for (and a vested interest in protecting) our local landscape, we are continuously working to improve our operations to be more sustainable.

Learn more about our Powered By Cow Poo campaign on our interactive website.