Climate change, going green, sustainability - we hear these words more and more often. It’s a fact that the world’s climate is changing and that change is influenced by human activity. We can all do our bit to help the environment, even small things can make a difference. They help the environment - and they will save you money too. Our whole objective for the farm is to help wildlife and the environment. We hope to continue this move with out holiday cottages and visitors' centre. We are doing some big stuff, like putting in a second windmill, joining Green Tourism, farming organically, but visitors can help, both while staying with us and by changing behaviour when back at home.

Just take a look at some of the ideas below and help us to help the world - every little helps.

Turn the tap off when you brush your teeth
If you brush for three minutes twice a day with the tap running, you are wasting 10,950 litres of water a year. Just think how much water and (if you’ve got a water meter) money you could save if you turn the tap off.

Re-use your plastic bags for your shopping
If you throw away four fewer plastic bags every week, you’ll save 4,160 bags from ending up in landfill over 20 years. Better still, use a ‘bag for life’, canvas bag or jute bag In the cottages: we supply bags for you to use while on holiday.

Shop locally while you are here (and back home)
You can save a huge amount of fuel and money if you shop at the local stores. Try California Cross, South Brent, Totnes and Ivybridge - instead of going those extra miles to Tesco and Waitrose (unless you were passing anyway).

Visit local attraction while you are here
The South Hams has super attractions for children, adults, walking and cycling people, etc. Going to them saves fuel, and helps the local economy. It also means you are not snarled up in traffic for long times. Also plan your trips so you do a sensible route for attractions and food shopping all in one round trip.

Boil only the water you need when making a cuppa
If you boil a full kettle three times a day you raise carbon dioxide emissions by 52kg per year. If you only boil the water you need each time you save energy, save money and reduce your carbon emissions by more then 7kg a year.

Switch off your television rather than leave it on stand-by
Stop using that wasteful stand-by mode and you will reduce your carbon emissions by 30kg a year – an amount it takes 10 trees to absorb. Appliances left on stand-by can cost each household between £25 and £50 each year. This also applies to telephone, electric tooth brush, DVD and other charges or standby systems.

Turn your bio-degradable waste into compost for your garden
Each person dumps around 194kg of organic waste a year. That’s the equivalent of 12,900 apple cores. If 30 people put this on a compost heap, 5,820kg of waste would be diverted from landfill each year – that’s the equivalent of 387,000 apple cores.

Use energy saving light bulbs and turn them off when you are not in the room
Over one year it takes thirteen trees to absorb the 40kg of carbon dioxide generated by each ordinary light-bulb. Switch to energy saving light bulbs and you’ll use 70% less electricity - saving you money. Changing just one standard 100w light bulb to a 20w energy efficient equivalent can save you £7 per year, and £60 over the bulb’s lifetime.

For more information on what you can do to help and calculate your carbon foot print, visit the Directgov website. To see what we are doing about the Green Tourism Business Scheme click here

Some useful links for Electric Lights of different types (cheapest I could find at the time)

lamps2udirect
Maplin
gbbulbs
commercial-lamps
greenshop
lamps2udirect