The Green Centre

We don’t claim to be totally green, but what we’ve tried to do is a series of measures that just about any household or any small business can implement. Here are our green and environmental poicies at the park and also some of the different projects that we have put in place.

Biomass – A 100kw wood pellet boiler produces all the heat and hot water for all the buildings on site. It provides the heat for the brewing process in the brewery and new for 2011 the heat for our indoor play areas. Biomass claims to be carbon neutral.

Recycling – We have a community facility provided by Aberdeenshire Council, glass and plastic bottles, cans, newspapers, cardboard are all collected, sorted and recycled.

Rainwater Harvesting – Our Quad Bikes, Karts and 4x4’s need regular washing. By collecting and storing the rainwater off our roofs, we have slashed our water bill.

Solar – All our remote clay pigeon Traps are operated by Heavy Duty batteries. All of them are trickle charged by solar panels. This increases the life of the batteries, and saves a lot of heavy carrying & rapid charging.

Low Energy Bulbs By using low energy bulbs throughout the centre we have saved 9 amps of power. I don’t know how much money that equates to, but it’s a fair bit!

Deeside Brewery waste - The draff goes up to the farm and is fed to our pedigree Aberdeen Angus heifers. They love it! Excess yeast is mixed with straw and fed to the cows. And all the dregs and washings are collected and spread on the land.

Food Miles – Our food is very important to us. The beef is our own Cairnton Aberdeen Angus. The Bacon and Sausages are from Sandy Ingram at Newburgh. Cheese from Cambus O’ May, and beer from Deeside Brewery on site.

E-Communication - We aim to send a lot of our brochures, proposals and newsletters out to our guests by email rather than printing and sending out paper communication, thus cutting down on the paper that goes out of the office.

Electricity - We have cut down on our electricty consumption by replacing our boncy castle with a new ball pit and soft play area.

In September 2010 we were nominated as a finalist in the Northern Star Business Awards Sustainability Award and again in 2011 we are nominated as a finalist in the Green Award.

By doing some of these projects in October 2010 we gained ourselves a Gold Green Tourism Business Scheme Award.