Sheep keep grass solar panel farm LCL Wallonia One short
Woolly grazers replace growling grass machines
Around and under the solar panels that partially power LCL’s data center in Gembloux with green electricity, a dozen sheep keep the hectare of grass neatly trimmed. The idea to leave the lawnmowers in the barn and partner with local, ecological start-up Sheep Solution came from Nicolas Coppée, Data Center Manager LCL Wallonia One. In its contribution to biodiversity, Sheep Solution has a formidable opponent: climate change. “In recent years it has been so dry that we have had to supplement our animals considerably because the grass could not grow enough.”
Sheep Solution lends a hand to businesses looking to operate more sustainably by providing an ecological alternative to maintain green spaces. Such an offer that boosts biodiversity does not fall on deaf ears at LCL. In particular, the solar farm near the data center in Gembloux provides ample space for the sheep, which require a minimum of 20 acres.
As a start-up, Sheep Solution has not yet made a long history, but the ladies who founded the green venture are dyed-in-the-wool. In 2019, Amélie Jacques (a lawyer) and her business partner Céline Ernst (a bioengineer) steered their careers carrément in a different direction. Amélie: “I had long wanted to start my own business and when I saw a report on ecological grazing I was immediately sold. Working outside instead of behind a desk and meeting people of all kinds, it seemed blissful. Now that we are a few years later, I can confirm: it is also blissful. We met sheep breeders, people doing the same thing as us, but in France – in Belgium there are few initiatives like ours. In no time we had our first customer.”
LCL is setting the tone by betting on an ecological alternative to lawn mowers that also promotes biodiversity. “Other companies often still have cold feet. We have a lot of missionary work ahead of us.”
Amélie and Céline not only bring sustainability to their customers, they are also constantly exploring how they themselves can keep their carbon footprint minimal. “We are part of Ecopreneurs, a network of entrepreneurs who want to work as sustainably as possible. A no-brainer is that we limit our travel as much as possible by mapping out our routes efficiently and taking bicycles as much as possible, but we also learn how to minimize supplemental feeding of the sheep, how to use small storage areas on the property to avoid lugging materials back and forth, and so on. And, of course, we buy our own products locally as much as possible.”
In an ideal world, sheep would have plenty to eat on their home pastures, but we live in a world that is changing rapidly. For the past two years, Amélie and Céline have had to supplement their animals. “It was hyper-dry, so neither grass nor herb grew. We do feel global warming and frankly, that scares us a little bit.”
Cold feet
A growing number of companies are making sustainability a priority. “But they are still particularly reluctant to take the plunge into Sheep Solution. Feel free to call it cold feet. Of course, there are a lot of businesses that don’t just have a patch of pasture that they don’t utilize. If they do have them, they still often prefer to use lawnmowers to mill the lawn like the green on a golf course. Good for their professional image, they think, because they also fear odor nuisance or irritating bleating. We still have missionary work ahead of us.”
Currently, Amélie and Céline’s hundred sheep graze lawns and pastures of about a dozen businesses and institutions: LCL, of course, but also a hospital, a residential care center, the municipality of Gembloux, a recycling company… “Nice to see, both at the hospital and the residential care center, the sheep make people like to come out and more often. Thus contribute not only to biodiversity, but also to the health and well-being of seniors and patients. By the way, I know that some people surreptitiously feed the sheep some nibbles every day, even though they know they should not. (laughs)”
“Global warming we do feel and honestly, that scares us a little bit.”
Amélie Jacques — Co-founder Sheep Solution
