About our Green credentials

Taking care of the environment ...

We've been awarded a resounding Gold Award from the Green Tourism Business Scheme, and are really pleased about it... one day all businesses will do things this way, I'm sure. In the meantime, we're content to make a little difference every time we can.

As a famous frog once said: It's Not Easy Being Green. But everyone has to start somewhere, and so we've committed to conducting our life and our business in a way which gives our grandchildren (and beyond) a chance of having something left to enjoy... So without being fanatical, we're trying to do the sensible things which help to save the world.

We have a 'Responsible Visitor Charter' which invites you to consider some simple things we can all do to reduce our impact on the environment, whilst you're staying at St Cuthbert's House -and it's available for download here.

Our desire to be good custodians was uppermost in our minds during the refurbishment of St Cuthbert's House. So we've used modern building materials to seriously insulate the building. We've fitted a highly efficient condensing boiler - and lament the fact that our desire to use a ground source heat pump was thwarted! We've fitted thermostatic valves to all the radiators, and fitted cast-iron 'lookalikes' to replace the old ones (we couldn't rescue them...).

New windows have been fitted, where planners agreed, with double or triple-glazed sash windows complete with lead weights, which were built by local men in a joiners shop in Berwick. On the front of the building, where our joiner refurbished and repaired the original large, long windows, we're looking for a secondary double-glazing solution - although those full-length windows are proving to be quite a challenge!

We need a lot of lights, and so we've been careful to use low-energy mains-voltage units everywhere we can. So if you need to allow your bathroom lights to 'warm up' for a minute or two before they reach full brilliance, we hope you'll agree that it's a price worth paying.

We've chosen solid wooden furniture for the bedrooms, built by real men in a joiners shop in England, rather than by robots in a factory-plex on the other side of the world. They use good quality timber certified to be from sustainable forests.

We found it surprisigly difficult to find eco-friendly yet luxurious toiletries for your bedroom, but have now settled on some lovely Gilchrist & Soames lotions and potions, made using natural ingredients, and without parabens or other potentially harmful chemicals. And they smells nice too. (That's not them in the photo- sorry!)

We use eco-friendly cleaning materials in the house, and are now able to leave many harmful cleaning materials on the supermarket shelf - because we clean using Enjo cloths. We thought their claims were 'too good to be true' when we first heard about these things, and decided cautiously to give them a try. Ttrust me, they have changed our life. They're as good as the claims make out...

Of course, we separate all our rubbish that can be recycled. Most of it goes in the blue bin, but we still need to take the glass to the bottle bank.

We try to minimise the amount of detergent we use, and only use the washing machine and dishwasher when we have a full load. If you leave your towels in the bath or shower tray, we'll change them - but if you leave them on the towel rail, that's your way of saying 'I'll use these again'.

We're very pleased to have initiated some discussions which have led to the creation of a Social Enterprise business in Seahouses, led by our local Development Trust. The new 'Washing Line' laundry has created jobs for local people, and is helping to minimise the environmental impact of laundering our linen. Several large companies collect linen from accommodation businesses locally, and transport it more than 150 miles (each way) to be washed! This has to be a better way...

Our food and other supplies are bought locally where that's practical, and if we can't do that then we're on the lookout for fair-trade or organic alternatives. We've been motivated in this by the experience of our friend and his fruit farm...ask us to tell you the story when you come.

We're passionate about local food, and you will see this passion delivered on your plate.

We recently achieved accreditation through the 'Local Food Awards' for our commitment to using -well, local food. But then, when the best sausages in the world are made just a stone's throw from our door, why wouldn't we?! Our local bakery is a few hundred yards away, and when they deliver our bread in the morning it's still warm - so why would we buy plastic bread from the supermarket?

We realise that our Green aspirations are just that - ours. But we'd like to think that while you're at St Cuthbert's House you might like to aspire with us - even if you don't lean this way ordinarily. Here are some practical ideas, taken from our 'Responsible Visitor Charter', for helping to save the world while you're here:

* Re-use your towels if they don't need replacing - which cuts down on electricity and water usage, and keeps a little more detergent out of the drainage system.
* If you’re going out, turn off all lights, and turn down the thermostatic radiator valves.
* If your room gets too warm, turn the thermostatic valve down, rather than opening a window.
* Unplug your laptop! Even when it’s switched 'off' it still consumes energy on standby.
* Recycle! Every room has a bin, and if you leave newspapers and other recyclable materials in or near it, we'll put it in our blue bin.
* Go for a walk instead of a drive. The world's most gorgeous beach is just a short stroll from St Cuthbert's House. Go walk on it. You'll be saving more than the planet... Explore the file in the Cuthbert Room which has some great ideas for a 'no-car day'!

We all have busy lives to lead, but we're always on the lookout for little things which can make a big difference when we apply them collectively. If you have any great ideas, or you see something we could do better, we'd love to hear about it.

I watch so little telly that I honestly didn't know there was a programme called 'It's Not Easy Being Green' - I thought I was being clever, in remembering Kermit's old catchphrase... but when I started exploring it, I found this BBC website dedicated to green aspirations, full of useful ideas and practical things you can do to help save the world (including farting less - no, really, it's on there! And you vegetarians have a case to answer...)