Improving energy performance. Avoiding waste. Creating sustainable spaces.
As a team, we’re always looking at the different ways we can be sustainable as a business. Finding new ways to walk the walk in taking care of our planet.
It’s always been a passion of mine to live and work in a way that has as little impact as possible on the planet, and I know the whole team here shares that desire - to be the best we can be. But it’s not a simple task and every action has potential consequences - that’s why we’re continually assessing everything we do.
We’re not perfect, and we certainly don’t have all the answers, but we always do the best we can to be sustainable in work, and in life.
And that’s the same approach we take when advising you about your building project.
Keeping our house in order
From sourcing greener stationery to encouraging staff to cycle or walk to work, we set up processes across the business to find ways to be cleaner, greener and more energy efficient.
We’ve chosen to site the Marraum offices in an award-winning sustainable building in Penryn that (beyond the amazing river views) uses rainwater harvesting for toilets, has an impressive array of photovoltaic panels to generate as much solar electricity as possible and electric vehicle charging points.
Our internal culture focuses on the five R’s - Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Rot - and we encourage all staff to remember this and find ways to review and improve our processes.
In practice this means things like:
- being particular where we buy from, buying local if possible including good local coffee and loose refillable tea
- using green stationery such as recyclable notebooks and paper and refilling pens
- purchasing refurbished computers and IT equipment
- trying to mend before buying new
- cooking team meals that are organic veggie and 95% of the time, vegan
- supporting team members in making sustainable choices outside of work
- regular team days that involve getting out in nature and a weekly greenhour to discuss and share how we’re making mindful choices.
We recently checked up on the carbon footprint of our offices, and we’re pleased to say that our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions are less than four tonnes (that’s roughly the same as two return flights to Cape Town). That’s pretty good for a company of our size but we’re always trying to improve.
Banking matters
Not everyone knows that switching banks to a more ethical lender is one of the most significant actions you can take to reduce your impact on the climate. Through digging deep into many websites, policies, reports and wider press, we felt the Co-Op bank was the right choice.
Many aspects stood out to us, including their robust ethical policy and thorough sustainability report, which includes information on the number of businesses that are refused accounts because they do not meet that ethical policy.
Supporting environmental causes
Marraum also supports local and global environmental causes using the Ecologi platform, which helps fund climate positive projects and tree planting, and supporting Cornwall Wildlife Trusts’s Seaquest Southwest. The latter saw us embark on a very special staff trip to Looe Island in 2023 with breathtaking views and a successful sea watch - spotting porpoise, tuna and lots of seals.
Living and working by the sea, we see it’s wonders every day and want to help protect it for the future. That’s why we’re also a Surfer’s Against Sewage Ocean network member, committed to helping protect the UK’s unique coastal environment and to the principal that our primary business activities do not have a direct negative impact on any of SAS’s main campaigning priorities: water quality, plastic pollution, climate change and ocean recovery.
Find out more about how we bring sustainability into the design and build process on every project we work on.
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