We won!
Sheepdrove won two awards from the Sustainable Wedding Alliance! We are passionately committed to sustainability and so are absolutely thrilled to receive this recognition.
Net Zero Leader
Building Biodiversity
We could not be prouder of the entire Sheepdrove team and all who have supported our journey towards sustainability.
We hope that winning these awards will help Sheepdrove raise our profile as a eco wedding venue, celebrate our hard working team’s efforts, obtain wider recognition for our sustainable practices and engage more wedding couples by showing that choosing green does not mean compromising on style, setting or budget.
Net Zero Leader
Sheepdrove was opened nearly 20 years ago by the now King to celebrate one of the most sustainable venues in the country. It was constructed with sustainable building materials, extracted water from the local aquifer and cleaned it with our own reed bed system; at that time our venue was also one of the most energy efficient.
In March 2022, we turned off the gas central heating; our venue is now heated by a ground source system that draws energy from a nearby field. This innovation has allowed us to eradicate any direct emissions from powering our venue and, combined with using 100% renewable energy, Sheepdrove is a net zero venue. In fact we have a net positive climate impact as we reduce emissions through exporting our renewable energy from onsite solar panels and wind turbines.
We are one of the few venues in the UK that has truly achieved net zero in operation by installing renewable heating and having all electricity provided by renewable sources. Our net positive achievements and aspiration, aim to lead those within the industry to go further, so that couples, family and friends can celebrate without impacting climate or biodiversity.
Building Biodiversity
The natural environment is central to all our activities at Sheepdrove. For 25 years a concerted effort has been to repair the environmental damage inflicted on the land by post-war intensive farming practices reliant on artificial inputs. Lost features like hedgerows, trees and dew ponds were put back into this heritage AONB landscape with two dew ponds, created, thousands of hedgerow shrubs planted and over sixty five acres of new woodland established. Sheepdrove is now home to over 13,000 metres of hedgerow and almost 100 acres of woodland. In 2000 the Millennium aka Jonathan’s [Porritt) Wood was planted to offset Forum for the Future’s carbon emissions. In 2002 a constructed wetlands was created to treat of waste water and as habitat creation.
In October 2021 we commenced a rewilding project in the centre of the farm to create another ecologically diverse wildlife habitat in our mosaic of valuable ecosystems.
In February 2022 a community woodland was planted at Sheepdrove by volunteers from Lambourn village and the surrounding area with support from Lambourn Junction Community Interest Company, Lambourn WI and C of E Primary School. Native species were donated by The Woodland Trust. Additional oaks were provided by West Berkshire Council for Queen’s Green Canopy.
