Our Environmental Policy

(updated January 2022)

Being Green at Millbrook Estate

We hope you enjoy visiting North Devon as much as we enjoy living here. Much of what makes this place special is the history and the unspoilt beauty of its natural landscape, we are trying to look after it for ever and keep it beautiful by protecting the nature, conserving energy and water and minimising waste by recycling and composting as much as possible. We ask guests at Millbrook to help with this as much as possible.

Millbrook Cottages are committed to sustaining our natural surroundings by reducing our environmental impact and promoting good practices through:

  • Training employees within their working practices, ensuring reduced impact in all areas.
  • Educating guests in the sound understanding of environmental impact and reduction.
  • Complying with relevant environmental legislation and implementing systems and procedures to assure compliance.
  • Monitoring our environmental action plan at the quarterly Health & Safety meetings.
  • Being consistently aware of areas for improvement and improving e.g. asking people not to leave things on standby


Key areas for continuous improvement

  • Reduce our energy consumption by increased energy efficiency
  • Reduce our water consumption by improving water usage and waste
  • Create less waste by the use of waste reduction and recycling
  • Continue with our tree planting and land management plan to offset your holiday in Devon
  • When required always replacing electric products with AAA rated appliances


Tesla EV Chargers

EV Tesla charging point for Type 2 cars (Nissan Leaf, BMW I3 and more)


Our Awards

In 2017 we gained Gold for Sustainable Tourism in the Devon Tourism Awards & We won the Enjoyed in Devon award from Debi (Devon Environmental Business Initiative). We have also been shortlisted for South West Tourism Awards and Visit England Awards to find out later in 2018.

With out our GREEN TEAM we wouldnt have done any of this! Our Green Team consists of Kate and Bob, Nicola, Meg and Maddy and we sit down monthly to discuss how we can make Millbrook green and get staff to work efficiently.

Carbon Offsetting

You might wondered why as we are a Green Tourism destination we don't offer a carbon offset scheme. We believe that by the 9000 trees we planted at Millbrook and or ongoing planting schemes that we cover this. We are not able to use this as an official offsetting scheme as the government use any trees planted in the UK towards there own carbon offset (by use of satellite pictures). We think this is not fair and we do not understand why we have to plant trees out of the UK! Just to let you know!

Web Hosting

We have use a eco company company called Krystal for our hosting requirements. Krystal are a UK company and have a very good Eco Policy too!


Eco cloths




Work so Far

  • At cost Electric car charging Point
  • Double Glazing throughout - The Mill windows are argon filled and painted with Farrow and Ball Water-based paint
  • Recycling procedures in place and information in all cottages - recycling is a necessity not an option
  • 2kw of PV panels on Lakeview Roof
  • 8kw of PV panels that track the sun in the fields
  • 5kw wind turbine
  • Tesla Power Wall
  • 750w water turbine
  • 98% of light bulbs in the cottages have been changed to low energy
  • Instigated thermostats on the heating systems
  • Instigated floor and loft insulation
  • Bio Mass Heating (100kw pellet boiler) for all accommodation including Lakeview, The Wheel Room, Corncott, Pulley Mill, Summer House and main house - replacing gas boilers
  • Offices runs on thermostatically and timer controller wood pellet stove
  • Weekly Bench marking of Electricity, Water usage and refuse
  • Eco Friendly Cleaning Supplies from Eco Egg and Eco Leaf
  • Purchase only FSC wood products
  • Recycled toilet paper
  • Eco Office Supplies
  • Turn off policy
  • Dual Flush Toilets
  • Aerators on all taps to reduce water
  • Use of Native only trees in offsetting planting
  • Water butts to collect rain water for hanging baskets
  • Hosted Shared servers for Email and CRM
  • Sensored LED office lighting
  • High Levels of Draught insulation
  • High Levels of insulation
  • Call Conferencing to prevent unnecessary car journeys
  • All in One Networked printer solution
  • Double sided printing using recycled paper for printing
  • Recycling printer cartridges
  • Recycling of glass, metal and plastic
  • Fair trade tea and coffee products
  • Regular Eco Reviews with our eco supplier agenda
  • Involvement with local community projects
  • Giving unwanted hardware to local charities
  • Staff education
  • Composting (tea bags, green waste, fruit etc)
  • Solar powered fairy lights
  • Low Energy light bulbs in outside lights
  • Local Purchasing
  • Air to Air heat pump in summer house
  • Water based paints used
  • LED lighting in hot tub
  • Eco Hot Tub (Beachcomber) refilled with hot water
  • Sensor lighting in halls and bathrooms
  • Using well water to water the garden
  • High Efficient new style LEDS
  • Watson Energy monitor for guests to see energy usage
  • Replaced radiators and insulated behind radiators
  • Apple iMacs in the office - last longer

Our 5kw Wind Turbine

Watson energy monitor

Our PV Trackers





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