Environmental Policy

Under the Thatch provides a choice of historic and unusual self-catering holiday accommodation across Wales, with most properties in West Wales. We strive to be sustainable tourism business informed by ethical and environmental conservation principles – and profits are used to rescue historic buildings at risk.

The company lets its own properties and others which meet our criteria for conservation/restoration and are usually where we have acted as restoration consultants for private owners.

We are proud of the fact that we work to provide unique holiday experiences (converted train carriage on cliff edge/ gyspy caravans etc) and to rescue buildings at risk rather than for profit.

Established in 2001, and with the first property opening in 2002, the "front-end" of the business appears as a privately owned self-catering holiday accommodation business based in Rhydlewis, Ceredigion. What makes Under the Thatch unusual is that we adhere to a set of ethical trading policies where profits are used to rescue/conserve historic buildings at risk. We aim to rent our accommodation all year round, every night of the year. If the cottages are not booked out of season we reduce the price until they do book - we strongly believe that these buildings should continue to work for their communities, even in low season. We would rather let a cottage with little profit being made than have it stand empty. Read more about us here.

Under the Thatch accepts and obligation and responsibility for the environment and local communities in which it operates, and aspires to share these values with its customers. We aim to implement an environmental management system to achieve continual improvement n the following way:

1. Operate within all relevant environmental legislation.
2. Minimization of the our key environmental impacts (waste production and utilities usage).
3. Commitment to the prevention of pollution, both in the everyday running of the business (e.g. low energy light bulbs, provision of some recycling facilities) and in the choice and use of materials for building renovation and conservation (for example we choose environmentally friendly materials such as lime over cement, linseed oil based paints over plastic based paints, sheepswool insulation over fibreglass etc).
4. Promoting a sense of responsibility for the environment to staff and customers (e.g. asking customers to make use of thermostatic controls on radiators, getting housekeeper to optimise them weekly etc).
5. Continually looking for practical opportunities for improvement.

Why are we sustainable?

We are sustainable in terms of community – we have flexible pricing that means that cottages are full ALL year round and we employ staff all year. We never take homes out of the community either.

We aim to be sustainable in our restoration work – eg we use lime not cement, no concrete, sheepswool insulation not fibreglass, low-toxin paints etc.

We aim to be sustainable in how we maintain our buildings – recycled toilet paper, low-flush toilets, solar panels in some cottages for hot water, carbon neutral wood pellet boiler in 2 cottages, reed-bed sewage at 3.

We are sustainable as we use profits to do good – rescuing buildings at risk and conserving them etc. One project – a converted train carriage is in itself 100% recycled!