hand made greeting cards - calligraphy from the hermitage

Text Box: S T C U T H B E R T ’ S H O U S E

St Cuthbert’s House is situated in a small village on the edge of the wolds & surrounded by farmland, both arable & pastoral (livestock).

St Cuthbert’s House tries at all times to work within its environment, and to complement it; to this end, it is planted with native hedges, fruit trees & other shrubs, contributes to maintaining wildlife areas in the environs, directly supports local wildlife - especially birds and insects - & tries to maintain organic standards in the vegetable & flower gardens.

Energy use is monitored and minimised by use of full insulation & double glazing, low energy light bulbs and other energy saving techniques. Some non reusable waste products from the workshop are used as fuel Just 300kWh of electricity is used each month.

Water use is monitored and minimised by use of rainwater saving techniques, flexible irrigation techniques (seep hoses etc.). Just 5 cubic meters of water are used in total each month.

Waste is sorted & where possible reused (double printing etc.), composted or used as fuel. Anything which is not directly recyclable in one of these ways is recycled through the council scheme. Just one bin liner of waste is sent to landfill each fortnight.

St Cuthbert’s House is an active and enthusiastic member of the Freecycle website www.freecycle.co.uk. Great site - use it!

Eco-sourcing & delivery

St Cuthbert’s house is quite isolated - the nearest town is 7 miles away in any direction. In order to minimise pollution, I cycle where possible locally, and restrict visits for deliveries to the post office etc. to just 3 times/ fortnight. This might incur a slight delay in you receiving your goods - if they are required urgently please let me know & I might be able to revise my routine a little. Incoming goods are generally delivered from local stores as part of a delivery round - again minimising environmental impact.

St Cuthbert’s House greeting cards are a luxury product, and as such are printed on the very top quality board available. To minimise environmental impact, this is ordered though the web from UK companies, and insofar as possible delivered through regular postal & delivery services. Unfortunately it has not yet been possible to source recycled board of a high enough quality to completely replace my current stock or suppliers, however I do maintain a stock of Ellie-poo card & recycled envelopes which I am happy to substitute for any customer who would prefer it.

Saleable seconds, unsold stock etc. are donated to local charities & church bazaars or to raise money for good causes. If you would like to be a beneficiary of this scheme, please contact me on rachelmdenton@stcuthbertshouse.co.uk with details of your organisation.

Greenlincs has provided a survey/questionnaire for all of its small business members. If you would like to see the results of this, then please click on this link.

Eco-policy