Our sustainable work in progress

WakaWaka
WakaWaka is a social enterprise on a mission to provide 100% renewable energy to all. Worldwide more than a billion people still live in darkness, not connected to the electricity grid. They depend on dangerous, toxic kerosene lamps & candles. WakaWaka is changing this, one solar power light at a time. For every reservation we donate an amount to the WakaWaka Foundation which allows them to provide light to a person living in darkness. Next to your bed you will find a WakaWaka Power+ which you can use to read or charge your phone. WakaWaka was co-founded by Camille van Gestel.

Dopper
Another social enterprise. They address the problem of plastic pollution in our oceans and rivers. Instead of using single use plastic water bottles, better to use a cool Dopper bottle! Refill it endlessly and save a plastic bottle with every refill. Dopper supports water projects in Nepal as well as the OceanCleanup.org from Boyan Slat. They deploy so-called “Interceptors” in key rivers around the world who intercept the plastic before it reaches the ocean. Read more about Dopper and the OceanCleanup.

Tony’s Chocolonely
Did you know that most chocolate in the world involves child labor? Well at Tony’s they are doing something about this. They make it their mission to know precisely where their beans are coming from and are helping to create a slave free chocolate world. Tony’s is setting an example for the chocolate industry and they do so with really delicious chocolates which come in oh so many delicious flavors. Check out your flavor on your pillow and help contribute to making chocolate slave free world wide. Read more about Tony’s.

Meat-less breakfast
Once you know the facts about meat consumption, we hope you will appreciate that we prefer not to serve meat during breakfast. After watching the documentary Cowspiracy, we were convinced. If we want to solve our climate crisis, we need to lower our meat consumption. Meat is way too cheap and too easy to get. So we over-consume it. The consequences are devastating. Two of our children turned vegetarian already. We ourselves limit eating meat to once or twice a week at most. And we have come to appreciate it. Does all of humanity need to be meat-free? Not in our humble opinion, but it is all about balance and currently meat consumption is causing way too much harm to our environment. First step: learn about it. If you want to watch the documentary during your stay, you can, online.

Local products
We do serve dairy products at our breakfast, but we get them locally, around the corner from Nylander Cheesefarm. It’s always best to get your products locally to save carbon emissions from complex and polluting supply chains. It is also more fun to shop locally and Nylander is also worth a visit.

Solar panels
We finally got our permit to place solar panels on our historic rooftop. Workum has a strict policy when it comes to protecting its historic street views and we respect this of course. Anno 1908 is located in a “protected scenery” area. Though the front of the street is indeed incredibly pittoresque and we fully agree this street view should be preserved, we were surprised to know that the view from the backside of the property was also protected. This significantly limits the possibilities to further solarize the church and the old rectory. We hope that local government will further review the guidelines in the near future and let the importance of preservation of our planet & society prevail over the ‘back-side-view-policy’ … We’d love to hear your opinion over breakfast if you’re interested. We thank Sungevity for their help in creating our solar-rooftop!

Isolation
Isolating old building like ours is not always easy and comes at a price. But saving energy consumption starts with isolation before anything else. Windows are the most vulnerable and responsible for letting the cold come in, in winter time. Most of our windows are well isolated, including the historic façade at the front. The thick walls of the church provide for a natural isolation, but more can be done here. We will take further measures in the future.

Digital temperature control
All of our heaters are fitted with digital temperature controls. This way we don’t need to heat up spaces if there’s no one there. When guests are bound to arrive, a simple app can set the temperature at a comfortable level just before arrival. As a guest, you can easily set the temperature yourself at the level you like. Smart Heating is what it’s called. Want to know more?
Suggestions
We learn new things every day and we would love hear your suggestions on how to further ‘sustainalize’ our Bed & Breakfast. Let us know when we see you, or if you have ideas already, feel free to drop us a mail!