Doing our bit for the environment has been at the heart of Hanbury Wedding Barn since its inception. We have made great progress, one area of scrubland at the barn has already been planted up with saplings to create a new woodland area. The lagoon and lake have been ecologically restored to become a haven for local bird and amphibian life and hundreds of bulbs and wildflowers have been planted to encourage insects and bees. This, coupled with the planting of over one hundred metres of new hedgerow to create corridors for birds, bats and other small mammals, means that Hanbury Wedding Barn is becoming as attractive to the local wildlife as it is to our brides and grooms.
During the construction we worked closely with our ecologists to ensure that the minimum disturbance was caused to existing wildlife and many improvements were made to their habitats. New areas have been created for the swallows, bats and newts to ensure that even after the renovations were completed, the habitat was still welcoming to them.
As we have become busier our focus has moved to a new area – our waste. As a hospitality business our bar and kitchen generate an astonishing amount of refuse and the question quickly arose of how to reduce what goes in the bin and how to make sure what goes in the bin does not end up in landfill?
Aside from the basics of separating our glass and other waste, a major step has been to cut any single use plastics from the bar. In practical terms this has meant minimising any drinks in plastic bottles and stocking products that come from the wholesaler in cardboard rather than plastic wrappers. In addition, we ask our couples not to provide any items for their guests in single use plastics and to encourage this we have decided to offer complimentary jugs of cordial to replace Fruit Shoots for children and also that all confetti provided is dried petals.
Food waste is another big concern. Unfortunately, health and safety requirements mean the uneaten food must be disposed of but in partnership with Rainbow Waste we are proud to announce that all unwanted food is to be collected and used to produce gas which is converted into electricity and the remains are then composted.
We still have much to do, one of our COVID-19 delayed projects is the installation of our solar panels. Although our current heating is a carbon neutral biomass heater, we have the potential capacity to generate significantly more solar power than we use meaning we can give a lot of clean energy back to the grid.
Our commitment to the environment is very important to us and we will continue to do our part where we can, if you have any suggestions we would love to hear them!