Guest blog post
Sustainable Upbringing
Growing as much as possible, without pesticides and artificial fertilisers, composting, water harvesting…
Cooking from scratch, eat ups and preserving…
Making and mending, reusing and recycling, fixing before buying new…
Wearing hand-me-downs, passing on rather than throwing away…
Turning off and unplugging, regular equipment servicing for longevity…
These are a few examples of sustainable living I was fortunate enough to experience as ‘normal life’ when I was growing up. And when I left home, fifty years ago, I tried hard to honour and add to these. Two immediate key influences were friends who worked on renewable energy developments and my copy of The Eco Cookbook: Over 100 Delicious Recipes plus Environmental News & Views by Southampton Friends of the Earth (1975).
Climate Change Crisis
Re-reading The Eco Cookbook, I reminisced about shopping for the recipes at the local wholefood co-operative. You took your bags and filled up with loose whole foods from large paper sacks. Refill shops are not a new idea! The book also has well explained science content accompanied by suggestions for living sustainably, beyond the choices we make about food. It’s sad that so many of the fundamental environmental principles and practices identified are still so far from being accepted, let alone adopted. Hence the climate change crisis.
Birland Cottage
So where am I now on my sustainability journey? Three years ago, my partner and I set up Birland Cottage – a self-contained annexe within our home – as a part-time Airbnb, open when friends and family are not staying. We’ve been selected as a Green Ambassador on Visit Tamar Valley’s green tourism programme, for which this blog is one of two written contributions, the other being a Sustainable Purchasing guide.
Some Sustainable Actions to date
When refurbishing and furnishing, we:
- Used hard wearing, easy-to-clean natural slate for the new floor needed downstairs; we've kept the original floorboards upstairs, repairing and painting them to prolong their life; and we chose a wood worktop for the new kitchen.
- Furnish the cottage mostly with items we already have or buy as upcycled or second hand. For brand-new items, we focus on natural or recycled materials.
In supporting sustainable travel, we:
- promote the local train service and provide lots of information on walks and cycling trails.
- have a separate space for guests’ bikes, muddy boots and for drying wet weather gear.
We use environmentally friendly cleaning products and guests have separate food waste and recycling bins to use. We also provide:
- Organic linen, recycled paper toilet tissue, Faith in Nature toiletries, Fairtrade/organic tea in compostable bags/recyclable envelopes, loose coffee and sugar, plus local apple juice. Milk is in a jug, covered with a beeswax wrap
Food Metres Not Miles
While the Cottage is self-catering, there’s optional breakfast and/or evening meals featuring our own and local produce, as part of our Birland Feasts offer. Guests can enjoy our quarter acre garden, with wildlife areas and a potager, where we grow fruit and vegetables with plenty of homemade compost and harvested water. Our eggs, jams and chutneys, along with what’s in season, are all for sale. We’re talking food metres not miles.
What's next for Birland Cottage?
We are now importantly focusing on our direct energy sourcing and use. We’ve changed to a green electricity tariff, had an assessment visit from Tamar Energy Community and are currently working with Netshift, a programme supporting local businesses to calculate and reduce their carbon emissions. Our next step will be careful consideration and investment for post-gas boiler heating and an EV for getting around. We know it’s key to address the most significant difference we can make as a business.
Mary
Birland Cottage
