CERTIFIED CARBON NEUTRAL & HOLDERS OF THE GOLD AWARD FROM GREEN TOURISM - BECAUSE LUXURY HOLIDAYS SHOULDN'T COST THE EARTH
Sandwiched between two Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and just a stone’s throw from the stunning Atlantic coastline, Tredarrup Farm is home to a wide variety of wildlife.
If you’re lucky you’ll hear tawny owls twit-twooing in the evenings and see bats flitting around at dusk, whilst hedgehogs snuffle around in the undergrowth at your feet. Depending on the time of year, you may also see buzzards hunting, swallows chattering on the wing and starlings performing spectacular murmurations in the evenings.
We feel very lucky to live here and to be able to share it with our guests. But we also strongly believe that holidays shouldn’t cost the earth. So we’re committed to protecting and preserving this beautiful landscape and its inhabitants, both wild and human, by ensuring everything we do here is as sustainable as possible.
And, in recognition of our efforts, we’re proud to have received the Gold Award from Green Tourism, the largest and most established sustainable grading programme in the world.
So, when you holiday in one of our eco-friendly holiday cottages, you can rest assured you’ll be spoiling yourself without spoiling the planet.
Here’s a little of what we do and how you can help…
Certified Carbon Neutral
We’re proud to be one of only a tiny handful of certified carbon neutral eco-friendly holiday cottage companies in the UK. In fact, at the time of writing, we could only find one other!
We plant 30 trees each month in sustainable projects in Britain and around the world, removing around 60 tonnes of CO2e. Over the course of a year that’s equivalent to 1.5 acres of Amazon reforestation.
This offsets 50,000km of air travel and 50,000km of driving, covering we hope the bulk of our guests’ travel to Cornwall.
In addition, you’ll have the option when booking your holiday to contribute to planting a metre of native hedging on the farm, to further offset your travel around the Duchy.
Our ongoing programme of tree and hedge planting includes a copse and a willow plantation, which we hope will contribute to heating the farmhouse and cottages in future years. There’s a burgeoning orchard and hundreds of yards of native hedging, which has the added bonus of providing food, shelter and a safe corridor for wildlife.
We’re working towards minimising our digital footprint too. We’ve recently become aware of the horrific amount of energy consumed by the world’s servers and have therefore moved our website hosting to a company that uses 100% clean renewable energy.
We also manage 7 acres of grassland, storing an estimated 7-8 tonnes of carbon in the soil beneath your feet.
We don’t currently have EV charging facilities (it’s tricky with the whole site being Grade II Listed) but we do provide a list of conveniently located EV charging points in the area so it’s still perfectly feasible to bring your electric vehicle with you on holiday.
Eco-Friendly Holiday Cottages
Built using granite and slate from Delabole Slate Quarry just 4 miles away, the farmhouse and barns at Tredarrup have been standing for 300-400 years – the ultimate in sustainability! The thick stone walls keep the holiday cottages toasty in the winter and cool in the summer.
In your cottage you’ll find Cornish kiln-dried firewood and natural firelighters, so you can stay warm and cosy whilst being carbon neutral and non-polluting. Hundreds of willow trees are planted in the paddock each year to be used as bio-fuel in the future. The charcoal for your barbecue is locally grown too, avoiding deforestation of rainforests and shipping from across the world.
The electricity in your holiday cottage is from Octopus Energy and is 100% renewable. All lights are fitted with low-energy LED bulbs. Exterior lights are motion activated, saving energy and reducing light pollution which has a negative impact on local wildlife. Solid hardwood double-glazed windows, black-out blinds and thermally-lined curtains all help to reduce energy consumption and keep you warm. The eco-friendly holiday cottages are beautifully furnished using a mixture of antique, upcycled and modern FSC approved furniture. Bedlinen is pure cotton and blankets, throws and cushions are made from natural materials. All appliances such as fridge-freezers, cookers, dishwashers and washing machines are chosen for their energy-efficiency.
Eliminating single-use plastic
In your bathroom you’ll find gorgeous luxury toiletries from West-Country based Bramley. All natural, they’re free from SLS and parabens and are in refillable bottles. Loo roll and kitchen roll are from Who Gives A Crap. Made from recycled materials, they’re delivered in plastic-free packaging and a whopping 50% of their profits are donated to build toilets and provide clean drinking water in third world countries.
Washing-up liquid, soaps, laundry liquid, fabric softener and cleaning products are all eco-friendly and refillable. Washable cotton dishcloths and scourers are provided in place of throwaway sponges and cloths that are usually made from plastics. You’ll also find jute shopping bags in your holiday cottage to use during your stay, so no need for plastic carrier bags.
There are bamboo dinner sets for children and lunch boxes, flasks and cool bags for picnics, rather than buying coffee and sandwiches in disposable packaging.
Water comes from our own private supply and is pure, fresh and chemical free. It’s great-tasting too so no need for bottled water, just fill up our reusable bottles and flasks instead. And if you need a top-up whilst you’re out and about look out for the brilliant Refill scheme. Available in many cafes, restaurants and pubs around the county, you can refill your water bottles for free.
Reducing and Reusing
Our eco-friendly holiday cottages are exceptionally well-equipped, so you can pack light for your trip. You can find a full list of what’s provided here. There’s plenty of baby and children’s equipment available and a range of toys and games for both outside and in.
There’s beach equipment too, including buckets and spades, bodyboards and traditional Cornish wooden bellyboards for both adults and children. This reduces the need for throwaway items that often end up polluting our oceans or clogging up landfill.
