Keep the Water Safe - Support our Lab

Help keep the water safe – support our Lab.

• Real service provision for private water supply owners
• Planned expansion from local to regional capacity
• Link performance of business to charitable support through stakeholder involvement
• Ongoing stakeholder direction for charitable activity

In 2018, we pressed Go! on a project called Kernow Microbiology. 

Building upon a scientific career in food & water microbiology of more than 40 years, it was time to break out on our own. We began the process of creating a water testing laboratory in Cornwall to meet the needs of private water supply owners, e.g., springs, boreholes, wells, & rainwater collectors. This work includes testing to ensure safe drinking water, supporting mortgage applications, & risk assessments. In addition, we provide water engineers with results to help correct any issues with treatment systems. We also test the quality of bottled spring water.

Back then, my Wife & I built this laboratory from the ground up…literally! We removed carpets, laid down flooring, put up walls and doors, bought and installed all the equipment. We transformed it from one big, open, office space to a fully functional microbiology laboratory.

Having launched the service, and managed to survive in spite of Covid, we worked hard to keep pushing forward as best we could in the new normal. Despite the challenges it is testament to our magnificent team of 5 people that we have managed to navigate the storms of “rattled” competitors, Brexit fallout, Pandemic restrictions, and now Economic downturn. 

But it has come at a cost – so we need your help to allow us to enter a secure & more sustainable testing market and meet our objectives. This will require expenditure on additional equipment, and crucially, accreditation to international standards.

Getting over the line

So, our appeal for crowdfunding begins, because the banks only want to help those businesses that are already making huge profits. We want to be able to stay around and give the people of Cornwall, and beyond, the chance to have the choice for local help & support in a way that they have never had before. The kind of service that includes picking-up the phone knowing someone can offer guidance & support in understanding your test report, as this will be unique to your circumstances, rather than leaving you to interpret the science on your own. We need funding to help our business grow to fit into this market as we believe we can really make a difference.

We are asking for help to push our business to the next stage. To help us establish ourselves into new markets and ride out this time of uncertainty that has impacted so many communities the world over. Our goal is to raise £50,000.

What does the future hold?

Kernow Microbiology wants to become more than just a profitable business, we want to be able to give back to the local communities of which we are a part, & to contribute to a much wider, global, effort to understand & mitigate the effects of climate change.

If we meet our accreditation goal, we want to pledge some of our future profits to environmental charities (we would love donors to suggest ideas on what charities they feel should be supported).

Also, as everyone here is passionate about science, we have a future view of encouraging children to get into science and contributing to STEM, by holding open days, community awareness events and continuing to offer work experience placements. We strongly believe our service offering is unique and we hope to be able to continue and develop these relationships in the future.

If you can’t contribute, please consider sharing our Crowdfunder link on your favourite social media platform.

Pay it forward…

As an analytical service provider, we have very little to offer in terms of reward (unless a tour of a biotech laboratory is on your radar – there’s a virtual tour in the video), so we propose to link any donations we receive to a future pledge to support the challenge to address climate change, in addition to more local environmental charities.

This ‘pay-it-forward’ approach will take the form of a collaborative poll of donors, annually, to decide upon a charity/project to help save the planet for our children. This will be paid for from profits made by the company as a result of the expansion we are planning, originally facilitated by your generous gift. 

Remember – for your single one-off donation, we pledge to support environmental charities/projects of your choice (via digital poll – closed social media group) each year, with a gift of 1.5% of net profit, verifiable through the Charities Commission. Have a look at the video for more detail about our work.

Any amount you are willing to contribute is appreciated, & our business is determined to pay it forward into community actions. These community actions include: Organising events in science outreach projects, & the design/delivery of STEM accessibility programmes.

Thank you for reading…and a massive thank you for all the support that never stops giving, that started with you!