Lets go Green at GreenTiles

Looking after our lovely Isle of Wight

At the Art Deco HouseUK, being green is more than the fact that the original name of the house was “Green Tiles” or that we have our iconic green tiled roof!

We want to be a green, environmentally positive holiday home, we want our business to be a part of Responsible Tourism (which means a lot more than just “Sustainable”)

Buying local

Since we established our business, we have always striven to buy local. All of our contractors come from the Isle of Wight, including KH Matthews, a family business of decorators, Stylish Windows, a locally owned  double glazing company who only employ Isle of Wight staff and who installed all our new double glazing during 2022 and 2023. We used to provide Apple Juice from an Isle of Wight orchard but when they sold their business we tried to stay as local as possible and now source directly from Hill Farm in Hampshire. If you look at some of our garden furniture and plants, we bought many from Care in the Garden (a non-profit Community Interest Company) who employ locals with additional needs, so we can support them. This allows us to put something back into the local communty.

We are proud to be an Isle of Wight business!

Investing in the Cultural Heritage of the Isle of Wight

You may be amazed to learn that the Art Deco HouseUK is not a listed building, but we are dedicated to ensuring that the Art Deco HouseUK is preserved and also improved as part of the Isle of Wight’s cultural heritage. Sharon and Laurence, the owners of the Art Deco HouseUK realise that actually we are just the guardians of the house for our generation and will pass it on to new guardians one day. We have therefore invested all of the profits over the 9 years since we bought the house in restoring the house to its formal glory and probably actually improving it. Our stained glass windows had not been properly repaired or restored for over 90 years. We have carefully restored them to the way they once looked by removing them, having them dismantled by hand by experts and then releaded and put back together again (by IoW stained glass experts Southern Lights). Any broken pieces that could not be repaired were replaced, as much as possible, by matching with other glass from the 1930s.

Travelling to and from the Art Deco HouseUK by public transport

Starting a holiday as early as possible is always our dream, so why not come on the train all the way from London or your local station. It is a great journey to buy a through ticket that brings you into Portsmouth Harbour Railway Station then to walk to the end of the platform to jump onto WightLink’s passenger ferry, disembarking on Ryde Pier to catch the train, a refurbished 1970s tube train to Lake station, then walk along the cliff top to the Art Deco HouseUK (or to Shanklin station , then catch a pre-ordered local taxi instead).

Travel while on the Isle of Wight

Leave the car behind and travel on the bus throughout the Isle of Wight. It’s greener, cleaner and fun. There is a bus stop just 300 yards from Art Deco House UK. https://www.islandbuses.info/

Recycle

We offer full recycling for plastics, paper, cardboard and other recyclable materials in a dedicated recycling large bin outside the side door, plus another for the bottles. We also have our own waste licenses so we can manage the collection of these and our general waste (landfill) waste only when the bins are nearly full, so no wasted journey for our waste collection contractor on the Isle of Wight

Delivering furniture and other purchases

It is so wasteful having half empty delivery vehicles travelling to the Isle of Wight to deliver the Art Deco treasures we source from throughout the UK. We reduce our carbon footprint for deliveries in two ways. Where possible we strive to share other delivery routes by using “AnyVan”. This company allow couriers to gradually fill up their vehicles over several days where the route can be shared by multiple customers, thereby avoiding individual journeys. Then we take delivery to our home property in Windsor where we store the purchases until the next planned travel trip to the Island by the owners and we then bring the purchases over when we are also coming over. By following this process we save multiple journeys every year from half empty vans. Add to this, we often contact Isle of Wight based couriers and where they may have empty vans returning to the Isle of Wight after making mainland deliveries, we use that space to help support their business and reduce additional road journeys.