Caring for the environment

Podere Patrignone wins top award for eco-tourism

Podere Patrignone has been awarded TripAdvisor’s top award for eco-tourism.

It means we’re doing more than anyone else to make Patrignone an eco-friendly place to stay on your Tuscan vacation.

“Carbon Positive”

Podere Patrignone produces more energy than it needs, and all the energy you use is from carbon-neutral sources, or completely carbon-free. This means Podere Patrignone is carbon positive: in other words, we remove more carbon from the system than we release.

How do we do this? 

• All our electricity needs are already met by our 20KW solar farm. In fact, this produces an electricity surplus which is fed into the grid. This power is 100% carbon-free, as good as it gets.
• All our central heating needs are met by our new 50KW biomass furnace. There will be no need to burn any fossil fuels for heat generation, and the carbon-neutral wood comes from our managed forests that surround us.
• All our domestic hot water needs are met by the thermal solar panels, alongside the biomass boiler. 

If you stay at our Tuscany vacation rental, you can afford to feel pleased with your choice. Because by staying here you will be helping to contribute to these renewable energy projects, and you offset the carbon you release in travelling here. Of course, technically speaking, the planet would be better off if you stayed home (or if you walked to Tuscany rather than flew), but where is the fun in that? This way you can come to Tuscany and enjoy your hot shower and a large glass of Chianti Classico relatively guilt-free.

Recycling

Currently, our guests recycle between  80-95% of all waste. All food waste goes to the chickens, and we compost as much of the remaining kitchen waste as possible for use in the garden and vegetable plot. Our guests separate paper, card, plastic, metal and glass, and take it to local recycling bins. We encourage you to use the three bin system in your apartment whilst staying with us so that you can recycle everything. 

Water

Water is scarce in many areas of Tuscany, with water-cuts a daily event in many nearby towns during droughts. We have a huge water storage tank and two tells, as well as mains water, so we never run dry. But water conservation is part of everyday life for us, and we ask our guests to also exercise care. Simple things like turning the tap off whilst brushing your teeth, washing dishes once a day, shorter showers, and fewer linen changes can make a very big difference. We collect our rainwater from several sources around the estate and use this water to irrigate the garden and to top up water levels of our fish pond. We are also looking at other ways of recycling our used water. 

No conditioning but plenty of fans!

Not only is air conditioning a massive power consumer, it is also bad for your health and an eyesore on beautiful buildings. It can get hot in Tuscany in the summer, but Patrignone was built in times way before air-con and has thick walls and small southerly facing windows to help keep the inside cool. 

Biodiversity

We get an enormous amount of wildlife here, and one of the ways we encourage this is to leave large tracts of land uncultivated, so that that they become havens for wildflowers, bees, mammals, and birds of all kinds. If you’re into nature-spotting, tell us and we’ll send you on one of our wildlife walks.