| On
the green track |
| Sustainable
tourism is not just for exotic destinations, Paul J.
Davies discovers |
In
the carefully tended garden of Little Marshfoot Farmhouse
on the outskirts of Hailsham, East Sussex, Pat Flowers and
Kathryn Webster have built a sleek wooden lodge using "green"
principles. They set out to create a stylish and comfortable
home-from-home that would also be an experiment in minimising
the environmental effect of building, but they have since
joined a network aiming to promote sustainable tourism.
For some time now there has been a push worldwide to protect
the environment, local economies and cultures of tourist destinations
where Westerners flock to sites previously unspoiled, or to
stay in self-enclosed resorts benefiting few but the owners
and tour operators.
But
more recently there has been a growing awareness of the need
for ecotourism closer to home. And since foot-and-mouth disease
wrecked English tourism, ensuring tourist cash more directly
benefits local people and businesses has gained prominence.
Natural Discovery is building a network of accommodation owners
who want to promote greener living as well as local business
and community interests. James Little, one of the founders,
says part of the point of the network is to help with marketing
and sales, environmental consultancy and to provide buying
power for such things as green-tarriff electricity. But they
also want to create a forum for ideas and mutual support and
to help develop year-round income with more marketing for
short breaks.
The
company invests to offset carbon emissions associated with
the business - getting involved with projects that maintain
and enhance the environment - and is working on encouraging
emissions |
reduction in other ways, such as a deal with ScotRail, which
would encourage guests to travel by train.
The
point is not to appeal solely to people who are ecologically
aware, however. Natural Discovery stresses giving guests an
opportunity to discover what it is like to live with eco-friendly
technologies and products - even before they arrive. |
The point of the
network is not to appeal solely to people who are ecologically
aware
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Guests are sent
a booklet tailored to each site when they book. On top of
details about the building we were staying in, there was
useful stuff about local attractions, organic markets, local
history and even local recipes such as the syrupy Sussex
pond pudding.
The company wants
to provide easy steps to greener living and encourage guests
to take home a little knowledge from their experience -
and maybe some products too. The booklet include s figures
on emissions - for example, using just three low-energy
lightbulbs at home can save in a year CO emissions that
would fill a balloon about 4.5m in diameter; and travelling
by train in the UK compared with flying to central Europe
would save enough to fill a bal loon 9m across. I've already
begun updating my lighting.
Webster and Flowers
say they joined the network, which at present involves people
mainly in Sussex, Wales and Scotland, because they were
impressed with its aims and expertise. Their lodge had been
given four stars by the English Tourism Council and won
another award.
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| A
home from home with green credentials |
Their
lodge is an attractive and modern Scandinavian-style building
made of timber sourced from a certified sustainable forest
and insulated with recycled newspapers and telephone directories.
Its south-east facing facade is taken up almost entirely by
sliding French doors, double glazed and treated to both insulate
and exploit "passive" solar-powered heating even
in winter, which can save up to 70 per cent of typical heating
costs. It also has wonderful views over the garden and the
Pevensey Levels.
Although
their architect's life-cycle analysis, which assessed the
effects of construction, use and eventual demolition, led
to greater initial expense, the lifetime costs for both the
owners and the environment should be much reduced.
The
Levels, a site of special scientific interest, fit well with
the network's ethos. Fertile wetland meadows stretch south-eastwards
to the sea at Pevensey Bay and are bordered by the chalk hills
of the South Downs, beyond which are the dramatic white cliffs
of the Seven Sisters culminating in Beachy Head.
Some
cattle and sheep farming remains, but little land is now given
over to arable crops. Local landowners are paid by English
Nature, the government agency, to help protect wildlife and
diversity with sensitive building of gates, drains and fences
and no use of fertilisers or other chemicals. Many local farmers
have diversified into tourism, organic foods and even winemaking
- the English Wine Centre in nearby Alfriston is certainly
worth a visit.
The
area is suffused with the watery history of smugglers with
some local pubs and houses concealing a complex arrangements
of rooms, cellars
and passageways that frustrated early customs officers. We
spent more than a
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few relaxing
hours exploring footpaths and bridleways - though I was
forced into an amusing crash course in herding a bunch of
curious bullocks, which at one point strayed on to our path
with us hemmed in by reed-filled dykes on either side.
Over
the weekend we were encouraged to recycle everything, from
glass and food waste to tin and plastic. Anyone who has seen
a land-fill site can understand they are as repulsive, as
would be a repository of all that is selfish, shallow and
cheap in ourselves. I've long meant to make more effort on
this front and may now have been given the final push. But,
as I was reminded by the booklet, recycling is useless without
buying recycled goods.
Being
green it seems isn't always a question of absolutes - making
small and simple changes can make a difference. The message
from people such as Flowers, Webster and Little is that if
enough people head down the right path, who knows where we
may end up?
Natural
Discovery Tel: 0845 458 2799, or visit: www.naturaldiscovery.co.uk
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