Pinewoods

Holkham, a 25,000-acre estate, encompasses a range of businesses - spanning farming, conservation and house building to hospitality, leisure and tourism. Holkham’s vision is to be the UK’s most pioneering and sustainable rural estate, delivered through objectives set out within the estate’s comprehensive WONDER action plan.

Holkham’s WONDER strategy places conservation and sustainability at the core of its business decisions and guest experiences. Careful impact measurement and progress monitoring is essential to working towards their goals to increase natural capital and biodiversity (from soil and habitats to fauna and flora), reduce waste and become a carbon negative estate.

Starting with small behavioural changes, and progressively expanding initiatives, an incremental approach has added up to significant shifts over time, with many elements also creating the additional benefit of reducing operational costs. Projects have included trialling low-carbon fertilisers and husbandry techniques in a quest to produce nature and carbon friendly food, and investing in renewable energy and technology such as air and ground source heat pumps and biomass boilers.

Pinewoods, a holiday park within the Holkham Estate, comprises privately owned caravans, hire fleets and touring plots. With a committed desire to reduce its impact on the environment, Holkham’s investment at Pinewoods in 2024 saw the first all-electric caravan of its kind in the region. Traditionally, caravans have typically relied on gas, which is challenging for a business striving to reduce its carbon footprint. Working with manufacturer Willerby Holiday Homes, Pinewoods is trialling Willerby All-E, which encompasses a system that utilises intelligent technology to monitor and optimise electricity usage.

The result is that these caravans produce 98% less fuel emissions. Guests are also encouraged to adopt sustainable practices themselves and provided with the means to separate waste for recycling and composting. The motivation of this investment is simple – to both reduce the carbon consumption at Pinewoods whilst also offering guests the option of staying in eco-friendly accommodation.

Introduced to the fleet in 2024, the caravan is proving incredibly popular and has also gained interest in people wishing to own an all-electric caravan at Pinewoods to enjoy for years to come.