Green Stuff

Humankind is an awesome thing. However, we have put immense pressure on our planet's resources and have not always treated our world as kindly as we should.

"We love our community and we love the world we live in and we want to do what we can to minimise the impact we have on our environment."

At Cohort Hostel we recognise the effect of our business on the environment and our planet and are committed to minimising this impact.

Heritage is important to us too. As part of our redevelopment of our hostel we have ensured that our responsibility to the environment has been designed into the refurbishment work, whilst at the same time maintaining our responsibilities to our beautiful Grade II listed building.

In particular, we will achieve our green goals through our commitment to:

• • Comply with and, where possible, exceed all relevant legislation and regulations
  • Regularly review the environmental impact of our hostel activity
  • Involve staff and volunteers in achieving our environmental goals
  • Monitor and improve our energy efficiency usage of water, gas and electricity.

• Communicate and promote our green policy goals to hostel guests and encourage them to also consider their environmental impact

Green Tourism award – Silver

Our silver membership of the Green Tourism Award is a reflection of our commitment to the environmental and our Green Policy.

This is what we are doing and have done so far:

Energy consumption at Cohort

Lights

• Motion sensors and timing meters control 95% the of the lights throughout our public areas/spaces
• 93% of our lights run on LED (give us a couple more years and it will be nearer 100%)

We have reduced our light energy consumption by up to 80% using these methods over traditional lighting systems.

Water

We have fitted water saving devices in all of our shower / toilet blocks and dorm rooms

• Our showers are fitted with self closing buttons which saves up to 80% of water compared to conventional shower systems; this also reduces our energy consumption
• Self-closing taps are fitted in all of our public sinks and bedroom sinks (except kitchen sinks)
• Our toilets have been replaced with dual flush cisterns saving up to 25% water against standard toilets

Heating

• We have fitted thermostatic radiator values on the majority of our radiators (22 out of 26)
• Replaced both of our heating boilers with efficiency A grade boilers
• Fitted two brand new hot water cylinders which are super efficient

Recycling at Cohort

• We provide recycling facilities throughout the building
• We use separate bins to recycle paper, cardboard, tin, aluminium, glass and plastic

Help us by using the appropriate bin for your rubbish.

We are committing ourselves to drastically reduce our plastic footprint in 2018:  In conjunction with another business in St Ives we are setting up a plastic free campaign to encourage business to reduce their plastic usage in order to minimise the impact of plastic in our seas.

Drying facilities at Cohort

Instead of providing an energy intensive tumble drying facilities we provide:

• Plenty of clothes drying hanging space in the hostel courtyard
• A well insulated drying room which is controlled via a thermostat and humidistat for optimum drying conditions

Environmentally conscious suppliers & products

Linen

Our linen company South West Laundry works with the Carbon Trust and are committed to minimising their carbon impact on the environment.

Cleaning products

The only cleaning products you will see us use, from washing up liquid and hand wash through to shower cleaners, drain disinfectants and sanitisers, are all Bio-cleaning products; a range of natural, biodegradable cleaning products which are not harmful to the environment or our staff!

We make our own glass cleaner from white vinegar, tea tree oil and water.

(The only harmful cleaning product you may see is the occasional use of drain unblock-er!)

Toilet paper

We use recycled toilet paper throughout the hostel.

Printing

We only use recycled and recyclable printer toner cartridges and our printer’s default is for double sided printing – saving paper: Not that we print much as our entire booking system is paperless and we will only provide you with a printed invoice / receipt if you ask for one.

Cohort: Green projects in the pipeline

We keep a constant eye out for ways in which we can improve and reduce our environmental impact. Tell us your ideas! They are all welcome, meanwhile we intend to:

• Replace the remaining of our non-LED lights, with LED replacements
• Increase awareness of what we do to our guests and encourage all visiting humans to the hostel to do the same

Responsible tourism in St Ives

Finally, we encourage all our guests and visitors to Cornwall to be responsible travellers. For details of what that means click to read our Responsible Visitor Charter and download the Countryside Code.

Skip the Plastic Campaign

Our mission for 2018 and beyond is to reduce our plastic footprint.

Click the image to see what we’ve been up to…