Sustainability

Occombe & the Environment

The Trust has undergone an environmental audit and setup a Green Team to formulate an action plan and make improvements. Occombe has been designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

This has included:

Using timber harvested from local woodlands managed by the Trust to construct the roof of the Visitor Centre and straw bale building, the Bird Hide and the boardwalk along the nature trail.
Installing a rainwater recycling system to collect rainwater from the roofs and using this to flush our toilets.
Installing Solar Photovoltaic Panels on the roof of one of the barns to help towards our electricity consumption
Using recycled paper and encouraging reusable material bags rather than plastic ones
Building our new education centre from straw bales (rather than bricks), pinned together with hazel stakes. Used car tyres filled with rolled stone provide an effective damp proof course, and the walls are rendered with lime. No cement was used in the construction of this building.