Sustainability
We love our planet and the world we live in but we know humans aren’t being as kind to it as they should be. At Cohort, we understand we cannot change the world but we can take responsibility for our bit of it. Imagine if everyone did the same.
Our responsibility to operating a sustainable business has been designed into our policies, procedures and systems. Carbon neutrality; Plastic Free Champions; Gold Green Tourism Members. We’re doing everything we can.
Our Green Policy commits us to:
- Comply with and, where possible, exceeding all relevant legislation and regulations
- Regularly review the environmental impact of our business activity
- Involve staff in achieving our environmental goals
- Monitor and improve our energy efficiency usage
- Communicate and promote our green policy goals
- Achieve carbon neutrality (tick)
In this section
A carbon neutral business | Cohort tree planting | Energy consumption | Recycling, suppliers & products | Plastic & Gold Green Tourism Award
A Carbon Neutral Business
At Cohort we have committed ourselves to being a carbon neutral business.
The UN Sustainability Panel – and the globally agreed Paris Agreement – states that the world must produce net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in order to keep global warming to no more than 1.5C.
Working with Carbon Footprint Ltd we calculate the C02 directly produced by our business and offset these emissions using internationally verified carbon credits. Our C02 is offset using UK school community tree-planting projects and a VCS Tree Buddying programme.
In addition, we have set-up our own in-house tree-planting scheme (see below), to offset the C02 produced indirectly by our business activities.
Cohort Tree Planting
All bookings made at Cohort include the planting of 5 trees, via our tree-planting partners More Trees. 5 trees goes someway to offset the carbon of a groups’ travel to St Ives.
We also offset the C02 emissions that are produced by the tea/coffee consumed within our building, as well as the energy waste created by our website. For example, a box of coffee consumed at Cohort creates a massive 122kg of C02 (15.33kg/per kilo of coffee). So we plant 10 trees each time we purchase a new box of coffee.
Read all about Project: Planet Rebuild where we are aiming to plant 2,500 trees by 2025. This is part of our wider commitment to being a carbon-neutral business.
Energy Consumption
Sustainability has been designed into the fabric of our beautiful Grade II listed building, and we do everything possible to ensure we use as little energy resources as possible.
We had an efficiency survey conducted and an OWL energy monitoring system installed; this produces data which enables us to control and reduce energy consumption, providing tangible evidence of our efforts.
We have a Green Action and Energy Management Plan in place. This plan benchmarks all our energy-related decisions on site covering everything from our electricity suppliers (our electricity comes from 100% certified renewable sources) to water saving devices in our shower blocks through to how we control our heating using smart devices and uber efficient boilers.
Recycling, Suppliers & Products
There are recycling bins throughout the building including in all the communal areas; this ensures that 50% of our waste goes into recycling facilities.
Our linen company Johnsons South West works with the Carbon Trust to minimise their carbon impact on the environment. The only cleaning products we use are made by bio D who produce a range of natural, biodegradable cleaning products which are less harmful to the environment. Oh…and we produce our own glass cleaner because its super easy to make (ask us for the recipe!).
We use recycled toilet paper, we only use recycled and recyclable printer toner cartridges and our new range of mattresses are British-made using recycled foam and the cover from (traceable) recycled ocean plastic waste; each mattress is 100% recyclable.
Plastic & our GOLD Green Tourism Award
Skip the Plastic is our in-house campaign to reduce plastic consumption. It’s based on the 4 principles of Reduce, Reuse, Refuse, Recycle.
Cohort then became the founders of the Plastic Free St Ives Campaign: This campaign is part of the wider Surfers Against Sewage Plastic Free Communities initiative which encourages towns and cities across the UK to take positive action to eliminate single-use plastic.
To find out more about this campaign read: Skip the Plastic.
Our GOLD Green Tourism Award is a reflection of our commitment to the environment and our achievements so far. It’s a benchmark, not an end point…
