Impact
London’s Best Sustainable Initiatives
Ahead of Earth Day on April 22nd, a day celebrating sustainability and the natural world, we’re highlighting some of the best sustainable initiatives and businesses in London right now. From food waste apps to biodegradable packaging and zero-waste cooking schools, there’s something for everyone, and these businesses are leading the way for others to become more environmentally friendly. Read on for our wrap-up of London’s best sustainable initiatives.
If you plan to celebrate Earth Day or are looking to become more sustainable, using these initiatives is a great start. Similarly, taking part in events such as Earth Hour, where participants are encouraged to switch off all lights, devices and appliances for one hour on March 25th, could be a small but impactful contribution.
Cookery School at Little Portland Street
Joining a cooking class is a great way to spend a rainy day or sharpen up your skills in the kitchen. Unfortunately, many of these schools host hundreds of pupils, getting through endless ingredients at the expense of sustainability.
The Cookery School at Little Portland Street is already a leader in this field, having banned single-use plastics many years ago. The school offers a variety of courses for all ages – even kids; on how to make everything from sushi to pastries, and was awarded the highest marks by the Sustainable Restaurant Association.
All of the utensils used at the school are of the highest quality to save on wastage and maintain a low environmental impact, and the ingredients are sustainable and locally produced. Food waste is always at an all-time low and the school is entirely run on renewable energy. Any leftover food is reused to produce energy or create fertiliser and they even offer classes on how to cook sustainably for business groups.
Olio and Too Good To Go
It’s likely you’ve already heard about or even used these two great, pioneering food waste apps. Both Olio and Too Good To Go work on the same principle: restaurants have a huge surplus of food at the end of each day that can’t be served to customers the next day as it isn’t classed as ‘fresh’, which unfortunately leads to many businesses throwing a massive amount of food away.
Too Good To Go is an app much like Deliveroo, where users can browse restaurants and cafes in their local area. These businesses will advertise meals, food parcels and mystery bags at extremely low prices – normally less than £3.50.
Olio goes one step further, working as a ‘food sharing app’ which gives food away for free to those in need. In the Olio app, users can connect with others from their neighbourhood or local community and give or receive items for free – and not just food, but any product that might be going spare and can benefit someone else. Using these apps is a simple, free and easy way to make an important contribution to helping the planet, reducing waste and being more sustainable.
Terra Hale
If you haven’t already paid a visit to Terra Hale, it should be next on your list, as London’s best new eco-friendly fitness club. One of the club’s branches is located in Notting Hill and if something can be made sustainable, it has been. Spin classes are used to power the building’s lights, while yoga mats and wood flooring are made from recycled materials. On the walls, you’ll spot a vertical garden filled with air-purifying plants and after sweating it out on a bike, at the barre or on the rowing machine, you can make use of a biodegradable towel, which the gym uses to save on unnecessary washing.
CoGo
Using apps to be more sustainable is great and makes a positive difference, but wouldn’t it be even better if there was something that could tell you the tangible difference you’re making? CoGo is aiming to be the solution to this problem, with an app that actively measures your carbon footprint and devises ways to reduce and offset your activities.
The CoGo app is above all a banking app, but by tracking where you spend, it will tell you the exact number of kilograms of CO2 you’re using through daily activities such as filling up the car, cycling around the city or jumping in an Uber. You can see your own daily, monthly and yearly footprint and ways to lessen it, for example, did you know that not eating red meat can reduce your emissions by up to 10%?
Suggestions on improving your footprint are made based on what you regularly spend on, for example, if you shop on the high street, the app will calculate how much might have been saved if you went second-hand instead.
Likewise, it will tell you the emissions if you travel by car versus public transport or by bike. The app is a super easy way to help the planet and keep track of your spending.
Nestor’s green journey
At Nestor, we also aim to be sustainable on as many fronts as possible. Helping the environment is one of our most important values and this begins from the moment you make a booking with us when we’ll plant a tree on your behalf to kick off your sustainability journey.
Travel and leisure can often be seen to have a negative environmental impact, but ensuring you work to offset this through sustainable initiatives and practices while you’re staying with us goes a long way in offsetting this.
Within all of our luxury London apartments, you’ll be treated to vegan, sustainable toiletries, biodegradable coffee pods and recycled toilet paper.
We also ensure that our partners, who provide everything from shampoo to tasty snacks in your fridge on arrival, are ethical and hold the environment at the heart.
Each of our properties is located in the heart of London, meaning there’s no need for emission heavy driving, as the best sights in the city are a short walk, e-scooter or bike ride away – but if you’re still in need of some travel comforts, London now offers Uber Green to get you to your destination the sustainable way.
If you’d like to chat with us more about our sustainability practices, don’t hesitate to contact us. You can also find out more about our More Trees initiative here.
We look forward to hosting you soon in one of our sustainable London properties! If you’re looking for a place to stay in London, we’d love to be your sustainable travel company of choice! Book your stay with us today.