Led by our Procurement and Experts by Experience teams, Co-Sustain uses the principles of coproduction to raise awareness and educate individuals on meaningful changes they can make to have a positive impact on the environment.
Through Co-Sustain, we will be working closely with service users, residents and staff to raise awareness of environmental issues, take action and explore creative ways of reducing our carbon footprint across our services.
One of the first projects we’re launching as part of Co-Sustain is a new recycling bin pilot. The pilot aims to educate people on the different types of waste streams and how to dispose of materials correctly.
Service users at Cygnet Cedars, with the help and support of Amie Reeves (Speech and Language Therapy Assistant) and Raluca Serban (Support Worker) have been busy coproducing bright, eye-catching designs for the new bin signage to encourage people to stop and think about where they’re putting their waste.
Service users produced the initial character designs for each material, including:
- General waste
- Mixed recycling
- Food
Cygnet’s Marketing team then mocked up the designs into branded stickers to be placed on the relevant bins within services. You can see the initial and final character designs below – click on the images to enlarge.
The pilot is taking place across six Cygnet services and we hope to see a positive change over the coming months, with recycling rates going up and general waste rates going down. The pilot sites are:
- Cygnet Acer Clinic
- Cygnet Cedars
- Cygnet Churchill
- Cygnet Hospital Harrow
- Cygnet Hospital Taunton
- Sheffield Day Services
Another Co-Sustain project also in the works is ‘Right Size, Right Shape’ which will aim to change food waste habits to ensure this important topic takes into account the environmental impact.
Raf Hamaizia, Expert by Experience Lead said, “Sustainability is an extremely important topic and coproduction is the perfect match when considering partnership working to get that buy-in across the board. Our Procurement team have been working tirelessly in the background to ensure we are doing everything we can to support this important agenda.”
The Co-Sustain initiative will play a major part in our Sustainability Strategy, a key priority in Cygnet’s Strategic Plan 2022-2027. It sets out our aims to achieve:
- Net zero carbon for our direct and indirect emissions by 2035
- Net zero carbon emissions in our supply chain by 2045
We’ve already been taking steps to reduce our carbon footprint and since 2021 Cygnet has been procuring 100% renewable electricity across all its services.
Marc Tough, Procurement Manager said, “This is a truly exciting time at Cygnet, as we begin our journey toward a sustainable future. For my team, sustainability isn’t just a hot topic, it’s a way for us to work together with our service users and colleagues, to ensure we give future generations a happy, healthy and greener future.”