Poston Mill Green Policy

Environment & Sustainability

At Poston Mill we feel it is important that everyone understands and buys into our commitment to the environment, and understands why it is a business need.

Below are a list of elements we feel are important in ensuring this is achieved.

  1. Embodying elements of planning and park development which are environmentally sensitive
  2. Encourage all team and customers to participate in all aspects of environment protection
  3. Train at all levels
  4. Adopt best practice in waste management and recycling
  5. Ensure our holidays are accessible to all, especially sensitive to people with specific needs
  6. Use local materials and styles of building
  7. Planting indigenous species
  8. Encourage staff and customers to use public transport or cycles
  9. Have a good relationship with the local community and work in harmony with them
  10. Minimise any negative environmental effects our business causes
  11. Minimise waste and pollution
  12. Review, revise and ensure all of the team are fully aware of the environmental elements in our business
  13. Encourage all customers to buy local and use local facilities
  14. Ensure all customers have a copy of the countryside code and respect the countryside

The Environment:

  • We house the local recycling area here
  • We are a member of the David Bellamy award (Gold Winner)
  • All our Holiday Homes are green to blend in
  • We encourage customers to use bikes or local transport
  • Plant native trees and wild flowers
  • Have seasonal pitches to save on pollution and reduce towing caravans

Local Community

  • Local schools camp here for their Duke of Edinburgh
  • Sarah is a Governor at the local school, trustee of the pre school and a trustee for the community centre
  • We house the community resource centre and games room
  • We Sponsor the local show each year

Local economy

  • We give all our customers a list of local markets and what’s on to encourage them to buy local
  • We have an eating out guide in reception so that people can look at local restaurants menus etc and stay local
  • We have the farm shop and local shop opening times in reception
  • We have an information room that is open 24 hours a day full of leaflets and information

We communicate with our customers via our newsletter, web news etc and they are very involved in the Bellamy scheme.  They all recycle!

Energy Management

We install A rated machines in the facility blocks, this ensures that the customer gets the maximum value from the machine without having maximum impact on the environment.  We make sure that all of the doors on these machines fit tight, again ensuring that the machine is working correctly.

We have a policy that no cars are cleaned on the park to reduce the use of water, we have dual flushes and some push taps in the facility blocks.  The urinals only flush when they are being used, we check for dripping taps daily on the park checks.

We conduct a park check twice a day to deal with things pro-actively rather than re-actively.  This means that if there is a problem whereby a tap is dripping or a sensor on a light is not working, the maintenance team can mend it straight away, before the problem escalates and before more of the energy resource is wasted.

All of our lighting is either low level sensor lighting or occupancy lighting.  We now install only low energy bulbs, we re-new all old bulbs after they have stopped working with low energy.

We use LPG to heat the toilet blocks instead of oil as it does not pose a spillage risk and we use a high efficiency gas boiler, we have a system that produces instant hot water rather than a storage tank.

Customers enjoy being part of an environmentally friendly park, and buy into the concept well.

Waste Reduction

As much as we can we try to buy in bulk with other members of our family who run similar businesses.  This cuts down on packaging and deliveries.  We are lucky to have a large enough storage area to store bulk purchases.  We built the store room last year when we re-furbished the facility blocks, it is behind the blocks so the team don’t have to carry the items far. This also ensures that we can negotiate better and keep the costs down for all of our businesses.

In reception we use old envelopes for our note paper, this again utilises our waste.  We use soap dispensers in all of the facility blocks and communal areas, so we are not forever throwing half used bars of soap away.  We check these dispensers twice a day as part of our park check to see that they are not leaking and that they are kept topped up and clean.

We read our water meter ever week to check for any high usage which could be a leak.  We have all of the windows in the main areas double glazed and try to encourage our holiday home owners to take the double glazed option out when they buy a holiday home, thus reducing waste energy.

We have composting bins in the hire properties, and collect garden waste to compost from peoples pitch.

Customer feedback is excellent.  They admit now that recycling is second nature.

The Natural Environment

We encourage customers to use bikes or local transport.  We keep a file in reception with all of the local walks for people to enjoy around the area, and also have the up to date bus timetable.  The bus stops right outside the park so there is no need to drive anywhere.  We choose to have all of our Holiday Homes green in colour so that they blend in with the environment.  We have a link with Drover holidays who will deliver bikes for customers to the park, and will even offer guided rides.

We have a planting scheme, and plant more native trees and wild flowers each year.  We offer seasonal pitches for the tourers, and storage so that people do not have to tow their caravans all of the time.  We encourage customers to use breathable groundsheets and also to use eco chemicals during their stay (which are stocked in reception).  This ensures our environmentally friendly sewer bugs are not killed.

We have fenced off the old river bed to encourage natural habitat and also have a wood pile especially for mini beasts and small wildlife.

The farm shop sell bird feeders and bird food, all sourced from a local company called Wiggly Wigglers.

The team use an electric golf buggy or bike to go around the park, and use walky talkies to communicate instead of mobile phones.

Purchasing Policies

We buy in bulk with the other parks in the family, this cuts down on packaging costs and pollution.

All of the toilet paper we use is bio degradable and recycled.  We also only use eco chemicals for all of the chemical disposal points.  As we have a WPL sewage system which is reliant on bugs to survive we have to be very careful what goes into the system.  The wrong chemical kills the bugs and the wrong paper blocks the system.

We are now looking at new fibered cloths which reduce the amount of cleaner you need to use.