Neither of us had any experience with the hospitality industry when we first moved into the Borderers, we didn’t have a clear vision of our target market, management style or the direction we wanted to take our fledgling business in. 

 

The only thing we were clear about was, that we wanted to reduce the impact that our business and livelihood has on the environment.

 

The first thing we did, was reduce our recyclable waste by 66%. Simply by buying all our food items from local suppliers and insisting on having it all packaging free as far as possible. We do not use single serve butter, jams or sauces in the dining room and are moving away from individually wrapped teas and coffees in the bedrooms. All our rooms will eventually have a selection of loose-leaf teas and self-fill corn fibre tea bags which can be composted. We use compostable bin bags in the bins, once they are emptied after use in the guestrooms, they are filled with any food waste we produce that can be composted and taken away by a friend who owns a farm and vermiculture system and are safely composted. Waste teas and coffees are used to feed our hanging baskets, which the plants seem to love.

 

Our non-recyclable waste has been reduced by 75% because we take the time to sort bins in guest rooms, take apart multi component packaging for recycling, and collect soft plastics and cartons to take to the recycling center.

 

We planted a wildflower nook and baskets with plants like nasturtiums to attract pollinators, and set up water butts to collect water for the garden.

 

Among our future projects are aeration and smart watering systems to conserve water, motion sensor lights in common areas, solar panels, energy efficient infra-red heating systems and electric charging points in our car park to encourage electric travel among others. Watch this space!

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September 2019