Our Sustainabilty Responsibilities
We are committed as a business to minimise the impact our café has on the planet. This means making some commitments and asking our customers to help us achieve some of these too:
Recycling and Purchasing
We recycle paper, cardboard, tins, plastic and glass bottles, batteries, silver foil and garden waste. When building we use recycled materials wherever possible.
We use 100% biodegradable refuse bin sacks for rubbish that cannot be recycled.
Water used to wash vegetables in the kitchen is poured on our herb garden.
We have installed water butts and we use the recycled rainwater to help water the garden.
We re-use office paper to help try & keep refuse to a minimum. The new office paper we use is PEFC certified – made from sustainably managed forests.
For one use items such as drinking straws, takeaway cups & takeaway bags we have chosen the biodegradable option.
Use of Energy and Resources
Our energy provider is Ecotricity – powering the café with green energy.
When purchasing new electrical appliances, we ensure they are energy efficient.
Thermostatic valves on radiators save energy.
To conserve energy, we have replaced our light bulbs with low energy bulbs.
We line dry washing where possible & use green washing products to clean them.
We use e-mail & our website to promote and administer Earsham Street Café where possible, reducing the amount of paper used.
Enjoying Nature
Both in the customer courtyard garden & behind the scenes we have planted lots of bee friendly plants that grow in number each year.
Birds are encouraged with nest-boxes, bird baths and plants where they can enjoy the seed heads.
We also boost the habitat for other wildlife by creating dead wood piles, using insect attractive plants and providing bug hotels, butterfly homes & water areas.
We try to minimise the use of chemicals in the garden.
Keeping it Local – Saving Fuel Emissions
We are passionate about fresh, local & seasonal produce and the menus celebrate & reflect this. We use local growers/producers for our meat, vegetables, fruit, dairy products, soft drinks, beer, bread & flour. With other ingredients we buy as much British ingredients as possible.
Local workers are used for all building & maintenance work to the café.
We involve ourselves in local community activities and enterprises
Visitor Involvement
The café along with our customers support a charity each year and fundraise through events, collection boxes, a percentage of picture sales & chocolate orange cake sold. Charities we have supported in the past include:
- Toilet Twinning- Helping bring clean water and safe sanitation to the world's poorest people
- Louise Hamilton Centre (attached to our closest hospital)- providing a Supportive and Palliative Care resource centre for people with cancer and other life limiting illnesses.
- Village Aid- Village Aid is a charity working to transform the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in some of the world’s poorest countries across Africa.
- MacMillan Cancer Support- There for everyone affected by cancer, their family and friends.
We encourage visitors to cycle to the café by providing cycle racks.
We hope that customers will be enthused after eating & drinking with us that they will want to shop locally. We provide a list of our suppliers & growers to aid this.
We encourage visitors to walk to the café and/or explore walks in the local area by supplying a free leaflet or download of 3 walks nearby.
We offer a 20p discount for anyone who brings their own cup when purchasing a takeaway hot drink.
We welcome guest’s comments and suggestions on how we can improve on our environmental policy.
