Environment and Sustainability

Sustainability at Magdalen...
"treating the world as if we intended to stay"

Talking about sustainability is good. But what's even better is when the talk becomes relevant, meaningful action. We offer our visitors the opportunity to deepen their understanding and experience of sustainability at all levels, and to leave with practical ideas on how to live in harmony with the environment.

Here's how we are striving to be more sustainable here at Magdalen, and some plans for the future :

For energy...

As well as doing simple things to reduce our contribution to climate change such as fitting energy efficient light bulbs and aiming to be more efficient by using only the electricity we need and turning off appliances whenever possible, we also have the following:

Bio-mass Boiler: With the help of a grant from E.ON UK, we have recently installed a bio-mass wood fuelled boiler which now provides all heating and hot water for the centre

Photo-voltaic power: We have 5kW photo-voltaic panels that produce electricity directly from sunlight. In the winter we need to draw electricity from the grid to compensate for lower sunlight levels and a higher demand in the centre. Funded by DTi and SWEB Greenfund.

Renewable electricity supplier: We invest in ‘green energy' by buying our electricity from ‘Ecotricity' – a renewable electricity supplier. This is one the simplest and most effective ways of reducing CO2 emissions.

With our waste...

Waste is a failure of the imagination - so where ever possible, we try to treat what many would consider a 'waste product' as a resource to be treasured...

Composting toilets: as part of our eco-campsite, we have built composting toilets made out of cob and reclaimed timber. With a stunning view over the Somerset/Dorset borders – we call them the 'ultimate loo with a view'.

Recycling: We have a very active recycling operation – as well as the usual glass, plastic, aluminium, cardboard and paper, we recycle phones, CDs, batteries and ink cartridges.

Compost corner: All our vegetable waste is composted and put back on to the land.

And some plans for the future...

For our sewage...a reed bed system...

We have received funding from Dorset AONB and The Pennon Environmental Fund to construct a reed bed sewage system which will treat our waste water and compost our sewage. This project will enable us to return safe water to the land, use good compost on our fruit trees and provide a haven for wildlife in the series of reed beds. We aim to have this exciting project up and running by end 2009.

To keep us clean...solar powered and bio-fuel showers...

To improve the facilities in the eco-campsite we want to construct a combination shower block, using solar power to heat the water with a back-up wood fired boiler using forestry trimmings.
Estimated cost: £5000

For more information about our projects please contact us