A long time ago, we were advised to turn the courtyard into car parking (obviously). Instead we decided to turn it into a low density green space that tenants and visitors could enjoy.

The crab apple trees are amazing in spring and autumn. The grass beneath less spectacular. We therefore decided to convert this into a Wildflower Meadow.

This requires scarifying and seating which ticks two of our boxes. Our intern Gardner is however still useless so all of the above.

We are always on the lookout to do things in different and better ways, and intern Cameron has usefully deployed new products in our kitchen.

‘All of the above’ is the correct answer, but the most impactful is the scrubbing pads which used to be all plastic and thrown away every week.

The replacements are natural fibres that are put in the dishwasher and washed weekly and last months.

Claydon Court was the first organisation to sign up for the Low Carbon Champions project in 2010.  It was launched by Ned Harrison who like us is still around - just!

When the project finished in 2014, we used interns to continue supporting local champions.  We called this Low Carbon Deviants to reflect our Positive Deviance approach and to avoid confusion with the original programme.  We had some very odd visitors to our web site.

Suffolk County Council later took control back as part of their Greenest County initiative and relaunched the programme.  It is now called Carbon Charter as the focus is currently more on organisations than individuals.

Claydon Court has been a Gold Member since inception.

Old sleepers - whether real ex-railway ones or just designed for gardens - are contaminated  with chemicals to stop them rotting.

Drilling holes for solitary bees seems a good idea but they are very sensitive and would kill them very quickly.   Fortunately tougher insects use them as home.

Thanks to Suffolk Wildlife Trust for advice on this.

When we purchased Claydon Court in 1997 it had an EPC rating of ‘G’.  Mostly farm buildings with zero insulation, the property was extended and refurbished to a high quality but with minimal environmental considerations.

Suffolk County Council’s Low Carbon Champions initiative in 2010 was the driver for us investing nearly £100,000 in significant energy efficiency measures. These took our EPC rating to ‘A’ and save tenants between £10,000 and £30,000 a year depending on the price of energy.

We were slightly saddened to discover that there was a new rating above a called ‘A Plus’ which is where organisations become carbon negative by creating more energy than they use. That will require wind turbines which are currently beyond our reach.

We decided to do something different from floor tiles and researched recycled flooring materials.

Old school gyms are popular and we found one from a salvage company Oop North.

It was found on eBay.

Claydon Court has had EV chargers for a long time. For many years they were neglected and under used.

You can't ‘take a horse to water’ unless there is water there in the first place and lack of reliable charging capacity is a serious barrier to EV adoption. Claydon Court has invested heavily here and will be increasing our Charger Farm to 9 and then 12 in Q1 of 2026.

Use of chargers is Free Vend with costs covered by £1.50 psf charge on all tenants.

Wildlife ponds are really easy.  Just dig a hole, line it and put some water in.  We did this three years ago and have been amazed at what our pond attracts.

We had dragonflies from year one.  Frog spawn arrived in year two. 

It’s only a matter of time before ‘Chatty’ Alan Carr turns up too.  Or Claudia Winkelman maybe ffs?

Compost generate warmth and are often home to cold-blooded amphibians.

We have slow worms under ours.  One came out for some sun and was captured on video.

Thanks to Nethergate Wines for the pallets.  They are always happy to provide more.

We started off as Investors in Wildlife and thought it was a great title.  It has since been changed to Business Ambassadors which imho is not so good.

For our £250 a year we get advice from the amazing Cathy Smith on what we should be doing.  We hope to share this wisdom with other Suffolk companies.

The original Low Carbon Champions project only encouraged Measuring and Reducing.  Claydon Court went a further and Offset our Emissions with World Land Trust in 2012 and have continued ever since.

Initially we explored offsetting in Suffolk but there were not many schemes, and the price was high. You get much more ‘Bangs for your Buck’ investing in already incredibly environmentally diverse places overseas,  and this is exactly what World Land Trust does.

They are based in Halesworth, just up the road

It is not an exact science, but studies suggest that moving from EPC rating ‘A’ to ‘G’ will HALVE our energy costs.

On that assumption, savings to tenants have varied between £10,000 and £30,000 every year depending on the price of energy at the time.  

This fact is regularly promoted to tenants and justifies our Carbon Charge which repays capital investments as well as carbon offsets.