How can an established business drive purposeful change? That was one of the questions discussed at a recent People, Planet, Profit event from Unlocking Potential a Cornish company working with businesses and graduates for over ten years, helping people develop and businesses grow. Business leaders explored how they could better measure their impact on the world and move away from the traditional “take, make and dispose” model of business, to use their business as a force for good.
We heard from Jon Hyatt, Director of Hendra Holiday Park, who is doing just that. Jon and his team have been working hard to switch the family business to a more sustainable model.
By using thousands of solar panels to power the site, along with installing biomass boilers, the holiday park has reduced its carbon footprint by 62% in the last 10 years.
The business has also been getting customers involved in their sustainable journey, by encouraging families to recycle their waste where possible. There is now a ‘freecycle’ area in the holiday park where guests can leave unwanted goods such as beach toys and camping gear for others to reuse.
These small steps have helped to reduce waste to landfill by 50% in the last 8 years.
Jon said: “We are truly a mainstream business catering for families and couples, we don’t claim to be an eco-destination or a totally green business- we’ve got a long way to go on the sustainability front. But the whole team is behind it, we’ve got lots of ideas, lots of things to try. We’re not here to preach to anyone about how they run their business or what they should do, but we’re proud of what we’ve done.
“Our strength is we’ve got a fantastic team and everyone is behind what we’re trying to achieve. I’m amazed at the suggestions we get from all levels of staff about how we can make it a better environment for our guests, a better environment to work in and better for the environment in general.”