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Green Things
January 12th, 2018
We love our planet and being so close to the ocean we are reminded daily of the effect of our business and our lives on this relatively fragile ecosystem. It made us very determined, when we started renovating this Grade II listed property, to ensure that it was as green as possible.
We chose environmentally conscious suppliers, only use a range of natural, biodegradable cleaning products which are not harmful to the environment or our staff, stock our bathrooms with recycled toilet paper, use hand dryers instead of paper towels and only use recycled and recyclable printer toner cartridges (not that we print much as our entire b
ooking system is paper free).
We were delighted to earn our Green Tourism Silver award just before Christmas and we intend to GO FOR GOLD over the next 18 months.
Here’s a bit more info about us and our Green initiatives.
Green things: Lights
We have all switched on lights and forgotten to switch them off however at Cohort 95% of our lights are controlled by motion sensors and timers: On top of that around 93% of our lights run on LED, consequently we have reduced our light energy consumption by up to 80%.
Green things: Showers
All our showers and a lot of our sinks are fitted with self-closing taps, you know, the ones where you push a button to get water and then have to push again 20 seconds later.
Shower on – get wet
Shower off – soap up
Shower on – soap off, repeat…
OK, so it doesn’t have the luxury feel of standing under a burning hot, rainfall shower until your fingers shrivel up and you forget there’s any such thing as dirt and sand BUT this massively reduces our energy consumption and saves up to 80% of water compared to conventional showers. For one, this little dude is a lot happier…
[SUPER FACT: Salmon, along with other fresh water fish, are endangered due to a variety of issues caused by human activity. Some of the main reasons for the salmon population decline are dams, habitat loss/destruction, and global warming. Salmon need cold, clean, fast flowing water to reproduce. Sadly, rivers are failing to satisfy the salmon’s particular needs as we divert water for human use. By saving water, we help set aside more water for the salmon’s annual upriver run].
Green things: Heating
So you might not even notice but there are thermostatic radiator values on the majority of our radiators, we also have uber efficient boilers and hot water cylinders.
It all makes a difference; improving energy efficiency is a key tool for reducing CO2 emissions, alongside energy conservation and low-carbon energy sources such as renewables and carbon capture and storage.
Green things: Recycling
Probably the most familiar green initiative is of course recycling and we have recycling facilities throughout Cohort’s communal areas. You don’t have to think too much about it: Paper / cardboard in one, plastic / cans in one and glass in another.
Being ocean-side we are particularly sensitive to plastic as it takes on average 450 years to degrade, some bottles take as long as 1000 years to do so and Polyethylene Terephthalate bottles will NEVER biodegrade.
Makes you think huh?! Especially when it’s plastic that washes up on our shores and creates scenes like this:
Pretty grim looking, not to mention all the sea life who choke on straws and other types of society waste. In this instance while recycling keeps it out of our seas we’re still a long way from addressing the problem. To that end we at Cohort are attempting to minimise our single-use plastics on a mega level in 2018.
Moving towards plastic free…
We don’t want to preach from a distance and we want to be an example of good practices, not just in the standard stuff but also in the stuff that may make things a little harder for us in the short term but is an all-in-all good thing in the long term.
We are in the process of installing a water refill station in the lounge and while we’ve always been happy to fill up your water bottle behind the bar for you, this way you don’t even have to ask – just help yourself. We’re going to be minimising and subsequently eliminating all single-use plastics in the building including unnecessary bin liners and as many cleaning fluid containers as possible.
St Ives and its Plastic free coastline status
We’re also part of a wider St Ives initiative to reduce plastic in the town and to earn a Plastic Free Coastline status, an initiative developed by the awesome charity Surfers Against Sewage.
You can read more detail about what we do at Cohort on our Green Stuff page and if you’re interested in keeping up to date with things going forward join our Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.
We totally believe that we can be better… and so can you!