Who sets up a Climate Action Plan before they even set up their business?
We do.
Why? Because it’s just the right thing to do.
The environment is something that we take personally, and since the early days of concept development, we’ve been determined to create a genuinely environmentally sustainable business.
Here are 11 ways we’re doing our bit for the planet.
1. One Stay = 1 Tree Planted 🌱
Through partnering with Ecologi, we fund the planting of a tree for every single booking at Jack’s Alt-Stays!
These trees are planted in low-cost, high-impact areas around the world, because it’s “Save the Planet“, right?
So, unfortunately (or fortunately) you won’t see Adam and I running around with spades covering the whole island in trees, but as well as the tree planting through Ecologi, we’ve planted hundreds of trees, plants, shrubs and bulbs around our site in Millport.
Ecologi also runs environmental projects closer to home, such as this temperate reforestation project in Dalry, North Ayrshire.
2. Proudly Powered by 100% Renewable Electricity ⚡️
Our Cabins are powered by 100% solar, hydro, and wind-generated electricity.
Primarily, we’re powered by solar energy, self-generated by 40x solar PV panels mounted on top of our cabins, with 2x Tesla Powerwall batteries which store energy during high gain, low use periods, for use in lower gain, higher use periods.
Through the late spring, summer, and early Autumn months, our five cabins are 95% self-sufficient for electricity! ☀️ And, 51% self-sufficient year-round. It feels amazing to be able to self-generate most of our electricity, and know our guests can kick back and relax with environmental peace of mind 🌎
Through this infrastructure, we’re hoping to achieve annual carbon savings of 2.7 tonnes of CO2e!
[Thanks to the Ayrshire Rural Islands Ambition (ARIA) Fund and the Scottish Government for making our solar panels possible]
If the sun doesn’t shine (the sun always shines in Millport btw 😉), we’ll be supplied by Octopus Business Energy – a 100% Green energy provider.
We don’t do fossil fuels.
3. Ambitious Eco Goals 🎯
For a wee tourism business on a wee Scottish island, we have set ourselves some pretty big eco-goals.
By the end of 2024, we aim to:
🌲 Plant 3,500 trees.
💨 Avoid 45T CO2e from being emitted
We’re also working with the Cumbrae Carbon Neutral Islands Project to go through a carbon audit and verify our carbon status.
Fancy a unique stay with environmental peace of mind?…
Check out our one-of-a-kind Hot Tub Cabin Concept in Millport, Isle of Cumbrae.
Welcome to the next generation of self-catering accommodation in Scotland.
We think of our one-of-a-kind Cabin Concept as a crossroads where quirky interior design meets eco-consciousness, in a stunning island setting.
👉 Discover The Cabins
4. Sustainably Built Cabins 🛠
We’ve been keen to get things right from the very start. Our cabins were designed and built locally in North Ayrshire – all within a 20-mile radius of our site in Millport
Fewer logistics = less CO2 emitted.
We’ve worked with Largs-based Architects to bring the Cabin concept to its final design stage, and with Stevenston-based builders, who have a real focus on sustainable building processes.
The timbers used for the cabin structure and cladding are sustainably sourced and PEFC and/or FSC-certified.
FSC, or the Forest Stewardship Council, certifies forests all over the world to ensure they meet the highest environmental and social standards. Products made with wood and paper from FSC forests are marked with their well-recognised tick tree’ logo, which means we can be confident that when using these materials to build our cabins, we won’t be harming the world’s forests.
FSC certification is well recognised in the UK and has a more strict focus on the farmed forest management and chain of custody side of things. Once a tree is harvested, three more are planted in its place.
For the insulation, we’ve opted for market-leading EcoTherm®, resulting in a highly efficient thermal performance.
We have also carefully selected the Cabins’ fittings, lighting, appliances, and contents of the cabins, based on efficient energy performance.
The chosen Herschel infra-red panel heaters are market-leading, use 30% less energy than standard electric heaters, are thermostat controlled, and can be controlled remotely. Low-energy internal and external LED lighting has been fitted. Again, all of these are powered by 100% green energy.
The flooring and bathroom wall panel manufacturer uses FSC Forest Friendly certified materials.
The double bed is from Get Laid Beds®, who also have a keen focus on sustainability. Their Scandinavian Pine is sustainably sourced from FSC & PEFC forests and they have planted over 100,000 trees in Africa, so far. Any excess waste is made into wood briquettes and donated to their local community to help reduce their heating bills.
This is topped with an eco-friendly mattress, Vegan down duvet and pillows, made with fibres from recycled plastic bottles, uniquely spun and blown in such a way that they simulate the hand feel and warmth of natural down.
These are just a few examples of our eco-conscious decisions made through the cabin design and build process. Check out our Cabin Build Journey Blog for more.
5. An Eco Commute 🚴♂️
Sometimes it’s the wee things that matter. We’ll be cycling into site whenever possible.
Saying that, it’s not like cycling to work is a chore for us. We live just across the water in Largs, love a good cycle, and the route to site is nothing short of stunningly scenic.
The only time we won’t be cycling is when the weather doesn’t permit (in that case we’ll grab the bus), and a few days week we need to bring supplies over in the car.
6. Compensating for our Unavoidable Carbon Footprint ⚖️
First, it’s about quantifying and tracking our CO2e contributions. Second, it’s about reductions and minimising them. Third, it’s about compensating for the rest.
Being located on an island, there will, unfortunately, be some small areas of our business where we are just not able to avoid a carbon footprint. The reality for us is that ferry travel will be simply unavoidable (unless someone invents teleportation sometime soon).
