INTRODUCTION TO LILY
My name is Lily and I am the Environment, Social, Governance Executive at Chestnut and a keen climate activist in my spare time. I am so excited by this role as it really means I use my passion for sustainability and my 8 years experience in the hospitality industry to move forward in making Chestnut as eco-conscious as possible.
THE PLAN
This year the Great British Beach Clean Week ran from Friday 16th - Sunday 25th September, inviting people up and down the country to get together to clean up their local coastlines.
This seemed like the perfect opportunity to start rallying our team members to get involved in their first eco initiative. I reached out to Holkham Estate to get permission for the event and they were very accommodating and appreciative of our efforts. We were also very grateful for the support of our supplier, Newline Anglia, who kindly donated litter pickers and eco-friendly bin bags for us to use on the day.
THE OUTCOME
On the morning of Saturday 24th September Team members from The Globe, in Wells-next-the-sea volunteered to join me down on the beach, litter pickers in hand. In just 2 hours we collected over 11.5kg of litter! From beer cans to crisp packets and even a kite caught in a tree, in total- 9 bags of rubbish were removed from the coastline and stopped any wildlife being harmed.
Keeping our beaches clean is so important. Each year over 1 million marine organisms die from plastic pollution in our oceans. If we all remember to clean up after ourselves after a day at the beach, we can avoid it making its way into the ocean and harming the precious wildlife.
We are hoping to make the Team Chestnut Beach Clean an annual event and would welcome any support. In an ideal world there will be no litter to collect, but until that is a reality Chestnut will do its bit to protect our wonderful environment.
The moral of the story is don’t leave it, bin it.
Lily Maguire, Environmental, Social, Governance Executive at Chestnut