Green Charter
We want to develop The Larches as an environmentally friendly place where visitors and guests can relax and play their part in supporting a sustainable green future. The photo below – taken from Barrow summit – shows the narrow Newlands Valley and beck at Stair, just three miles from the cottage.
With a field pattern little changed over the centuries, it is a quintessential part of the local landscape. In the middle of the picture and below Catbells is Lower Skelgill Farm, which has been in continuous occupation by the same family for over 650 years.We cannot match that! However we pledge to visitors to The Larches that we will:
• Provide information about the locality
• Give details of transport and buses
• Promote the use of public transport
• Provide walking and cycling options
• Create habitat suitable for wildlife
• Plant native trees where possible
• Encourage suitable feeding of the squirrels
• Keep a Nature Diary for wildlife sightings
• Buy locally sourced material
• Support local shops and enterprises
• Provide The Keswick Reminder weekly
• Pursue ways of reducing energy use
• Use low energy light bulbs where possible
• Have efficient heating & insulation
• Provide a green haybox for slow cooking of stews
• Compost suitable vegetable material
• Supply biodegradable bags for dog waste
• Recycle materials via the Allerdale LA scheme
• Repurpose items wherever possible
• Avoid wasteful use of water
• Buy Fair Trade tea for guests’ arrival
• Invite feedback on our green practices
• Monitor our use of resources
• Contribute to local & other charitable projects
• Seek continuously to improve performance
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We ask guests to support us in these initiatives through their own actions.
We would appreciate comments on our green practice and on what we have been doing and planning here with the house, garden and Belvedere. You can leave a note in the Letters pouch inside the Nature Diary folder at The Larches or comment on this website.