Green Week 2018 at Depot

On Monday, we’ll be encouraging customers to try some of the vegetarian and vegan options on our menu, with tasters of vegan beers. What’s a vegan beer? Just ask!

Tuesday’s focus is on localism, when we’ll be promoting the Lewes Pound with partners Transition Town Lewes. All week, we’ll be offering local beer and tonic at a special price and we’ll be sharing our passion for locally sourced ingredients.

Depot is right next door to the railway station, and we have covered bike racks (with CCTV). But did you know that you can find bus routes on our website? Or that we have a live departures board for the trains? We’ll be promoting sustainable travel to our staff and customers, sharing Cycle Lewes resources and highlighting ways that we can all cut down on our travel carbon footprint. At 20:30 we screen the film Power Trip: Fracking in the UK (the UK follow up to Gasland) followed by a Q&A.

Our Low Impact Day puts the (LED!) spotlight on how we minimise our energy consumption at Depot, and how we’ve opted for renewal energy sources. Did you know that Depot gets much of its heat from our ground source heat pump? Or that we obtain solar power from our photovoltaic roof panels? We use LED lights to reduce power consumption and we use roof vents (rather than air conditioning) in our café/restaurant. Our green roof (with downland-loving plants) means we’re well insulated too. Staff will be on hand to tell visitors about our building’s other clever green design features.

We’re collaborating with Plastic Free Lewes to look at ways of cutting back on the use of plastic, particularly single use plastic. We don’t have straws or plastic stirrers; we offer free tap water to discourage plastic bottles, and we give discounts to encourage reusable coffee cup use. On Friday we’ll be looking at ways we can all go further, and at which plastics can be recycled.

On Saturday, a range of talks are taking place. We’ll be looking at recycling coffee grounds from our café – we all know about compost, but did you know about coffee grounds as a facial scrub? And at 15:15, Plastic Free Lewes will be discussing ways that we can all reduce our use of plastic in our daily lives.

Plus, throughout the week, we’ll be running a fun eco quiz, giving away coffee grounds (first come, first served – bring your own container) and running some great offers.