Sykes Holiday Cottages

Sykes Holiday Cottages is one of the UK’s leading independent holiday cottage rental agencies with over 30 years’ experience in the business. They offer over 22,000 holiday homes throughout the UK, Ireland and New Zealand.

Their impact on people and the planet is just as important to them as shareholder profit. They want to make sure they do their bit to create a cleaner, greener and fairer future for all by introducing new ways of working that make a positive social and environmental impact.

As part of taking forward this commitment, Sykes drew on the support of Green Small Business to develop a baseline carbon footprint and to guide the development of an environmental action plan, through a process of staff workshops and meetings with the senior management team.

“We’re at the start of our Carbon reduction journey and Tim has helped to guide us through our first footprint measurement. We now have a much better understanding of the process and the data we need to include in our footprint, he has also helped us to identify improvements we can make to get better data for future measurements.

Developing an environmental action plan was a key part of our Impact strategy, the recommendations and advice from Tim will shape our activity which will help us achieve our environmental goals.”

Langdale Estate

Surrounded by breath-taking scenery and some of the finest biking, walking and climbing locations in the country, the staff at the Langdale Estate holiday resort understand that the stunning environment on their doorstep is integral to the success of their business.

Historically the senior management team has taken progressive action on environmental issues. However a recent change in personnel saw their sustainability champion moving on and the loss of knowledge, skills and experience left the team without direction.

Green Small Business was commissioned to work with their staff via a series of interactive workshops, to develop a new environmental action plan and a clear approach to the challenge of delivering net zero.

Issues addressed in their environmental action plan include: on-site energy use and low carbon/renewable energy generation, staff and guest travel, food and drink, carbon sequestration and much, much more.

“Tim has given us the focus, structure and coordination that we needed to understand what net-zero is, how we are going to get there, and what our plan is. We hope to continue to work with him into the future.”

For more on the story of our work with Langdale Estate, click here.

St Mary’s Hospice

St Mary’s Hospice provides care and comfort for patients living with any life-shortening illness or long term condition and their family. The hospice has a growing awareness of their need to have a positive impact, responding to growing environmental awareness among the general public.

Issues address in their Green Small Business action plan: energy & water use; food & drink purchasing; transportation; waste; company administration.

“The Green Small Business process has prompted us to think about areas we may have ignored. I think it is useful for getting us on to the right track to take our environmental footprint seriously. It will also enhance our reputation with those for whom green is important. I believe that increasingly the public will be attentive to those companies who don’t take a proactive green stance”

Abbey Office Solutions

Abbey Office Solutions is an office and business solutions provider, based in Totton and near Southampton, Hampshire, UK. They were looking for a way to stand out from their competitors on the environmental side of things but found the ISO14001 route too costly and time consuming and a lot of the detail irrelevant to a business of their size.

Key issues addressed in the Green Small Business action plan: Energy use; Paper use; Office waste; Packaging; Vehicle emissions; Company Administration.

“We developed the EMS ourselves using the Green Small Business handbook. It was a very clear and easy process. We needed this to know where to start. Green Small Business certification will show our customers that we care about our environmental impact and that we have been certified by a reputable company. Tim was a great help in advising me on some of the sections. I would definitely recommend Green Small Business.”