The lodges are extremely well-insulated. Honeysuckle and Nuthatch lodges have solar hot water, as will Beech lodge this autumn. But already all our electricity comes from 100% renewable sources. So your heating and power is entirely green. Firewood for Otter cottage's wood-burning stove comes from a local managed resource. In time, more will come from our own coppiced woodland.

We ask guests to join us in recycling paper, glass, cans and plastic and cardboard, and to separate compostable waste (bins are provided).

Fine spray shower heads conserve water, and we hope to switch non-drinking water supplies to well and rainwater. We are on private drainage, so we take care what we put down the drains, using biodegradable washing up liquid and laundry detergent.

When we have to replace fridges and ovens, we buy 'A' rated appliances.

We offer free station transfers to those arriving by train, loan guests free 'farm bikes' for local trips, and encourage walking and cycling holidays by loaning maps, offering advice on routes (including those further afield but accessible by public transport) and working with a local company who leave hire bikes with us, or at start points of rides.

We want you to experience the best the area can offer, so we keep a diary on the website and in the lodges, detailing local events.

We promote local food producers and retailers (including a neighbouring farm shop with organic produce). You can 'order ahead' before you arrive. We are planning a vegetable garden so we can offer guests seasonal vegetables to buy, while minimizing our own food miles. This garden will be organic.

By reinstating traditional management, we're reverting the meadow in front of the lodges to wildflowers, and providing bird feeders in front of their big picture windows. We like to put fresh flowers on the tables, but not ones with airmiles attached!

We also plan a new cottage and want to make it a straw bale buildings with passive heating. We're excited about the possibility of building something with a really low carbon footprint.

All our accommodation was built as holiday lets - they are not second homes, and there's no planning permission for year-round occupation. So your stay boosts the local economy without taking accommodation away from local people.

Managing the land for wildlife is our number one priority, and your stay lets us do that. Our 21-acre farm has small paddocks delineated by overgrown hedgerows, some on traditional Devon banks. We're starting to manage them actively for wildlife. We have nest boxes for our bats barn owls and dormice, as well as garden birds, and we're managing vegetation around our four ponds to improve their value for wildlife. The land has a covenant that specifically bans intensive agriculture. Wherever possible, we manage the land without chemicals.

This autumn we'll be re-shaping our largest pond, making it better for wildlife and introducing more wetland areas for birds, flowers and dragonflies.

We're particularly privileged to own Popehouse Moor, 7 acres of Culm grassland designated as a 'Site of Special Scientific Interest'. With the help of the Devon Wildlife Trust, and by working with our neighbouring farmers, we've re-introduced light traditional grazing. This helps maintain habitat for the rare Marsh Fritillary butterfly, now threatened throughout Europe. Several rare and locally important plants grow here, including Wavy St Johns-Wort. We are cutting back encroaching brambles, opening up over-grown ponds and marshy areas, and regenerating old coppiced hazel stands. Our guests are welcome to explore, and we actively offer to take you on a guided tour - just ask if you want a guide. We are developing better marked paths and putting ID guides and interpretive information in the accommodation. We don't allow dogs in Popehouse Moor (not even our own), and picking flowers, collecting dead wood, or disturbing the wildlife (including the foxes, badgers and deer) is forbidden.

Devon and Cornwall have lost a staggering 92% of their culm grassland since the 1900s, with 62% of sites and 48% of their total area disappearing between 1984 and 1991. Your stay makes this conservation work economically viable, and we hope you'll enjoy the place as much as we do.. 

We use our professional skills to run our business sustainably and to conserve UK biodiversity. Maggie is a PhD ecologist and science communicator. Ian has 20 years experience in sustainable tourism.

We hold gold level approval from the Devon Wildlife Trust, and are members of the Green Tourism Business Scheme.

We advertise through an agency specialising in sustainable travel.

Wherever possible, we keep our office records electronically, or on re-used paper.

We heat our own house and office using renewable energy and local sustainably managed wood (mostly our own now).

Our environmental policy is on our website and in our visitor information packs. We want people to see how great a sustainable holiday can be!