Les Cygnes, which offers guests a choice of three luxury gites in the Poitou-Charentes region of France, have a strong commitment to the environment. In terms of the carbon footprint generated by guests they state:
“Like many people we here are extremely concerned about the protection of the environment. This year we are asking guests to help reduce their carbon footprint by planting trees, which will over time absorb your carbon dioxide emissions.
This can be achieved in 2 ways:
1 - A donation to Les Cygnes will plant trees on our land to help create a wooded area to help erase the carbon usage in traveling to and staying in our gites. A medium sized car with an average return journey of 1200 miles will be 1 tree (the cost of the tree can be added to your holiday cost or donated when you arrive at Les Cygnes). Each return flight to France will be 1 tree. We will only plant trees indigenous to our area like, chestnut, oak, lime etc.
A tree will cost 10 Euros and will be planted on our land in October or November to maximise its chances of survival. Each tree will labeled with the name of the person or family that donated it and covered by a sapling protector.
Or
2 - A donation to a charity involved in helping to erase carbon footprints.
- erasemyfootprint
- mycarbondebt
- puretrust
At Les Cygnes we are taking steps to help reduce our impact on our surroundings and create a more environmentally friendly future.
Here at Les Cygnes we help by:
- Recycle all recyclable materials
- Compost all organic waste
- We have planted over 250 local shrubs to help negate our carbon footprint.
- Heat our properties with wood taken from sustainable sources
- Have insulated to better than recommended levels, this ensures heat retention during winter months (reducing the need for heating) and ensures a cooler environment during summer months, reducing the need for air conditioning.
- Double glazed all our windows and doors.
- Recuperate rainwater and have installed a 12,000 litre tank for gardening use.
- Are investigating the use of alternative energy sources, wind, solar, geothermal
- We are committed to becoming as energy self sufficient as possible within 5 years.”
To find out more about Les Cygnes please visit their website.
