Our rooms are located in a 1950s era detached dwelling with garden at rear. We opened in February 2018 with a 2 year plan to create a therapeutic space that is good for you, good for us, and good for the planet. As we design our therapeutic space, we are being guided by our values of health and ecological sustainability. This article tells you more about those values and how we're serving them. We are committed to giving you the very best opportunity to achieve your life goals and to thrive, even in the presence of adversity. To this end, we want to provide a therapeutic environment that minimises the presence of physical toxins and allergens. We do this by: • Reducing possibility of dustmites in the air & furnishings – we have polished floor boards and as little clutter as we can practically manage. • Using only environmentally-friendly and low toxicity cleaning products. • Offering you filtered water out of locally made stoneware with ceramic filters. • Leafy green foliage in our rooms to improve air quality. • Keeping our air conditioners clean and serviced. • Avoiding use of perfumed products. We are committed to operating with a small footprint on our vulnerable planet. We do this by practicing the 5Rs: Reduce: limiting the amount of materials we use, means we minimise waste. For example, our bathrooms offer cotton cloths for hand-drying instead of paper. Reuse: use items again. There are no throw-away paper or plastic cups here. Recycle: redirecting waste items such as paper, glass, recyclable plastics and cans to recycling. Refuse: Avoid purchasing or using items that are not recyclable. ROT: Composting Waste – we have a worm farm in the backyard In our staff kitchen we use organic and fair-trade products. There is no single use plastic in our kitchen – we use beeswax wraps instead. We preference locally made products. We will offer information electronically in preference to paper where convenient for you. As far as practicable, we are using energy efficient appliances. Our garden is being designed to minimise need for watering. Over our first 12 months of operation, we will gradually improve the efficiency of our lighting and the thermal properties of our building. We try to keep our energy consumption low – our air conditioning units are used with fans to optimise heating/cooling efficiency. We will have solar panels installed as soon as practicable. In serving our health and eco-sustainability values, we'll make mistakes, we'll get distracted and be limited by inevitable practical constraints. Being humble about our imperfections and limitations is another value we have chosen to serve. When you visit, we’d be delighted to hear your ideas about how we can be even more eco-friendly. Warm regards, Jennifer