Green Horizons - our green goals and successes

We monitor our electricity consumption and how much each appliance uses to enable us to reduce our energy use. We switch off as many appliances, computers and screens as we can when they're not in use.

What we buy and use

We buy all Fairtrade coffee and tea (and sometimes chocolate too!). We buy British sugar.

Our brochure is printed on recycled paper (please give your copy to a friend/recycle it when you've finished).

We buy environmentally friendly cleaning products, soaps and recycled toilet paper and kitchen roll.

We buy recycled paper and envelopes where possible - sometimes our printers don't like the paper though!

Recycling and compost

We recycle everything that we can. Paper, cardboard, tins and cans, plastic bottles, foil, glass, batteries, light bulbs... you name it!

We also compost most of our kitchen waste along with paper shreddings.

Electrical equipment that's come to the end of it's life or is no longer needed by us is reused or recycled wherever possible.

Promoting local businesses and area

Promoting local attractions such as The Eden Project.

Promoting car free activities and the use of public transport.

Promoting local companies, such as Padstow Farm Shop, on our website pages and in our brochure which supports the local community.

Promoting local environmentally friendly companies like Ocean Breeze and local grocery delivery companies.

Owners of our holiday cottages

Provided owners with 'green' information.

Sponsorship

We sponsor ½ acre of rainforest in Ecuador every year with Cool Earth preventing 130 tonnes of CO² being released.

Both toilets at the Cornish Horizons' offices are 'twinned' with toilets in Burundi, Central Africa providing a toilet for a family. Why not twin your toilet with 'CORD'?

We sponsor and support local charities and events including St Merryn Carnival, Padstow School and the RNLI.

Wildlife

Bird feeders and bird box put up at the Cornish Horizons offices. So far we've seen blue tits and robins!

Adopted a seal pup at The National Seal Sanctuary called Francis at the end of 2010 and will be adopting another seal pup at the end of 2011.

We've been out in some of Cornwall's rarer weather (!) cleaning one of our local beaches in Padstow

At the office

Our telephone line rental and calls are from Dial Green who are a Green UK telecommunications reseller. This ethical company was the first carbon neutral telecommunications value added provider to supply line rental, calls, broadband and teleconferencing that will all be offset by either their own or their partners offsetting, ranging from planting of native broad leaved trees in the UK to various projects in 3rd world countries.

Did you leave your bag-for-life at home? Don't worry, if you pick your key up from our office in Padstow or St Merryn, we'll give you a free Cornish Horizons jute bag. If you don't pick up a key from our office or St Merryn do call in when you are in Padstow and ask for your free bag.

Our staff share lifts to and from the office.

Improved our loft insulation with recycled insulation.

And, of course, we keep tabs on our performance in all areas of our environmental impact.

Phew! That's quite a list! But we would really like to improve and have lots of plans for further growth of our environmental and ethical performance. So we have ideas to:-
~ Get involved with local tree planting to help offset our Carbon Footprint
~ Get a food digester so we can compost meat/fish/dairy/pasta/bread etc
~ Provide visitors with much more 'green' information, activities and advice
~ Help the owners find out what you think of their properties with a 'green questionnaire'
~ We would really like to volunteer to help local Cornish charity Shelterbox. They respond instantly to natural and manmade disasters by delivering boxes of aid to those who are most in need.

If you have any ideas as to how we can keep up the good work just shout!