Christchurch bed & breakfast, New Zealand

This accommodation is a comfortable, sustainable living environment that works with nature, not against it. It is designed to benefit you as well as helping to protect the precious eco system we live in. Our eco principles extend also to the day-to-day running of the accommodation to ensure we are sustainable as possible. Our ethical consideration ensure we support fair traders, local producers, and co-operatives. We offer plant based cuisine to offset New Zealand’s soaring greenhouse gas emissions and to avoid the cruelty inherent in New Zealand farming practices. Our aim is to be part of the solution, not the problem for a fairer, kinder and greener world.

We support our community in many ways. We set up and lobbied for retention of our local community pool and are involved in the fundraising campaigns to restore it. We have organised and lead a variety of community groups such as the Christchurch Vegetarian Centre, Vegetarian Families, Vegetarian Youth Group, the Green Party and SAFE (Save Animals From Exploitation), SANDS (Stillbirth and Neonatal Death Support), the local badminton club, and we help out at the local school and kindy. We give money regularly to a lot of these groups, and host meetings and activities in our accommodation or give free accommodation when needed. We also give free accommodation to other community groups such as Women on Air. We organise public meetings on a variety of other local and environmental issues and sometimes, these are held at the accommodation when suitable. We also give talks in schools and community groups on a variety of ethical or environmental issues. The bulk of our working hours are donated to our voluntary work and our paid working hours fit in around these commitments.

Our house was designed to be energy efficient. During construction, recycling was run on site and we took tour groups through to observe the process of eco building. We went to great efforts to source non rainforest timber and non toxic building materials. For example, our house is built with untreated timber framing and the paints throughout are natural eco paints made to traditional recipes. Our floorboards come from sustainable timber and were nailed, not glued and were then finished with natural finishes. We recycle both ours and our guests waste and compost on site. Currently we are building an urban sustainable garden and investigating rain water collection to irrigate it. The biggest contribution we make to the environment is running a vegan household. In New Zealand, animal farming is the biggest cause of greenhouse gas emissions and this is increasing annually. Animal farming in New Zealand is also a huge contributor to the loss of bio diversity in our beautiful country. We have opted out of the need to use animal products so we are not part of the demand for them. We share this cuisine with our guests.

We employ locals to help us with gardening and cleaning. We buy the produce that we cannot grow ourselves from the neighbouring English Park Market stalls on a Saturday. We are involved in the life of the school community which is across the road from us and help out with coaching sports teams and activities there. We encourage our guests to dine and shop locally, and provide guest rooms with folders of information about the local area and where to eat.