St Bridget’s Eco – congregation Award Green Sheet No 12
Last month when Roger was
in Norfolk, as part of his holiday, not his sabbatical, he visited a restaurant
that had quite a radical practice. It was not advertised as a vegetarian
establishment, but they professed to just “liking to cook vegetables.” It was a
very small place, open only 4 days per week, and nearly always fully booked.
There was no menu, everyone got the same meals at the same time, the proprietor
waited on, and his wife did most of the cooking, with him helping out. All the
vegetables they grew themselves or sourced locally, and the wine menu was a
pleasure to read, you felt like you were in the field with the vines growing
around you! Needless to say, the food
was delicious, and the wine was a true complement to it. When the bill came
there was an optional carbon surcharge of £2
which Roger paid and decided to look into when he got home.
I thought you all might to know a little more about this
small business which is doing more than it’s fair share of work to help
preserve our planet and so have copied some of it’s website below for you to
absorb, it makes interesting reading;
Business in general, and small business in particular, is not
good for the planet. Oh, it's easy to bandy round warm fuzzy guilt-assuaging
statements about 'sustainability' - indeed, increasing numbers of businesses
do, in their now de rigueur environmental policies - but unless their
statements are backed up by real, audited, concrete and continuous action to
minimise damage to the local and global environment, they may be well meaning
... but in truth they're pretty meaningless.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century, our planet is at
crisis point. We're using resources at a rate faster than the earth can
replenish them; we are already beginning to witness the effects of climate
change; we're showing no willingness at all to reduce our usage of fossil
fuels; and we're still producing waste at an extraordinarily damaging rate. Yet
huge numbers of us appear to be complacent and unconcerned about our impact on
our home planet - or the implications for future generations. As passionate
environmentalists, our aim here at terroir is not simply to minimise our
ecological footprint, but to actually exert a positive influence on the
environment, both local and global, now and enduring through generations to
come.
You can find out properly about our environmental polices and
practices in our manifesto for a green
restaurant but in a (far too small!) nutshell:
o
We measure all aspects of the business
scientifically in order to assess their impact on the environment with data
used, if necessary, to identify steps to reduce further that impact. Energy-saving
/ carbon minimisation policies have resulted in cuts of 40% in energy usage and
23% in petrol usage over the last 3 years. Electricity (our only fuel) is
provided from renewable sources and is therefore emission-free; car mileage for
both business and personal use amounts to around 7000 per annum, CO2
emission 1.58 tonnes. Overall business and personal CO2 emissions
have been reduced by over 75% over the last 3 years.
o
Personal and business CO2
emissions are offset through our partnership with Climate Care. We also run the
UK hospitality world’s only carbon-offset scheme for guests and diners, also in
collaboration with Climate Care. The scheme has achieved over 99% diner
participation and last year offset some 120 tonnes of CO2 emissions
related to customer car travel.
o
Waste minimisation, reuse, composting
and recycling practices keep combined business and personal landfill waste to
around a quarter of a small bag a week, even at the busiest times of the year.
o
Local food buying policies maintain Food
Miles to an absolute minimum and support local small-scale growers. Our own
kitchen garden, run organically, supplies a good proportion of our produce.
o
All marketing is undertaken with
ecological and environmental sustainability in mind. We also run a non-profit
making community website for the village of Cley, which is dedicated to
responsible travel and through which much of the village’s tourism is now
mediated (see www.cley.org.uk).
Kalba writes a monthly column for Norfolk’s environmental magazine and
alternative news review, EcoEcho.
Our environmental practice continues to win us a number of
awards and accolades. Last year we won the Eastern Daily Press Business Award
for the Environment, were short listed from over 700 nominations for the
Responsible Travel Awards, and won the Big Tick Award of Excellence for
environmental responsibility. We've also been featured in Green Futures and The
Environmentalist magazines.
There is a wealth of information on their site and their
policies are a credit to them, do look it up. If you have a computer, their
website is:www.terrior.org.uk, if you don’t, did you know that you can use the
computers at your local library for personal use?
Next month you will
be able to read here about Climate Care which is where Roger found out about
his surcharge. If you have a contribution for the Green Sheets, please contact
Sally Cashen on 625 2659.