Great West Way Travel Magazine | Issue 07

“The Wave inland surf destination
use solar thermal panels to
pre-heat their water and have
plans to plant 16,000 trees...”
Within their Farm Shop, meat is prepared and sold in their
own Butchery, and they also offer ‘Roves Refills’, a zerowaste
pantry with pasta, beans, pulses, nuts, oil, fruit,
grains, seeds, chocolate and sweets all without unnecessary
packaging – you simply bring your own containers from
home (or buy reusable ones from the shop).
Fresh whole and semi-skimmed milk can be dispensed
from the ‘Moo Station’ straight into glass bottles or cartons
brought from home, reducing single use plastic whilst also
supporting local dairy farmers.
Major attractions along the route are doing their bit
as well. Blenheim is leading the way with a ‘Gold’ Green
Tourism award rating the palace within the top 5% greenest
attractions in the UK. Stonehenge has launched a new fleet
of green shuttle buses to take visitors to see the stones, and
the visitor centre is not connected to a mains water supply;
instead, water is drawn from a borehole. The land around
the visitor centre and stone circle is maintained as chalk
grassland meaning it is not improved with products such as
fertilisers but instead cut and cleared once a year. They are
maximising recycling with zero waste going to landfill.
In the Stonehenge gift shop they stock products made
and sourced locally including honey from Salisbury Plain,
wine from Lyme Bay and a Christmas card range using cornstarch
biodegradable bags and sustainably sourced board
and envelopes.
The Roman Baths and Pump Room are working on an
innovative scheme to harvest heat from the naturally hot spa
water to use it to heat their buildings. Sixteen three-metrelong
energy exchange blades have been inserted into the
King’s Bath, and a new plant room is being created beneath
the street. The idea is that heat from the King’s Spring will be
used to heat the Roman Baths and Pump Room, as well as
the new Bath World Heritage Centre and Roman Baths Clore
Learning Centre.
The historic landscapes of Hampton Court Palace
and Kensington Palace support a wide range of wildlife
communities and projects to conserve biodiversity at the
royal palaces, and where possible they have created new
habitats or enhance existing ones to encourage local wildlife
to flourish.
The Bombay Sapphire Distillery in Hampshire was
awarded the prestigious BREEAM Award for Industrial Design
in 2014 – they have a biomass boiler providing heat and hot
water using local, sustainably sourced wood chips as a fuel
source and a hydroelectric turbine in the River Test, giving
carbon savings of 38% and providing renewable and low
carbon energy.
SS Great Britain, Bristol have reduced their energy
consumption of the pioneering conservation system which
protects the ship’s fragile iron hull by 25% – part of their
commitment to become carbon neutral in our operations
by 2030. Also in Bristol, The Wave inland surf destination
use solar thermal panels to pre-heat their water and have
plans to plant 16,000 trees and 13 acres of wildflower
meadowland, while Avon Valley Adventure & Wildlife Park
have 265 solar panels placed on their roof generating 90%
of their power, and they are working with Great Western
Recycling Ltd which means they have zero waste to landfill.
The Museum of English Rural Life and Reading
Museum are launching a new campaign called 'Our Green
Stories' which draws on the collections of both museums
highlighting and engaging visitors and local people with
environmental issues.
Chippenham Museum has been engaging people around
issues of climate change through an exhibition display
exploring the local landscape through imagery and a series
of interviews with the local community about their climate
concerns.
At the Jane Austen Museum, Bath they have switched
to LED lights throughout the building, use a fully renewable
electricity provider and have plans for solar panels on their
roof and at Maidenhead Heritage Museum they have just
started to stock a range of eco-friendly, sustainable products
from Wild & Stone in their shop.
20 GreatWestWay.co.uk