One of the most significant impacts we can have as individuals and organisations is to reduce not only our consumption of materials and resources but also reduce wastage; that's precisely what we have done and continue to do at Dukes Barn.

All aspects of our operation undergo continuous assessment for both their environmental impact and sustainability; wherever a change can be made to improve sustainability or reduce our impact on the environment, the relevant action is implemented.

In addition to the changes we make to our operations, we also run educational workshops for young people where they are actively involved in projects that directly benefit nature and the environment, or increase the sustainability of the resources we use, encouraging good stewardship.

Examples of reforms already undertaken are listed below and are only the start of our journey protecting the environment for everyone and we hope that you will join us on that journey in anyway that you can.

Reduce

As an outdoor centre operating year-round, we very often have the lights on in the centre. However, working with young people, they usually stay on! To reduce the amount of electricity that we use the centre has now been fitted with sensor lighting throughout, ensuring lights are only on when needed. Additionally, LED lighting has been installed throughout at the lowest power consumption possible, with these two changes alone seeing a reduction in our electricity use.

Another example, is the replacement of our hand cleanser dispensers from single individual use dispensers on each sink, to fixed refillable units. The change reduced the amount of single-use plastic we were re-cycling, and also saved money.

Reuse

At Dukes Barn, we have always believed in reusing and repurposing anything that we can. The savings made from the soap dispensers has allowed us to source our milk locally again; not only reducing `food miles' but it also comes in glass bottles which are all returned, washed and reused again and again; reducing our plastic use further.

Recycle

As you will already appreciate we recycle everything that we can; with one of the most recycled products at Dukes Barn being the kitchen waste into compost, along with anything else we can throw in there. Not only naturally recycling our food waste and gardening debris, stopping it going to landfill, it provides the basis for the nutrients used in our allotment garden by our Be Naturally Creative project. The fruit herbs and vegetables then go back into the kitchen, helping increase our sustainability and further reducing `food miles'.