Great Big Green Week

Not using ehu, but that is discouraged by the camc

Hi Hja, 

We have more info on our energy saving options including our first ‘smart metering’ Club site, Wyatts Covert Club Campsite, and the trial of non-electric Saver pitches at six Club Campsites; Clumber Park, Chatsworth Park, Burrs Country Park, Grafham Water, White House Beach and Brora. It's all part of our sustainability focus, giving members a choice of whether to use electricity when staying with us. By choosing to not use electricity, you can save up to £4.00 on any pitch type. More info on this here: Smart-Metering 

Of course they do, as they make a huge profit from the charge they make for members using EHU.

When you buy your next caravan get something smaller and lighter. Do you really need to tow something the size of a small bungalow for just the two of you and your dog.

Colin

Try and keep an outfit for longer, or consider renovating an older caravan.  It’s like cars, the greenest car/caravan you own will be the one you keep longest. 👍

What I'd like to know Rowena is the steps that the club have taken to utilise Environmentally friendly practices in either refurbishments of sites or in some cases new projects.

Let's take the work currently being undertaken at Steamer Quay. Is the club going to use recycled rainwater for the shower block and maybe power the electricity in there by means of solar panels? I have been on sites in Germany that have such systems and they work perfectly. How has the reception block been/being adapted? Are the grass cutting machines still using diesel/petrol? Compost heaps? Will they use various recycling waste bins, for food, plastic and tin, bottles and glass or is everything going in the one size fits all commercial waste bins that seem to be being used in club sites nowadays?

It's all very well asking the members what they are doing but I'd like to know as a member that the club is doing its bit.

Whether I am right or wrong I don't know but when we were away in the van I always got the impression that that we used less of everything, certainly less water which is becoming more of a precious resource. Certainly a very modest amount of gas compared to home. The elephant in the room might be electricity but if I compared total energy used between home and motorhome I reckon in the motorhome might be less? When on site we almost exclusively either walked or use public transport from the site so journeys in the motorhome were limited to travelling between sites or home and sites.

I think what a lot of us would like to know are what are the general conclusions regarding the metering of electricity experiment. The promised two sites does not seem to have materialised yet. On the one site where it is being used (Wyatts Covert) it seems to have very mixed reviews about usability and management of the online system? I think many would have expected there to have been more progress on the role out of metering or at least more updates on how it is going and whether the Club still think it a worthwhile project now that energy prices have reduced considerably from their peak?

David 

The Club should be leading by example on this issue and providing an incentive for members to be greener but there is little sign of them doing this. As David points out there does not seem to have been much progress on the roll out of meters. Meters have even been installed at Ashridge, the promised second test site, but have not been brought into use and there has been no explanation as to why?

Apart from in house facilities, the Club appears to be going in the opposite direction. A prime example of this is at pop up sites and Club Fest where pitches have become ever more energy hungry over the years. At one time those attending such events needed to use all their own facilities, there was no electricity, just water sources and disposal points. Not anymore, pitches are supplied with electric from diesel guzzling generators giving members no choice until this year to opt out of its use. Even serviced pitches were provided this year which surely places a higher demand on water and energy. This said, I think the Club is frightened to do otherwise because the majority of members have no appetite to do anything different even when they have full facilities within their outfits. Heaven forbid if the Club should introduce push button showers to save water and look at the hoo hah because rubbish points have been abolished in favour of a single collection point. Many sites have been making this kind of provision for years!!

peedee

Hi everyone, Thank you for your suggestions and comments so far.

With regards to the Club, we take Sustainability very seriously and do many things, but change takes time and we don't change for the sake of change. In the magazine we have a Sustainability Matters Column feature every 2 to 3 months and news stories and we have a Sustainability hub on the website and Nick Lomas is covering Sustainability in his July magazine column. We work with Green Tourism who hold us accountable for our initiatives.

In terms of our site development, all new facility blocks have Solar PV panels if they are suitable. We are trialling a larger array at Brighton to ensure we get maximum benefit and waste as little as possible (club campsite usage means we are using energy in the morning and at night when we are producing the least energy), and yes we could go down the battery storage route but this is expensive and we need the right solution and is certainly an area we are exploring.

We install air source heat pumps in our facility blocks and have tried a number of things like rain water harvesting but the realities of some of the solutions don't always match well with the clubs usage patterns and the vast amount of power and water we use each year, so we have to ensure the solution works to deliver a difference and not just to be seen to do it

In terms of site equipment we are moving towards electric but not overnight, we replace old equipment with new more efficient electric equipment

We have a water saving trial currently at Black Knowl and Tewkesbury and if this is successful we will move towards making significant reductions in water in future years, and we are starting to introduce sensor taps in new developments.

We are looking at all the things you mention but for example waste is dictated by the local authority and waste contractor. We have recently moved to Biffa and the service does vary and what happens at the end point varies so in some areas the sorting centres are very advanced and that's why you see if all go in together, but in others it does not, much like you find from town to town across the country. For us we would prefer to offer the same service so that its familiar on sites and therefore we offer separate bins, however food waste is still very uncommon in many areas so this would only be a thing if our waste providers offer it

In terms of the metering trial, we did an update earlier in the year in the magazine. The metering has cut member consumption considerably however the metering process for members needs to be simplified before we move this forward and this work is in hand and should be available early next year. We had planned to trial 2 different solutions but we could not find two suitable solutions that did not cost a significant amount of capital and we believe the solution we have, when its enhanced will offer the right solution; however we do still need to test it at Wyatts Covert and gather feedback as we have done for the last year. Ashridge does have meters and this is to benchmark usage between the two sites and to ensure our findings are valid and comparable before we choose to offer it elsewhere. And Steamer Quay when it re-opens will be on meters.

Smart Metering Trial

In terms of pop up sites we are exploring Solar to support the operation and hope to trial a solution in the near future and our teams are proactively looking at all areas of the business to improve what we do; but it's an enormous job and Carbon is our key focus.

We have a sustainability mailbox so you are welcome to email any questions to us or any ideas, or catch up on the magazine, the sustainability hub and the FAQs we have published:

sustainability@camc.com

FAQs sustainability

Sustainability and Green Tourism

Our Sustainability hub is just going through an overhaul so we expect it will feature some recent stories in the very near future.

Rowena

Thanks for the pretty comprehensive update.

Good to see that Steamer Quay is being prepared for metering. Obviously that site previously didn't have any electricity points so its a blank canvas. Is it the intention to do the same on all newly upgraded sites? From what you say the Club are clearly going to proceed with metering once they have ironed out some of the difficulties?

I think I am right in thinking that Meter-Macs don't have an app, seemingly no indication on their website?  This makes the system less customer friendly and hopefully that is what the Club is working on? 

It's probably a bit niche but I would be interested to know, in the future, how successful the air pumps are as given time we all might be going down that route!

David