Black Barn and Sustainability

At Black Barn we don't believe sustainability is a ‘box to tick’ and considered done. We are constantly reviewing our practices, our purchases and our behaviour to ensure we are doing everything we can to help our planet through a very tough time.

This belief started right from the outset. Before we even planted our vines our immediate neighbour was Weleda (and still is 20 years later) Their strict growing regimes for organic herbs and botanicals meant they simply could not tolerate any spray drift whatsoever of harmful chemicals. So right from the beginning we adjusted our spraying regimes to be as natural as possible causing no harm to the environment – including our neighbours.

Our retreats are in stunning locations where the health of the natural environment is critical to the entire experience. Therefore we have planted literally thousands of trees over many years to sequester carbon, prevent slips and erosion and to help settle and surround the retreats more naturally in to their environment. This programme is ongoing.

And of course for our guests we only provide environmentally friendly cleaning products and locally made soaps and shampoos with no single-use plastic containers.
Where possible all lighting has been changed out to more energy efficient bulbs, no lighting or heating is left on between stays and pool heating is restricted to the summer months. We also obviously offer recycling bins in every retreat.

Another area we have continued to innovate is with our concerts. We were concerned about the number of plastic cups, bottles and general waste that was left at the end of each event.
Working with The Hawke’s Bay Environment Centre we have continued to improve and change our practices to the point that today all concert rubbish is separated and graded, sent off for composting and recycling and the amount of material that goes to landfill is now down to an absolute minimum.

And finally we are passionate supporters of everything local. Our kitchen store ships no food in from around the country or around the world as it is all sourced locally. And our Summer Grower’s market supports local growers and producers to simply sell their home grown produce directly to the consumer with no shipping, freight or unnecessary packaging.