Environmental sustainability
ORTUS is a beautiful and functional building designed to reduce our environmental impact and enhance our surroundings.
Prior to breaking ground, extensive consultation and planning took place with valuable insight and input provided by dozens of stakeholders. The fantastic design by Duggan Morris Architects fits effortlessly in the Georgian surroundings whilst maintaining a distinctive and modern feel.
We take care to conduct our operations as sustainably and responsibly as possible. As part of our commitment to running an environmentally sustainable business, the building features:
- An A-rating on our Energy Performance Certificate
- Photovoltaic Array / Solar Panels on our roof generating over 10,000 kWh of electricity, saving 5 tons of carbon emissions per year
- A naturally ventilated building with automatic window controls operated by sensors that monitor CO2, humidity and temperature. This means we have no noisy and polluting air-conditioning or heating units
- Use of A-rated materials in the construction, cutting down drastically on pollutants and chemical hazards
- A ground source heat pump that circulates water through 7 concrete boreholes that are 120m deep, providing under-floor heating & cooling. The earth is a constant 11C at that depth and so the water is cooled during the summer and heated during the winter.
- Use of timers and light sensors to manage low-energy consumption light bulbs
- Large surface-area of energy-efficient glass allowing plenty of daylight into the building, cutting down on the need for artificial light
- A-rated and efficient boilers
In our operations we also commit to the following:
Catering and procurement
- Where possible we use fresh and locally sourced ingredients in our meeting rooms, café and restaurant.
- We have reduced the amount of animal products used and offer 40% vegetarian and vegan.
Waste minimisation
- We have a zero waste to landfill objective.
- All our waste is recycled and treated by our supplier.
- There are recycling points on every floor of the venue and in every office space.
- We signed the Meetings Industry Association’s 20PercentLess pledge to eliminate single-use plastics from the industry by 2025
- We removed all the single-use plastic from our meeting rooms a few years ago.
- We removed plastic straws from our café and offer paper straws on request.
- We use recyclable packaging
- We offer discounts for the use of re-usable cups, mugs and food containers to reduce packaging