Seaford bed and breakfast near Brighton, England

At the same time as trying to provide the product that our visitors hope for, we reduce the consumption of energy and natural resources as far as possible by careful housekeeping. We have continuous energy and water monitoring thus making sure that we never fall below our own standards. Solar energy is used to reduce the use of non-renewable energy. Our policy is to buy Ecover products whenever we can. We make an effort to inform our suppliers of our environmental policy and encourage them to try to achieve a similar standard. We have an active policy of waste avoidance and minimise waste by reusing and recycling items whenever we can.

We dispose of all waste in a careful and responsible way, and recycle, via our local authority, anything that they collect. Because we ‘cook to order’ we have very little waste food but what we do have is either composted or given to our worms in our wormery. We support our local ‘charity shops’ by giving them any replaced kitchen items or bedroom linens. We are members of ‘freecycle’ an on-line club that allows members to advertise unwanted item to others, with the proviso that no money ever changes hands. We actively encourage our guests to use public transport whenever possible, providing whenever we can, train and bus timetables for their use. For travel to areas where public transport does not reach we offer the free use of bicycles.

We realise that all tourism is a necessary business which benefits the local community and the individual. At the same time, if not regulated, insensitive tourism can threaten the quality of the tourism experience and the local environment. All our staff recognise that it is our duty to bring something useful to the local community, bring satisfaction to our guests and protect the local environment for future generations as far as that is within our capability. At every point we ensure that our local District Council is aware of any issues that we feel will help them to maintain their own high standard of environmental practices. In doing that, we feel we are committed to the highest possible level of environmental management and thus incorporate this in every aspect of our business.

We buy as many of our goods as locally as possible, the emphasis being on using local manufacturers and local suppliers. We are very conscious of the effect of long food mileage and belong to a local ‘food cluster’ trying to reduce this. When not able to buy locally we always try to use renewable and sustainably produced products and/or Fair Trade products.