Self catering cottages in Herefordshire, England
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
We have been here since 2005, and it has given us a wonderful opportunity to put some of our ideas and ideals into practice. It was particularly important to us to minimise our environmental footprint, and so we were delighted when we recently won one of the national ‘Best performer’ Awards in the Green Tourism Business Scheme. We currently have their Silver Grading, but by following their recommendations and making other improvements, we certainly hope to be up to ‘Gold’ by the time of their next visit. When we renovated the cottages we installed solar panels and woodburners to reduce our use of electricity and oil. We installed showers and low flush toilets in order to cut down on water consumption. We insulated the lofts with a combination of Warmcel (recycled newspapers) and sheepswool, and used environmentally friendly paints throughout.
We installed energy efficient appliances and low energy light bulbs in order to reduce our electricity consumption, and monitor water and electricity consumption every month. We buy our electricity from Ecotricity, who are a green company who invest all their surplus revenue in the construction of new wind farms.
We only use environmentally friendly cleaning materials, and this helps to keep our septic tanks running smoothly, and so we can deal with our own sewage. We recycle bottles, cans, cardboard, newspapers, plastics, and make special arrangements to deal with hazardous waste. We also have organic composting facilities, and a green cone for other food waste.
Our gardens are organic, and we offer seasonal surpluses from our veggie garden to our guests. We encourage wildlife, and have a large natural pond for our resident frogs, toads and newts. We have planted a small orchard, and also have a tree nursery, and we are currently (2009) in the middle of a four year project to plant over 20,000 native trees on our land over the border in Wales.
We always try and mend things, rather than throw them away, and often re-use things that other people have discarded. We actively encourage guests to support us to minimise our environmental impact, and encourage them to incorporate some of our ideas into their own homes.
Community
We strongly promote all the local attractions and encourage guests to use the local bus service, and will collect guests from the station if there is no convenient bus. We support local suppliers and contractors, and are members of the local Greenlinks organisation. Our welcome baskets (complimentary for stays of a week or longer) include a selection of local, organic or fair-trade produce. We buy many items in bulk from a workers’ co-operative. We make regular donations to both Friends of the Earth and to Tree Aid (a small charity working to support communities and the environment in Africa’s drylands.
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