Our Sustainability Journey

Here at Dittisham Hideaway we pride ourselves in offering a unique self-catering holiday experience, whilst continuing to minimise our environmental impact as much as possible, we know how important it is to be GREEN for both our environment and our guests.

Our Philosophy

We are fortunate enough to be surrounded by gorgeous countryside and sit between Dartmoor National Park to the North and part of the South West Coast Path to the South. Our philosophy is to make Dittisham Hideaway as environmentally friendly as possible. We are continuously working to try and reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible, but recognise that we still have a long way to go.

Environment

Our treehouses are constructed from locally sourced, sustainably grown timber. Green building techniques help reduce the carbon footprint of each treehouse. Good insulation in each treehouse ensures that guests can stay cosy and warm whilst using less wood for the log burner and electricity.

All of our wood for the wood-fired hot tubs and indoor wood-burners is either from our own managed coppicing or sourced from locally managed woodland.

We emit minimum noise pollution due to our location and nature of the site.

All of our external lighting around the site is sensor triggered or set on a timer, so that we emit minimal light pollution to the surrounding area.

We encourage our guests to turn off internal lights, when not in use.

Water for all of our properties comes from two of our own water boreholes on the site. These tap into the water supply deep underground that passes through open fissures in the rocks and leaves surface water undisturbed and helps to protect vital ecosystems like rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, thereby not contributing to habitat destruction, decreased biodiversity.

Dual flush toilets and handheld showers with water flow control help reduce water use.

We have installed solar panels on the roof of the wheelbarrow and games shed.

We use environmentally friendly cleaning products, wherever possible.

We have partnered with Wild England, a Dorset based, eco-friendly, organic and sustainable supplier who provide our luxury refillable toiletries.

We have installed 4 electric vehicle charging points on the site for guests to use.

Our 9 acres of woodland absorbs approximately 17-tonnes of carbon per year*.

*Trees absorb CO2 from the atmosphere which they use to grow. On average, one hectare of native broadleaf woodland will store 300 – 350 tonnes of carbon over a 100-year period (Source – Woodland Trust)

Supporting local businesses

We have some wonderful local businesses and are incredibly proud to support as many of these as possible.

We buy all of the hamper products from local suppliers and encourage our guests to support as many of the varied local businesses, from farm shops to independent shops and activity providers when they stay with us.

We are very lucky to have some great local pubs, restaurants and cafes and encourage as much support for these as we can too, Many of them also source their ingredients as locally as possible too.

Biodiversity

We are continuously working on encouraging the biodiversity of local fauna and wildlife and are working with a number of local partners, including BeWild, DEF and the Devon Wildlife Trust on this.

In order to increase this carbon capture and improve diversity of flora and fauna we are planting more trees and seeded wildflowers, creating an undisturbed nature environment for our beautiful bees and butterflies.

The South West of England has one of the greenest tourism economies in the UK. We have a stunning environment, with more land mass covered by National parks, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and World Heritage Sites than anywhere else in the country.