Environmental Report 2011

After many hours spent chasing invoices, looking at spreadsheets and working out emission factors we've finally published our Environmental Report for 2011. I don't know (yet) how to add a document to this blog, so if you'd like a copy sent to you please email me at audrey@castle-climbing.co.uk and I'll be happy to send you a copy. It's important to me that this information is available so that other businesses can learm from our experiences and help reduce their own carbon footprint.

  If you just want a quick summary of the key facts, read on:

- Carbon Footprint for 2011 : 100.17 tonnes CO2e (14.5% reduction from 2010, 27% reduction from when we started reporting in 2008)
- Cafe : we opened our own kitchen to process food grown in our organic garden. In 2011 we were just starting to transition from purchased food to homemade- this is nearing completion in 2012.
- Shop : we continue to increase our range of certified organic cotton clothing and bluesign labelled products. The refurbishment in August/September has made the shop more energy efficient with better lighting and insulation.
- IT : we've redesigned and upgraded network to reduce power consumed onsite.
- Waste : we've significantly reduced our waste to landfill (by 78%). We now send one 240L bin to landfill per week. Not bad for one the country's busiest climbing centres!
- Travel: this is the one area that we've not improved on. Due to the higher number of guest setters travelling to London, we have more carbon emissions than in previous years, but less mileage. Must do better.
- Electricity consumption has gone down quite a bit. We have yet to analyse all of our monitoring data, so we don't yet know what changes are most effective.
- Water consumption has remained constant despite increased demand from our garden because we are using rainwater and greywater to irrigate.
- The garden saw many developments in 2011, most of which are reported by Ida on this blog. Key ones included a greywater filtration system, a wildlife pond and many more plants.
- Our two big events - the annual garden party and xmas party- were very low impact with minimal waste.
- We awarded two Castle eco-grants in 2011 to staff to be able to volunteer their time to environmental charities.
- We continue to offer Bike To Work scheme and eco-days (bonus holidays for sustainable travel) to staff.

We're able to do all this because of the support of our shareholders, our Board of Directors and the continued commitment of all of the staff. Thank you!

Audrey Seguy, Managing Director
audrey@castle-climbing.co.uk

Sustainable City Awards

Following on from Efua’s previous post regarding our award wins, I thought we should provide a bit more information about the work we’ve been doing in the Centre which gave rise to, not only the 2 awards we won but also another 2 we were shortlisted for, for which we received certificates.

On the 1st march 5 staff and volunteers from The Castle Climbing Centre donned their posh threads and attended the Sustainable City Awards. At a packed ceremony at the Lord Mayor of the City of London’s residence, Mansion House, we were delighted to receive not just one award but two!

This seemed even more remarkable when we found out the awards received in excess of 300 applications in its 11th year of running. The awards, one for Sustainable Building and one for Sustainable Procurement, were presented by Raymond Blanc (who champions sustainable fish) and Simon Mills (Head of Sustainability at the City of London Corporation).

In Simon Mills’ opening speech he said “this evening honours the efforts of organisations, both large and small who are at the leading edge of sustainability. Despite the economic challenges the country faces we have received a record number of applications- this is representative of a fundamental truth, that during tough economic times, it is the organisations which focus on resource efficiency, supply chain value and innovation which will best weather the storm. Sustainability is not an optional extra, to be discarded when the chill winds of the recession begin to blow. It is an essential shield which can protect businesses, and give them a spring board for growth as the economy begins to thaw. It is you, Ladies and Gentlemen, not politicians, who lead this country out of recession and I salute you”.

In the last 3 years the Castle Climbing Centre has been working tirelessly in our efforts to become a sustainable business, reducing our carbon footprint and increasing our environmental performance.

The building has undergone numerous environmental refurbishments, which the customers may not see, but include 2 new builds; a training room and offices completed using ecological building methods including insulation, natural ventilation, natural light and low energy heating systems.

