coast by numbers

But we don't believe it's the only way. In fact we don't  actually believe it's even the best way.

How do you count how you feel coming away from a meeting of a dozen other like-minded businesses who have made you feel that you CAN change the world after all and you're going to start as soon as you get home? How do you count when having a conversation with someone is the one thing that triggers you to change what you're going to do; and then realising that the one thing you have changed has made someone else change the way they think?

Y'see? It's tricky. The standard barometers of "success" were not made for the work we try and do. Once we've figured out a way to count passion, belief, inspiration and a fire in your belly to make a difference, then we'll post that number up here too. No, really. We're also looking at new tools for measuring social return on investment and social impact. Watch this space...

But in the meantime...for the bean-counters among you:

Number of members of the CoaST network: over 1,340

Number of counties across the UK in which there is at least one CoaST member: 50

Number of countries across the globe in which there is at least 1 CoaST member:22

Number of Ambassadors: 25

Number of employees supported through to full qualification under the BTEC in Sustainable Tourism: 450

Number of accommodation providers using the CoaST laundry cards: 240

Number of rooms with the laundry card in: 1,967

Number of information requests to date: still counting

Number of other destinations we work with to help them become more sustainable:loads. See our a thousand flowers page

Number of times we communicate with our members: since 2003 a staggering 784,975 emails landed across our network in members' inboxes;  yup...sevenhundredandeightyfourthousandninehundredseventyfive!

Number of CoaST member messages sent round the network to date on sustainable tourism: over 2,00

Number of emails that come into the CoaST team inboxes: 50,000 a quarter

Amount of money CoaST has raised to put towards delivering sustainable tourism in Cornwall via a dedicated team that wouldn't have been spent on that otherwise in the first 5 years: 750,000

Number of outside Cornwall destinations we've been asked to work with so far: 23

Number of fantastic CoaST staff: 4 altogether plus 2  fantastic volunteers

Number of desks we share: 4 and a half

Number of times we have been impressed by our members' commitment and passion to deliver a sustainable tourism industry: too many noughts to count

Number of years old CoaST is: 8

Number of times we have tried to ask the bean-counters to find a way of assessing change and the important stuff like well-being rather than counting daft things: 1,454.5675,776876 (and still counting)

Number of fully GTBS certified businesses: 113

Number of Gold awarded businesses; 42

Number of Silver awarded businesses:48

 

and for those who know what we mean (bean-counters look away now):

why do we do what we do? because we believe in optimum, not maximum; in resilience, and prosperity, not unfettered growth

how easy has it been to survive over the last 8 years? not!

how likely are we to give up? guess!

how much are we inspired by our members to keep going? more than any bean-counter can possibly ever begin to know how to count...