Although it’s only an 8-minute trip over and the impact is split between large numbers of passengers, let’s face it, the ferry is no eco angel. And as mentioned, we’ll need to take the car over occasionally.
As part of our partnership with Ecologi – and on top of our “book one, plant one” model – we also contribute a set amount each month to compensate for our unavoidable carbon footprint.
Here’s our impact so far:
 |
 |
 |
|
3 YEARS of Climate Impact |
44 TONNES
of CO2e Avoided |
3012 TREES In Our forest |
Lastly, our cabins come equipped with a Skargards hot tub. We chose to endorse wood-fired hot tubs as they’re natural, smell amazing and require no harmful chemicals to run. Electric tubs were ruled out due to their unviable heat-up time and use of chemicals like chlorine and bromine.
We’re not using wood, but briquettes made in Girvan; only 40 miles away as the crow flies. These briquettes are sustainably sourced from Forest Standard accredited forests in the UK, and are actually a by-product of the timber industry’s lop and top method, along with co-product from sawmills in the form of logs rejected due to their size or shape. Any tree that is cut down is replanted within 12 months. They are Clean Air Act compliant, Ultra Low emissions and 100% sustainable.
And we use zero harmful chemicals – just pure Scottish water and a couple oxygen tablets to keep it fresh!
7. Partner Eco Credentials 🤝
We also make sure that anyone we work with has their eco-credentials in place.
For example, the linen hire supplier has significantly invested in improving their environmental performance, and recycles all soft plastic wraps (via third party). Our guest consumables supplier offers sustainably sourced products in recycled and/or recyclable packaging.
Our guest toiletries are produced in North Ayrshire and supplied in bulk containers which are made from 100% ocean-prevented recycled plastic, and 100% recyclable after use. We then refill and reuse our smaller bottles for guest shampoo, shower gel, and hand soap, which are also recycled at their end of life, meaning minimised plastic produced, and zero plastic to landfill.
Our free guest milk and orange juice is supplied by the local dairy in returnable glass bottles. And, our local butcher’s breakfast packs are supplied in recyclable packaging.
Our cleaning materials supplier supplies their most environmentally friendly cleaning product range in fully recyclable packaging, most in bulk refill bottles.
Our recycled toilet roll and kitchen roll are B Corp certified, for their highest standards of social and environmental impact. It’s by far not the cheapest option, but it’s great quality, good for society, and good for the environment.
Our environmental scrutiny of our suppliers even comes down to our web hosting provider, who have their ISO 14001:2015 – Environmental Management Standard in place, which encourages businesses to help reduce environmental impacts, reduce waste, and to be more sustainable.
8. The Environment – It’s in our Values. 🌎
One of our core founding values is to ‘Respect Our Backyard’ – Leave nothing but footprints. Always respect your surrounding environment and leave it a little better than you found it.
By this, we mean both our immediate ‘backyard’, i.e. our site, surrounding area, and our neighbours, but also the wider island environments.
We return to our values every time we make a business decision – because what’s the point in even having them if you don’t?
Check out Jack’s Alt-Stays Founding Values.
9 Looking After our Environment at a Community Level 👨👩👧👦
Both Adam and I are passionate about the environment and see our environmental duty extend beyond our own site’s boundary.
We get involved with beach clean initiatives, such as the FSC’s recent Kames Bay clean, with a view to champion these in the near future.
View this post on Instagram
We also plan to lead the campaign for on-street recycling facilities in Millport later this year.
10. We’ve Declared a Climate Emergency! 🚨
Tourism Declares supports tourism businesses, organisations, and individuals in declaring a climate emergency and taking action to reduce their carbon emissions. They acknowledge the science stating we have to act now to address the crisis over the next decade.
Alongside fellow tourism organisations such as Visit Scotland, here are our five commitments in declaring a climate emergency;
-
- Develop and commit to this ‘Climate Action Plan’
- Share our commitment and progress publicly
- Cut carbon emissions
- Encourage our suppliers and partners to make the same declaration
- Advocate for change in tourism
11. Responsible Waste Management ♻️
We do everything we can to eradicate the use of non-recyclable, single-use plastics in our Cabins. We also make sure that our day-to-day waste and recycling processes are up to scratch, and make it super simple for guests to do the same, with clearly labeled 3-compartment and food waste bins.
We minimise general waste going to landfill by recycling all of the cardboard, paper, glass, cans and plastics we and our guests produce, via council uplift. We also separate organic food waste which is then composted.
And, we send back all of the soft plastic packaging from the briquettes and linen, to be recycled into picnic tables, benches, planters, decking, feed troughs, dog kennels and more.
So in a nutshell, that’s how we’ll make an ‘Alt-stay’ an ‘Eco-stay’.
As individuals, we have both become much more environmentally aware over the last few years. Greta would be proud!
Why a Climate Action Plan? We have a Climate Action Plan in place from day 1. It’s our way of holding ourselves accountable and committing to the cause.
We see our business as an extension of ourselves. – we do share the Jack name after all. That’s why from the get-go, we’ve set out to create a genuinely environmentally sustainable business.
Cheers!
Fancy a Unique Stay on The Isle of Cumbrae?…
Check out our One-of-a-kind Hot Tub Cabin Concept in Millport.
Welcome to the next generation of self-catering accommodation in Scotland.
We think of our one-of-a-kind Cabin Concept as a crossroads where quirky interior design meets eco-consciousness, in a stunning island setting.
👉 Discover The Cabins
