The core of Cohere Coworking is community. Through casual group lunches at DGT and creative potlucks on our porch, we cultivate the community of Cohere itself. Through participating in larger events, like Bike to Work Day in June and the annual Friendsgiving celebration to benefit the Food Bank of Larimer County in November, we help to support the larger community of Fort Collins.
Cultivating a community like Cohere Coworking entails a great many gatherings, and we treasure our time together. As a matter of fact, there have been over 1000 events held at Cohere in the last decade! Events like these are important to help to keep our community strong and connected, but they are also capable of generating a great deal of waste if not properly managed: paper plates, plastic cups, decorations, and even wasted food.
For the last year or so, until she departed for her dream job at the Bohemian Foundation, it was our community manager, Emma Cooling, who coordinated the events. She got her Bachelor’s Degree in National Resource Recreation and Tourism right here at CSU. Not only was Emma an absolute virtuoso when it came to putting together events at Cohere, but she and our founder Angel both also had a passion for conservation and for protecting our natural resources as well. Together, they chose to reach for the goal of hosting these wonderful happenings without creating an additional burden on the environment by producing zero waste events.
Emma and Angel came up with several great ways to inexpensively reduce the amount of waste when holding events at Cohere, including:
- Procuring a 128 piece Fiestaware set off of Craigslist to use in place of paper or plastic plates
- Stocking up on real silverware so that we don’t need to resort to disposable, plastic silverware
- Using and reusing cloth napkins, dishtowels, and tablecloths to reduce paper waste
- Encouraging members to take home any leftover food to prevent food waste
These simple measures have drastically reduced the amount of waste generated by events that Cohere hosted directly, but it wasn’t quite enough for our devoted duo. Not only do we now use these measures ourselves, but we ask groups that rent out our conference spaces to utilize our reusables as well, further reducing the amount of waste generated.
While gatherings of all sorts have been put on the back burner over the last few days, we are looking forward to using these tools and more in making the next gatherings as green as can be!
Would you like to catch a glimpse of our Fiestaware? Schedule your tour today!
Interested in renting out one of our conference spaces? Cohere’s Booking Inquiry Form: Rapid Reply