DO OUR BIT

Our home and self catering holiday cottages are a bit old, so not as eco-friendly and sustainable as we would like like – though we’re sure big thick walls will help!  Every little bit helps though, and as we start out on owning our own little holiday business we want to do as much as we can for the environment – and we will need your help too.  We are by no means perfect but we will be  trying our very best to reduce our environmental impact by following the  principle of REDUCE – REUSE – RECYCLE, wherever possible.

At Cliff House Holiday Cottages we have invested in and adopted a number of practices to help make our business more sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Save Energy

As  five cottages, some of which are part of a listed Grade II building, with a swimming pool we have some challenges about fuel consumption and how to minimise use without affecting our listed building status or switching the pool off 🙂

• In late 2022 we installed solar panels over the swimming pool and added commercial batteries to save and store energy.  Even when it is cloudy we can be taking electricity off the grid at off peak times to charge our batteries.
• In 2023 we installed a second hand conditioning unit for our swimming pool, not only avoiding something that was perfectly serviceable going in to land fill, it meant we were more up to date and using a more fuel efficient system to warm the water and the air for our pool.  Our old equipment was taken to our local council recycling centre.
• In 2023 we installed an electric heater for the pool water, this means when it is sunny and we are over producing electricity we can switch this on instead of using the gas powered conditioning unit.  So you could be swimming in sunshine!
• In dark areas around our 2 acres, we have installed either solar powered LED lights to show the way or light sensors that only come on when it is dark.
• In our cottages when bulbs need replacing we replace with energy efficient low energy bulbs, and we are always mindful of the efficiency rating of any new appliances that we buy.
• In our larger cottages we have open log fires, our wood is seasoned so that it burns efficiently and is sourced locally and supplied by someone in the village.  On occasion it may even be wood from our own trees!

Sustainable Travel

• We provide 2 large bike storage lockers, which can be booked when booking your cottage.  Dalby Forest is just on our door step and is a fantastic place for on and off road cycling.
• In 2023 we installed 4 electric vehicle charging points for our guests to use.
• When it came time to get rid of our old and very reliable car, we traded it in for a electric car, which is now our main car for doing the shopping, doing school runs and visiting the local area.

Support Local

We love supporting local business (as one ourselves), we recognise our role in bringing visitors to the area and supporting an all year round local tourist economy and the jobs that that brings.

• Where ever possible, we use local trades people, in fact our roofer, joiner and carpenter all live in our village.  Everyone else, lives within about 6 miles of us.
• We encourage our guests to visit local attractions, whether that’s in our blog posts or our “10 things to do in North Yorkshire” downloadable guide.
• Through our Facebook page we are always promoting local business, attractions and things to do, have a look for yourself!
• We have a small honesty shop above our pool and stock crafts made local villagers, whether that is hand made soaps, greetings cards or cermanics.

Protect Nature

• Throughout our cottages we use environmentally friendly and chlorine free cleaning products, specifically Minimal, which we buy in bulk and use re-fillable bottles – look out for our glass pumpy washing up liquid dispensers!  Occasionally we may use Eco-over as we run down our stocks, but Minimal is very much our product of choice.
• Eco friendly loo roll can be a bit of a challenge.  We use Cheeky Panda, which is made from sustainably sourced bamboo and put in to compressed rolls, so in theory more can be shipped in the same space.  Every loo in our cottages is provided with 2 rolls to get guests going

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• Use low energy light bulbs
• Use local labour and contractors for maintenance and repairs
• Source our energy from sustainable sources – wind, hydro, biomass, etc
• Make recycling waste made easier with bin sorters in kitchen
• Use Fair-trade and eco-friendly cleaning products
• Use refillable bottles wherever possible
• Provide info for cycling, walking, surfing, and other local outdoor activities.
• Encourage guests to use local facilities and attractions
• Provide welcome hampers of local and home made produce to encourage guests to do likewise during their stay.
• Provide info on farmers markets and local suppliers – Malton Farmer’s Market, buying from the pier in Scarborough.
• Put some of the gardens to meadow to provide shelter for wildlife and help mitigate CO2 emissions
• Log fires fuelled by locally cut trees
• Try to create as sustainable and low impact an environment as possible.

Throughout we will be learning as to what we can do to reduce our impact as a small business on the environment, if you have any ideas when you with us – please let us know.