WINNER: BEST NEW BUSINESS

The eco entrepreneur
A lifelong interest in environmental issues led Kate Grubb to build a green holiday cottage in the Shropshire countryside, where guests can stay in comfort with a clear conscience
WORDS BY HESTER LACEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY CRISTIAN BARNETT

THE FIRST HINT that the Ecocabin is a holiday cottage with a difference comes from the two wormeries on the veranda. Inside the attractive wooden chalet, Kate Grubb is adding a final polish to the immaculate bathroom with Ecover cleaning products. The beds are already made up with crisply ironed organic-cotton sheets. The utility room is stocked with pellets for the wood-burning stove. The box of food waiting for Kate’s latest guests is filled with fresh goodies that include local cheese, smoked salmon, cakes made by a neighbour and organic vegetables from a nearby farm.

The Ecocabin is tucked away under a sycamore tree in the lush Shropshire countryside, on land that has been farmed for generations by the family of Kate’s husband, Jamie. It was working as a cleaner that first inspired Kate to create this environmentally friendly holiday retreat. When her daughter Martha, now four, was born, she wanted a job that would fit around family life, so she started cleaning local holiday cottages and was shocked at how environmentally unfriendly a holiday could be.

“I’ve always had a keen interest in the environment, and so the amount of chemicals I was using worried me,” she recalls. “The heating systems used a lot of oil, people would turn up with six bags of supermarket shopping, and when they left, I’d find bags and bags of unsorted rubbish, even after just one weekend.”

While she was stripping beds and scrubbing lavatories, Kate decided that there had to be a better way, so she set out to build her own eco-friendly holiday home. “Never underestimate the cleaner,” she laughs. “People said, ‘You can’t do it, you don’t know anything about design,’ but I had nothing to live up to, so, in fact, that was an advantage!”

She got to work in August 2004 and was ready for her first guests by Easter 2005. A local company put up the timber structure, but Kate did nearly everything else herself. She installed the sheep’s wool insulation and the reed wall panels. A local plasterer finished the walls with lime and Kate painted them with clay-based paint. The kitchen worktops are even made from recycled yogurt cartons.

Everything possible was sourced close at hand, from the bathroom tiles to the reclaimed furniture. She picked up a beautiful Fifties kitchen cabinet for £40 and found the porcelain kitchen sink via an ad in the local paper.

Each detail has been thought out; Kate even provides eco-friendly nappies. She also stocks a small honesty shop with organic groceries, local honey and jam. “If people don’t need to shop, they won’t need to use their cars,” she explains. She will collect guests who arrive by train and visitors are able to walk or cycle straight from the front door to explore quiet footpaths and tranquil lanes.

Guests appreciate the Ecocabin for more than its green credentials, however. Depending on the season, they can curl up snugly in front of the stove, or fire up the barbecue, and the Ecocabin’s cosiness gains high praise. I realised when I did my business plan that I needed wide appeal,” Kate says. “I’m aiming it at people who would usually go to a holiday cottage, and even though the Ecocabin is as environmentally friendly as it can be, there is no compromise on comfort.”

Kate got started with the help of grants from Defra’s Rural Enterprise Scheme and the Countryside Agency, via WiRE, plus an interest-free loan from The Prince’s Trust. She also received plenty of other assistance along the way, as her project struck a chord with many of the people she asked for advice. A friend’s father drew up her plans in exchange for a bottle of whisky, and an environmental consultant gave his services in return for a homemade spiced apple cake.

“A lot of people have helped me and now I feel very strongly that I want to do the same for others,” she says. “I think I was the first person to bring everything together to make the Ecocabin, but now I know of two other cottages — one very close to here that is off-grid and has a wind turbine, and one in Yorkshire built of straw bales,” Kate does not see other eco-cottages as rivals; in fact, she has linked them to her website. “I’m thrilled to bits that other people are doing it. I’m not a property developer and I don’t want a holiday park. I want other people to do the same, so that there can be ecocabins everywhere. That was the whole point from the beginning; I felt I had a great idea and wanted to inspire others.”

The Ecocabin has been even more successful than Kate could have hoped. “I panicked a bit at the beginning but once I got started, the reservations came rolling in.” Now she is booked up well in advance, and her own special brand of environmentally friendly comfort is attracting comments in the guestbook such as, “We all loved it here” and “We didn’t have long enough”. And even the cleaning these days is a pleasure.

For more details about the Ecocabin, call 01547 530183 or visit www.ecocabin.co.uk.