Our Green Story

At Park Cliffe as part our environmental promise we are striving to reduce our environmental impact and incorporate more of our efforts into the daily running of our park. By making small changes every day and decreasing our human impact on the landscape around us we are helping to preserve our site for the future and maintaining the beautiful surroundings in the Lakes, ensuring that you can come back next year and many years to come.

Look at our Responsible Visitor Charter and find out how you can get involved with looking after our environment.

What we do:

Waste

• We have recycling facilities for plastic containers, glass, cardboard, paper, tins and cans.
• Our general waste is taken away by Cumbria Waste Group and transported to the Sita Plant in Byker where first any recyclables are removed.  Then any residue goes to make ‘Refuse derived fuel’ which is used in combined heat and power facilities. This results in approximately a landfill diversion of 98%.

Buying local

We purchase our meat from Browns Quality Meats, Lindal in Furness (just 25 mins away), we only purchase local milk from Woodbine Dairies at Barrow which we sell in the shop and use in the restaurant.

In the bar we supply the ‘Lakes’ spirits – Vodka and the infamous Lakes Gin in all of its glory! We stock local (and great tasting!) beers and cask ale as well from Ulverston Ales and Bowness Brewing which have proven popular, in particular ‘Flying Elephant’ and ‘Lonesome Pine’.

In the shop we have local produce from Hawkshead Relish, Wild and Fruitful in Keswick, Romneys sweets, biscuits and mint cake in Kendal, Lakeland Artisan at Staveley, local meat and milk and if you used to buy plastic cutlery from us you will have noticed that we now reusable sporks.

Public transport

The Park Cliffe team encourage guests to enjoy a car free holiday in the Lake District. We have a local bus which passes the bottom of our road below Park Cliffe which is accessible and very much in walking distance. This bus can take you to Bowness and Windermere. Bus changes allow you then to travel further afield in the Lakes to Ambleside, Grasmere and Keswick– for more information please contact reception.

A popular day out is to take the bus to Ferry Nab in Bowness take the ferry across the lake to the opposite side and cycle down the West side of the Lake to Wray Castle.

Renewable energy

2023 sees the installation of 100kw of solar panels on part of our camping field which aims to provide the majority of our electric needs for the main park.  Our investment in renewable and sustainable energy takes us well on our journey to becoming a carbon neutral business and adds to the commitment of the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership, working towards making Cumbria the first net zero county in the UK, by 2037.

Energy efficiency

We have sensory lighting in both the male and female bathrooms and hand dryers instead of hand towels. Lighting inside and outside of the facility block is LED.  We also have LED lighting in the restaurant and the games room.  We are moving to LED lighting throughout the facility buildings.

Water conservation

We have push button taps and showers to prevent taps and showers being left on or dripping.  We also use water from the beck to flush the toilets in the facility block.

Community activities

Each year we support a local charity through various fundraising initiatives all year round. Previous nominated charities have been Air Ambulance North West, Bay Search and Rescue and Fix the Fells.

Our current charities are Cumbria Wildlife Trust and the Love Windermere partnership.

Recent eco awards

• Small Green Business
• Gold David Bellamy Conservation Award
• Our business is backed by electricity generated from renewable sources.
• We have committed to having 100% of our energy supply from EDF and Scottish Power backed by renewable energy.
• Awarded ‘Bee friendly park’ by the David Bellamy Conservation Award Scheme

What have we done so far?

• Encouraged all guests to recycle, explaining its importance and showing them where the recycling bins are on arrival to the park
• Phased out the use of plastic shopping bags in our shop
• Instead of giving out takeaway food in plastic bags we use paper bags
• Transformed our Park Shop with an emphasis on stocking more planet friendly and local products.
• We are committed to reducing plastic in all forms in our shop.
• Stopped selling soft drinks in plastic bottles in our shop, only cans and glass.
• Our selection of gifts and toys have been bought with the environment in mind, less plastic – more focus on playing outside and nature.
• Committed to selling only recycled or bamboo tissues, toilet paper and kitchen roll in our shop
• Stocked ‘Two Farmers’ crisps, the only UK crisp company to use compostable wrappings
• Provided a free of charge filter water machine for all guests to refill water bottles.
• Used eco friendly cleaning products to clean all our customer accommodation.
• Provided our rental accommodation guests with eco-friendly handwash, washing up liquid and anti bac spray.
• All the toilet roll in our rental accommodation is provided by ‘Who gives a crap’ a company who use environmentally friendly materials and donating 50% of their profits to help build toilets for those in need
• We have committed to only buying free range eggs for the shop
• We have replaced our standard white paper that we use in reception with ‘woodland trust’ paper – the paper that plants trees.
• We are accredited by Small Green Business and have an environmental plan in place.
• Changing our take away cups to compostable or recyclable take away cups, in 2023 we will not be offering takeaway cups, instead we will encourage customers to bring their own reusable cups, sells reusable cups or ‘hire’ a cup
• Installation of 100kw solar array.
• Installed two electric vehicle chargers our main car park

How could you make your holiday ‘greener’?

Check out our Responsible Visitor Charter.

Before you arrive have a think about your travel arrangements, looking at local and national transport providers, at Traveline to make an informed choice of how you could arrive at our site, or how you could use public transport for your days out in the Lakes. With our electric vehicle chargers on-site we also welcome your electric cars at Park Cliffe!

So…what’s next?

• Introduce more eco-products in our shop & bar. This year we are stocking ‘Two Farmers’ crisps, the first to use compostable wrappings and ‘Who gives a crap’ toilet paper using environmentally friendly materials and donating 50% of their profits to help build toilets for those in need.
• To cut down on un recyclable packaging we are doing away with selling packets of peanuts etc in the bar and are stocking ‘hot’ nuts.
• Aiming for 100% LED lighting coverage across the site
• Come and join us on our Green Journey and support us in reducing our impact on the environment. See our Responsible Visitor Charter for what you can do when you’re staying with us.