Our main investment continues to be in Research and Development with plans to convert our site into a low energy building - looking at how we can further develop our climbing areas whilst making our Victorian building as energy efficient as possible.

Since 2009 we’ve made some substantial changes to our procurement code, prioritising the sourcing of sustainable products in all areas of the business. Purchasing decisions not only affect the performance of the Castle and the staff doing the purchasing, but sends a wider message down our supply chains, influencing their behaviour too. It is a diverse range of goods, works and services which are affected, such as the purchase of climbing holds, shop merchandise, staff uniforms, stationary, garden plants and cafe groceries.

The one area that has most obviously undergone huge change has been the development of the 1 acre of green space at the back of the centre into a market garden which now provides fresh, organic produce, not only for our own cafe but for Hackney’s Growing Communities, local businesses and the local community.

The Castle Climbing Centre continues to work hard to develop the centre as a premier indoor climbing venue, but not at the expense of the environment.

A copy of our new development plans for the Castle can be viewed at Reception.

Environmental Report 2010

Each year, we take on the mammoth task of looking at the environmental impact of everything we do - from hosting parties to buying loo roll and everything in between. You can download a copy of our report here. Be warned it's a big piece of work.
If you don't want to go through it all, here are the main points:
- Our carbon footprint has gone down slightly by about 6% to 117.09 tonnes CO2e. This isn't the dramatic decrease we'd hoped for, but we're still laying the groundwork for the big changes to come.
- In 2010 we opened The Castle Shop. This not only has diversified our business and improved the customer experience, but it's also given us a chance to engage with suppliers about sustainability.
- 2010 was also our first full year with the Castle Garden. Highlights include a bountiful summer crop, two beehives, community mini-plots, a huge composter, a swale to filter grey water and lots of digging!
- We've installed electricity monitors on all our circuits so we can see exactly where our electricity is being used.

If you want more- just download the report.

Happy reading,

Audrey

In 2010 The Castle signed up to the Mayor of London's Green Procurement Code in a further bid to commit ourselves to reducing the effects of our activities on the environment.

About the MGPC
"The combined purchasing power of London based companies has huge potential to positively tackle the capital's waste problem, reduce carbon emissions and contribute to the Mayor of London's target of cutting the capital's carbon emissions by 60% by 2025".

The Mayor of London's Green Procurement Code is a support service providing practical advice and online resources to help embed green purchasing into all aspects of an organisation, including sourcing green products.

MGPC Achievements
Since October 2007 members of the Green Procurement Code have spent over £742 million on green products and diverted 191,131 tonnes of waste from landfill. This represents a saving of 78,863 tonnes of CO2 emissions. Our signatories also make a valuable contribution to the green economy - reported purchases from over 680 suppliers have supported more than 1300 jobs.

Why Buy Green?

• To help the environment
• Help combat climate change - even one small office can emit three to five tonnes of carbon dioxide a year
• Conserve natural resources
• Create markets for recycled materials - recycling becomes a redundant exercise if the markets for recycled products do not exist
• Send less rubbish to landfill sites - landfill sites, nationally, are responsible for emitting over 700 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
• Reduce costs - energy efficient appliances are cheaper to run and water efficient products offer ongoing cost savings on water bills.
• Businesses will find waste costs rising as dependence on landfill increasingly attracts financial penalties and the costs of regulation and waste disposal are passed to waste producers.

Progress Review
We were asked to produce evidence of our green procurement through the completion of an online self-assessment tool. As this task fell to me, I was relatively lucky (and relieved) to have a lot of the information at my fingertips as it had already been collated for the 2009 Environmental Report.
Once this was completed we then just had the audit to get through and a couple of weeks wait to find out how well we'd done in carrying out the 'green' procedures we'd put in place.

Results
I'm pleased to say we were awarded GOLD in recognition for all our hard work in the last few years! And we are hoping to continue to build on this success in 2011 with a number of plans in the pipeline which we'll let you know about in due course.