Isle of Mull b&b accommodation

The islands of Mull, Iona & Ulva are exceptional places of great beauty but they exist within a fragile eco-system. We love where we live and we care for our surroundings to the best of our ability.

We are an environmentally and ecologically aware business and in August 2005 we received the Gold Green Business Award in recognition of our excellence in environmental management with significant good practice and established systems. We have adopted a responsible and pro-active work ethos to ensure that we limit to a minimum any potential damage as a result of tourism.

We get our electricity from a green energy scheme by using the RSPB Green tariff with Hydro Electricity. We minimise energy use by using energy efficient light bulbs and appliances and turning off lights and appliances when not in use. We also use AAA energy rated domestic appliances for our laundry. We collect rain water in two water butts for use in the garden. We have showers and half flush toilets to reduce water use. We have a towel agreement where we only change towels when guests request them. We use eco cleaning products such as Faith in Nature and Ecover in the property as well as offering guests refillable organic toiletry products to cut down on packaging and wasted once only used soaps etc.

We cultivate our garden using homemade compost and sea weed off the beach. We encourage wildlife in our garden by putting up bird boxes and growing plants and shrubs which attract bird and insect life. We compost all our raw food and garden waste. And feed the local birds with leftover toast. We recycle glass, plastic and paper and have facilities for our guests to recycle their waste too. We support local conservation projects such as the Mull & Iona Eco-Charter, the Highland Renewal project and the local RSPB sea eagle hide. We use recycled stationary and keep paper usage to a minimum by marketing our business on the web rather than using traditional flyers and information leaflets. Our plastic waste products are biodegradable and our toilet tissue is also purchased from a recycled source. We give our guests leaflets and information about the conservation of the natural environment and encourage them to use public transport and to use cycles around the island by offering cycle hire.

We work with and support local businesses and projects. These include the Ross of Mull Historical Centre by promoting their services and selling their publications as well as supporting fund raising initiatives, local tour operators by promoting their businesses on our website, offering our guests a booking service and organising their trips, and local restaurants by promoting their businesses and offering our guests a reservation service. We also support the MESS Project which runs outlets around the island collecting goods and other products for recycling. We purchase from local suppliers as much as we can to support the local economy including organic biscuits for the guest rooms.

We ensure that through our own website promoting local businesses that our local community is featured highly on the World Wide Web and attracts many enquiries from people wishing to visit the area. Through this we are able to pass on as much business to other accommodation providers as we can; the knock-on effect of this is that the local restaurants, shops, arts & craft business plus boat trip operators and wild life tours are also able to earn an income from the visitors who come to the area.