Our Commitment to Sustainable Development

We are lucky to live and work in a very old building (1765) in beautiful countryside. We want to share that with our guests, now – and to leave it in a good state of affairs for generations to come. As the Navahoe Indians said, "We do not own the earth, we hold it in trust for our children."

Further than that, we recognise that running any business has environmental, social and economic impacts, and we want, as much as possible, to reduce our negative impacts and increase our beneficial ones.

A few of the steps we’ve taken since May 2005 are:

We have an Environmental Policy, Animal Welfare Policy, and Health Safety and Community Policy, which we share with all new staff when they join us, and publish for guests.
We have joined the Green Tourism Business Scheme, which audits our environmental performance and provides advice on how we can improve further. (In 2005 we were given their Gold Award).
We use sensor lights, low energy lights, and thermostats as much as possible, to cut down energy loss;
We have installed a 500 litre water butt, which is emptied in to the pond in the winter, and is used to water plants in the summer.
We have changed our kitchen washing up machine to a more efficient and environmentally friendly one.
We have analysed our cleaning products and changed suppliers to one that can cater appropriately for a treatment plant.
We purchase Fair Trade tea, coffee, hot chocolate etc for the bedrooms, and the water tumblers in the rooms are made from recycled glass.
We recycle all glass and cardboard in bar, kitchen and bedrooms.
We have half/full flush systems on our toilets and waterless urinals in the Gents, and a sewage system that irrigates the garden and plants.
We purchase local food as much as possible and/or food from local suppliers: our fish is from Brackesham Bay, and crabs (which are hand picked as opposed to the much-inferior commercial blowing which produces bacteria) are from Selsey. We have changed our lamb and pork supply to a newly licensed 100% organic local company 'Rother Valley Organics'.
We think of innovative ways to donate money to the Leukaemia Foundation, eg, we made our 2004 Christmas Cards and donated the money not used on printing.
We have redesigned our website to ensure that it complies with the AA standard of the Disability Discrimination Act for receiving data through the Internet.
We have a secure bike storage area, and encourage local hiring of bicycles.
We have a 'completely non smoking' policy, introduced in October 2004.
We are restoring our pond in front of the pub (which is now populated by ducks) and have planted a wild meadow adjacent to it.

A few of the things we are planning are:

We are researching the range of organic vegetables from Durleigh Marsh Organics with the intention of buying from there.
We have researched the possibility of installing a carbon free wood chip heating system, for heating the kitchen, restaurant, bar and B&B rooms; and are considering it if we build more bedrooms.
We want to encourage more cycling and walking of The South Downs and have set up a South Downs Walking Network, with 'Visit Sussex', encouraging people to walk from one accommodation venue to the next.

LAST UPDATED JUNE 2007

Sustainable Development means "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs".

Click here for easy things we can all do

Please note: The bar and restaurant are closed Sunday evening and all day Monday. Accommodation is open seven days a week.