County Waterford accommodation, Ireland
How this holiday makes a difference
Environment
We've won Europe's top award - and we consider that as a starting point. Enough already?
We also offer advice to (and learn from) visitors to Glenribbeen. Glenribbeen has featured on Irish national TV and has been used as 'best practice' by two collages WIT and South Tipp for our eco-friendly ways.
Glenribbeen has been awarded the Irish GHA Green Hospitality Award (gold) Award, the Portuguese 5-Petal Award and the Georgina Campbell (good food) Award. We feed wildlife and are particularly interested in the native red squirrel and bats. Peter leads regular 'bat-walks' to the river pausing to tell the history of some of the trees along the route that are older than 250 years. He has an echo-locator and a wealth of knowledge of fauns and flora of the area.
We use our bicycles as much as possible and when we do use the car it's a very eco friendly one that sits 7 - with some adjustment - we we can ferry people to and from the mountain paths.
We have harnessed the stream in our garden that flows at 500lt per second over a 1:12 fall and hope to make electricity from ti. We also use solar tubes to heat water and a mass (wood-stove) boiler to heat water. Energy efficient bulbs and PV panels to power the out-door lights help keep our electricity consumption to 1/5 that of like-sized B&B's and out water consumption is 60% the Irish average or 6% of US consumption.
Community
We support all local enterprises that work in an eco-friendly way and offer any and all advice we can to others.
Living beside a registered organic farm - does make things easier - I'll admit.
We also are committed to buying locally and we recycle most everything - we haven't had a bit/trash lift since August of 2007 and don't expect one any time soon.
We offer lifts to walkers to and from walks and loan out the dogs to those that are so disposed. We've loads of books and guides and maps for interested persons as well as advice and stories.
Our welcome is a genuine one as we have travelled extensively and value the welcome that one longs for after a long day and as musicians we also know the worth of a place where one can experiment with music or practice language - Els and Peter are both fluent in English and Dutch and speak enough of about 6 other languages to welcome many visitors - they are very happy to learn more too.
We also offer eggs from our hens to local good causes to raise money and we grow a lot of our own vegetables and gather fruit and mushrooms locally too and are happy to offer advice on same.
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