St Andrews holiday cottages, Scotland

When the tourism business was opened 16 years ago all the buildings used were recycled from their previous agricultural use. From the outset we viewed ourselves as a green tourism business and a percentage of our turnover was used to improve our local environment creating a round farm trail and rebuilding and maintaining our old drystone walls. At that time most of our 150 acres of land was used for agriculural production mostly cereals. In the last ten years a program of increasing bio-diversity has taken place 33 acres of our land has been allocated to various projects and we now have areas devoted to wild flower meadow, beetle banks, wild bird cover, new hedges and new woodland. We also joined with the RSPB in their farm bird lifeline project which was targeted at corn buntings an endangered species this proved very successful and over the three years from 2002 recorded numbers rose from one to over 35 plus this in an area where the total population in the county was estimated at 85. Around five miles of grass tracks (cut once per week) have been created this gives easy access to our new woodland and the burnside which runs round half of our boundry and contains many wildfowers shrubs and trees. We also provide seating and 30 information boards set out at intervals and covering many aspects of our environmental program. In January 2007 half a mile of new hedge was planted containing 3300 hedging plants.

The new trees, 10000 in total mostly hardwoods planted on 27 acres in 2001 have a dual purpose they look great and are well managed but they also lock up through sequestration large amounts of our carbon emmissions. As a business we have taken all the usual steps to reduce our carbon footprint e.g. low energy light fittings, heat pump in pool, replacement low energy fridges etc. better housekeeping – switching TVs etc off stand by but we are still responsible for some emmissions our trees will enable our business to become carbon neutral.

In 2006 we have with the assistance of our local authority introduced a more comprehensive policy on recycling. We now ask our guests to separate their rubbish into each of the following categories - bio-degradeable waste which we compost on site - paper & cardboard, plastic bottles, food and drinks cans, glass bottles & jars which are handled seperately by the local authority and finally general waste which goes through the local authority to landfill. We have seen a dramatic change in the amount going to landfill.

We have changed over to use entirely environmentally friendly house cleaning products (Ecover), including dispensable shower gels and shampoos.

We support the local community by having an open policy on our land we enable locals to use our 5 miles of tracks and trails. Also we have rambling groups use our land several times a year.

We also encourage our guests to visit local attractions, eat in local restaurants and by local produce. We also encourage our guests to use public transport or local services. - all our guests are encouraged to visit and eat at local places, we have comprehensive guest information packs in the houses to inform & guide the guests of numerous attractions locally. We also provide locals bus & rail timetables for guests are they require. The nature of our business sees many of our guests staying onsite as we offer facilities for all, ranging from play areas for children to putting to tennis.

We employ all local staff - our 2 full time members of staff have been with us for 11 year and 18 years, both a local and have strong knowledge of the local area which also comes in handy to impart their experiences with the guests. Additionally, our 6 part-time staff are also local.

We buy local produce from the nearby farmshop for the guests and our meals - as we are self-catering we offer the guests newspaper, rolls & milk from the local village shop, we provide this for the guests as they request. Additionally, we have polytunnels and green houses for our own personal use, of which surplus is offered to the guests in the reception area so they can taste seasonal fruit & veg grown on the land. Our own hens eggs are on offer to the guests also in the reception area.

We use local services such as builders - we use local builders, garden centres, joiners, plumbers & electricians, all whom we use regularly and are near to hand to help supply any services we may require.