In a move to reduce the carbon footprint of Villa Lale’s operations, the dedicated server that runs Villa Lale’s web site is now 100% carbon neutral. This has been achieved by purchasing certified Wind Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) for 130% of the electricity used to both power and cool the Villa Lale server. So in effect all the energy that is used by the Villa Lale web site is now powered from wind turbines.
October 2009 Update: Unscrupulous individuals and estate agents still continue to offer land and property in Orhaniye for sale to British citizens. This is illegal. BRITISH CITIZENS CANNOT BUY LAND OR PROPERTY IN ORHANIYE, EITHER AS INDIVIDUALS OR THROUGH A TURKISH COMPANY. For a first hand experience of how confidence tricksters stole several British couples’ life savings, please email Linsey Miller. She will explain the financial impact of believing such people and the subsequent battle to recover their money through the Turkish courts.
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Why not learn to dive when you are staying in Orhaniye or get in some refresher dives? The Aegean sea is a great place to learn to Scuba dive. In Marmaris there are several PADI certified diving schools who can organize daily diving trips based out of Marmaris. The nearest PADI diving school to the villa is in Içmeler and is called Divers Delight.
From Orhaniye, you can cut across the Peninsula and enjoy a quiet drive to Içmeler, driving through scented pinewoods and enjoying wonderful views as you drop down into Içmeler.
Alternatively Divers Delight can arrange transfers to the Içmeler diving school from Orhaniye.
Green tourism:
Sustainable Tourism, Eco-tourism, Green Tourism. There are many labels, but whatever you prefer to call it, the intent remains the same: low impact, environmentally-friendly tourism that cherishes, not destroys. This is what we aim to achieve in Orhaniye. We support sustainable tourism that enables our guests to enjoy the beauty of Orhaniye whilst minimising the impact on the environment, through a number of low environmental impact activities.
Local impact construction:
We have partnered with a local Turkish Architect Nurtan Onur, who has designed and built our villas with great care for the local environment. We mainly used local craftsmen from Orhaniye during the construction phase, thus supporting the local village economy. Most materials were sourced locally around the Bozburun Peninsula.
The villas are built to the highest construction standards, with exceptionally thick walls and extra insulation materials to reduce the requirement for air conditioning in the summer or heating in the winter. For example, in Villa Nurtan and Villa Lale, the walls consist of an inner shell of concrete with bricks and insulation, with an outer shell of 25cm thick solid stone.
In Villa Anni the bricks are laid width-way, faced with insulation in order to further increase the insulation. Hot water is entirely provided by solar energy, and in Villa Nurtan, buillt for all year living, we probably have the peninusula’s only lagged hot water tank!
Local support team:
All the team that look after you during your holiday in Orhaniye live locally and we further aim to contribute to the local village economy by buying supplies locally. Most of the furniture in the villas was made in Orhaniye’s workshops, also supporting local employment and the village economy.
Low impact operation:
We have drilled wells in Villa Nurtan (80 metres deep) and Villa Lale (85 metres deep) in order to minimise the impact on the local water supply. The swimming pool is mainly filled at the start of the season with spring water, and we try to use the minimum use of chemicals to keep the pool clean.
We have been trying to source eco friendly products for cleaning and washing machines/dish washers, but until we can find a regular supplier we bring over as what we can from the U.K. We have also installed a five stage reverse osmosis water filter to produce drinking water from the local village water supply. This avoids the need to purchase and the environmental impact of transporting heavy bottled water.
We aim to garden organically, we seek to recycle our garden waste, and we plant a variety of fruits and vegetables for our guests to enjoy. There are also waste recycling facilities locally in Orhaniye Marina, which are available to our guests.
Flights to Turkey:
According to the World Land Trust, and using their carbon offset calculator, a return flight from Manchester to Dalaman produces 1.23 tonnes CO2 per person. Click here for their carbon offset calculator. You can then offset your CO2 emissions by donating to World Land Trust restoration ecology projects or equivalent projects.