In 2022 we used 329 kg of gas, 2000 litres of oil and 16200 kwh of electricity (thankfully 100% renewable). We also produced 18240 litres of waste, including 1440 litres of glass. With your help we aim to reduce both our use of energy and the waste produced by the business during 2023 and will publish an update as to whether we achieved this in January ’24.
Supporting the local economy
It often comes as a surprise to visitors to learn that Cornwall is one of the poorest regions in Northern Europe. The main employment sectors here are agriculture, fishing and tourism – all exceptionally low-paid and seasonal. Cornwall’s popularity as a tourist destination meanwhile means long-term housing is scarce and generally priced well out of the reach of locals. As Tredarrup Farm is a historic farmstead, the cottages are only permitted by the local authority to be used as holiday accommodation. So you can rest assured that your holiday is not taking accommodation away from the local population.
As a tourism business, we’re absolutely committed to supporting the local economy. We want to bring the benefits of tourism to as many people living in Cornwall as we possibly can. We’re passionate about shopping locally with small businesses, both personally and when purchasing for the cottages. Whether it’s furniture, firewood or coffee, we buy local. We also use only local tradesmen from the surrounding villages for our routine maintenance and repairs.
We encourage our guests to take advantage of food and meal delivery services to support local businesses and reduce food miles. As a bonus this means you don’t have to waste precious holiday time traipsing around a soulless supermarket. And you’ll find your welcome basket contains all locally sourced and freshly baked Cornish produce – you can find a list of our suppliers here.
As a business, we’re also proud to support both the Cornwall Wildlife Trust and our local RNLI at Port Isaac.
Sustainable Farming
The farm and its eco-friendly holiday cottages are bordered by around half a mile of traditional Cornish hedges. Hundreds of years old, they’re built from local stone and support a huge array of wildlife and plants. For the last few years we’ve been experimenting with not cutting the hedges that border the field to provide a safe, dense habitat for wildlife.
The small woodland area in the garden of Stable Cottage is left in its natural state to support wildlife. You’ll find a number of bird nesting boxes and wildlife hotels installed around the grounds. We have an ongoing tree planting programme, including a young orchard, and a willow plantation which will provide bio-fuel in the coming years.
We don’t routinely use pesticides or herbicides, only when essential for animal welfare purposes, and we farm and garden according to organic principles.
One of Graham’s hobbies is beekeeping and we currently have three hives at the bottom of the farm. Bees are a vital part of our eco-system – one out of every three mouthfuls of food are dependent on pollinators such as bees. Plus their honey is delicious!
The livestock do an excellent job of maintaining the grassland and clearing weeds, fertilising and mowing as they go, and reducing our reliance on engine power. For all other jobs we have a vintage Massey Ferguson tractor, dating from 1970, that’s been rescued and restored.
The chickens, ducks and geese provide us and our guests with delicious eggs with zero-food miles. We also grow our own wildlife-friendly flowers, fruit and veg for the cottages too.
How You Can Help
We know our guests appreciate this beautiful area as much as we do, after all that’s why you visit! We’re grateful for your help in reducing the environmental impact during your stay. And if you have any ideas whilst you’re here of how we could improve further then do please let us know – you can either grab one of us whilst you’re here or fill in the feedback form in your cottage.
Helping Us Help The Environment
- You can help us reduce our use of fossil fuels by switching off lights and towel rails and turning down the heating when you go out and go to bed. It doesn’t take long to heat up again when you need it. And if you’re a little chilly, before reaching for the thermostat how about putting on a jumper and some socks? Our mums were right you know 😉 Burning wood is carbon-neutral and, as our wood is locally sourced and very dry it’s non-polluting too, so feel free to light the woodburner to keep you warm. Switching off outside lights when you go indoors in the evening saves energy but, just as importantly, it allows the local wildlife to get its beauty sleep too.
- Please use the eco setting on appliances. There are clothes airers for drying your washing indoors and an outside clothes line for when it’s fine, all of which will reduce the need for the tumble dryer. When you do need to use the dryer we encourage a donation of £1 per use to our local RNLI at Port Isaac via the donation box in the utility room.
- Please help us conserve water by running a full load through the dishwasher and washing machines. Dishwashers use less water too than washing by hand, so give yourself a break and let the machine do it. Taking a shower rather than a bath saves water, as does not running the tap whilst you’re brushing your teeth.
- Please do shop local! When you book an eco-friendly holiday at Tredarrup, you’ll receive a link to our digital guidebook. This contains details of local small businesses such as farm shops, delis and wine merchants. They all sell sustainable local produce with barely any food miles and many will deliver to your cottage. You can also find a list here. Spending your holiday money at a local business rather than in Tesco really does make a huge difference to people’s lives!
- Let the train take the strain. Our local railway station links to some great places to visit in Cornwall, so give the sat nav a holiday. You’ll find some ideas for days out using the train here.
- And whilst you’re here why not take part in a 2 minute beach clean? All equipment is provided at many of our local beaches and every piece of plastic you collect from the beach won’t then go on to harm sealife.
- Practice the three Rs – reduce, re-use and recycle, in that order! Use our water bottles and lunch boxes, shopping bags and cool bags to reduce the need for any throwaway plastic. Much of your food waste can be separated and composted here on the farm and you’ll find details of our recycling facilities in your holiday cottage. Cornwall has a zero-waste-to-landfill policy so anything that’s not recyclable will be incinerated to produce energy.
- And last but not least, when you’re out exploring Cornwall remember to leave only footprints.
