Accolade
from the Good Hotel guide 2007:
We are thrilled to report that Auchendean has
been recognised by this prestigious guide as
"One of the 10 greenest establishments
in the UK" See their independent report
>>>>
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| Washing
Powder, Fabric Softeners and Bleach |
| All
of our laundry, as well our own clothes, are washed
in non-biological bleach free powder. We positively
dislike the smells of fabric softeners, and are lucky
to have very soft water - so do not use them. Bleach
& caustic cleaners have not made much of an appearance
at Auchendean as we are on a septic tank. |
| Clothes
dried on line |
We
never use a tumble drier, favouring the good old-fashioned
clothes line at the top of the garden. Even in rainy
spells we have few problems getting clothes dry,
and
our linen takes on a wonderful fresh air smell as a
result. We get fit running up and
down to the washing lines when there are showers. Airing
is done on a pull-up ceiling mounted airer which
takes
advantage of the heat generated by the Aga.
We fold as much as possible and "iron" on
the Aga as this saves ironing and the consequent use
of electricity. |
| Our
Food Cycle: from guests to us to dog to cats to chickens
to compost heap to vege garden to guests to us ... etc..
|
We
do not buy in any pre-packaged foods so consequently
generate very little waste in the way of packing materials.
Vegetables are prepared for the table from basic raw
ingredients and all parings are kept and put on the
compost heap, with the exception of potato peelings
which can spread viral diseases to future crops, so
these are bolied and added to the chicken food.
We have a sieve in a sink to catch all organic material
including tea leaves which go to the compost. Coffee
grinds are kept for use in the vege garden where they
are joined by stale left-over beer to help keep down
the slug population.
Cooked food not needed in the dining table is plated
for our own dinner so that it is not wasted, and scraps
back from the table are added to the food for the dog,
cats or chickens as appropriate.
The compost heap contents are matured for 2 years when
they are then spread onto the vegetable garden to help
grow the potatoes, peas and salads for the table. |
| Organic
Gardening. No Insecticides or Pesticides |
| We
use traditional pest control methods and are therefore
adopting full organic gardening principles. |
| Re-cycle
glass, tins, aluminium, paper, cardboard etc |
| This
is an obvious way to save spoiling the environment.
We re-cycle everything we possibly can and save it
all up together to take to the recycling centre
when we
are going into town for other reasons. We would love
to re-cycle plastics (milk bottles) as in New Zealand
but it is not collected here in the Highlands. Naturally
we buy in bulk to save packing where possible, and
use
old sheets as cleaning cloths and dusters. We favour
"bags for life" so use as few plastic carry
bags as possible but re-use them for wrapping frozen
food or for rubbish bin liners. |
| Secondary
Glazing |
|
We have installed secondary glazing to all rooms which
not only dramatically stops heat loss, but also cuts
down noise from the passing traffic. Newer rooms have
wide-gap double glazing. |
|
Low wattage Light Bulbs & Solar battery re-charging
|
| Much
publicised, we have always used low wattage, long-life
flourescent bulbs where-ever
possible, even from when they were new to the market
and very expensive. We use solar panels to re-charge
batteries used in the hotel. |
| Frost-stat
for security in winter frosts and save wasting heating
oil |
| We
have two frost-stats installed primarily to make sure
that the heating comes on when the temperature falls,
but this also cuts heating oil consumption dramatically.
|
| Double
lined curtains & extra roof insulation |
| Old-fashioned
by nature, our curtains have always been fully double
lined where necessary, and one bedroom had blankets
sewn into the space between the curtain and lining material
to insulate the room prior to the secondary glazing
being installed. |
| Wood
from local sources for heating |
| We
buy in local birch and pine to burn on our fires, which
saves oil, coal or nuclear energy production. Wood produces
three heatings. 1 for sawing, carrying and stacking;
2 for the chopping and stacking to dry; 3 the burning. |
| Local
goods to save transport |
| We
buy all meat & veg from within Strathspey that we
can, and we are well known for producing as much food
from our own gardens as we can. This is for reasons
of quality; flavour and variety, but it also saves the
transport costs which would otherwise be needed to get
supplies to us, and it also saves the bottling / packing
processes. We use a great deal of wild food which we
gather locally -nettles, berries, herbs and fungi. In
addition we grow a large selection of soft fruit - raspberries,
strawberries, apples & plums - from our own garden.
We make our own jams and marmalades and have our own
chickens to produce our own eggs, and our own bee hives
for delicious heather honey. We cycle to the local villages
to pick up papers or shopping as often as possible! |
| We
do not follow the fashion to stock Bottled Water |
This
is very wasteful of energy, especially
when our own water supply from the tap is SO good!
We do stock fizzy bottled water. |
| Re-use
of paper and re-filling printer cartridges |
We
keep all junk mail to use the back of A4 paper for notes
or printing off our own copies.
We re-use envelopes and re-fill printer ink cartridges... |
