Our primary aim at Waterwynch Mill is to become as sustainable as possible, in all senses of the word, environmentally, socially and economically.

Environmentally we are driven by three primary aspects:

• To reduce our use of natural resources,
• To reduce our carbon footprint, and
• To enhance the natural environment that surrounds us.

Reducing use of natural resources

Our water supply is pumped from a deep borehole and is then balanced, softened, filtered and cleaned. It is tested regularly by the Local Authority and is suitable for consumption, in fact the lack of chemicals (which helps) makes it very pleasant to drink. We encourage everyone staying at Waterwynch Mill to think about water usage and to treat it as a highly valuable resource. We carry out regular maintenance to ensure that we minimise water loss. We will increase the number of water butts and storage to collect more rainwater for use in the gardens and for cleaning vehicles, etc. When we change the water in our hot tubs we use it to clean external areas and within the garden, rather than simply throwing it away. Any unused discharge goes to a soak-away that surrounds the ground source heat pump pipework so that residual heat can be reused.

We encourage waste reduction, reuse and recycling. During the building works for West Cottage we did not use any waste skips as everything was reused or recycled. We are avid recyclers and encourage our guests to recycle by providing facilities and guidance for all waste streams.

Wherever possible we purchase re-fillable products in order to reduce packaging.

Reducing our carbon footprint

We have invested in a combination of air source and ground source heat pumps in order to significantly reduce our dependence on heating oil. This trend will continue into the future.

We purchase only green electricity. Moreover we have planning permission to install a large array of solar panels, which we will combine with battery storage. Our swimming pool already benefits from solar heat collectors.

We will be installing electric vehicle charging points to encourage their usage and to avoid our guests having to travel to find charging points.

We will encourage more active pursuits, particularly walking. We encourage our guests to use the public footpaths that pass Waterwynch, providing access to the coast and the Wales Coastal Path. We are happy to provide drop off and pick up services to aid walkers.

Wherever possible we purchase local products, thereby reducing delivery impacts. We also endeavour to purchase from environmentally aware producers.

Enhancing our natural environment

All sewage is treated in our own private treatment plant where air blowers aid the natural biological processes to produce harmless discharges.

We purchase environmentally friendly products, especially to safeguard our sewage treatment plant. We provide guests with all necessary cleaning products to avoid mistakes.

We continue to work on the reduction and removal of local invasive plant species and to encourage a wider array of flora and fauna. We cherish a wide range of wildlife and are custodians of rabbits, foxes, lizards, snakes, buzzards, kites, numerous garden birds and several species of bats, to name but a few.

We have plans to re-nature our field, including planting trees and hedgerows as well as encouraging wild flowers. We will be adding a vegetable garden and enhancing our orchard in due course.

We have introduced honey bees to Waterwynch.

We recognise that we do not hold all the answers and there is always more that can be done. As such we welcome feedback, ideas and encouragement on our sustainability journey.

This policy was last updated in January 2023.