TLO SUSTAINABILITY

Here at The Lazy Olive we care a lot about our surroundings and the environment and do our best to live up to our environmental responsibilities. Every year we make a step to lighten our footprint on this planet.

RECYCLING

We try to recycle as many materials as possible. Glass, paper, metals and plastic can all be recycled here. As our guests you can help us by separating your packaging from your food waste. Our maids will do the rest. We have a flock of chickens that are more than happy to deal with your leftovers, with the upside of getting fresh eggs back the next morning!

What is not eaten by our animals ends up in our composting tanks and gets used as fertilizer.

PLASTIC

Reduction of plastic packaging is also something we are working on, and it is why we kindly ask you to refrain from buying plastic plates, glasses or cutlery, as each apartment is equipped with real ones and we are happy to provide more and wash them for you as needed. We also try to use as few plastic bottles as possible and therefore provide you with perfectly drinkable tap water and, if you prefer, the option to refill the jugs you will find in your fridge from the water purification system that we have installed, which provides pure chilled still or sparkling water. Head down to the BBQ area to fill up.

We have no plastic furniture and as caterers we avoid buying food if in plastic packaging.

CARBON FOOTPRINT

We also try to reduce our CO2 emissions as much as possible. To do this in 2007 we bought a 10 acre block of regenerating temperate rain forest on Great Barrier Island in New Zealand which we will plant with more trees to increase its rate of carbon sequestration and plan to buy more land to do the same in the future.  Online carbon footprint calculators suggest that as a family and a business we are close to being carbon neutral. The forest is protected and cannot be developed so it will continue its work for us and for future generations. Hot water and heating for our own apartment where we live all year long is produced by a wood burner. The electricity is coming from a green company.

AIR CON

We have lived very comfortably for over 20 years without air con because Tuscan countryside was cool also in summer nights. In the last years we have noticed that part of the summer has become much hotter so now all of our apartments have it. Please use it with care and minimize the impact on our environment following simple rules: 1. don’t leave windows and doors open when you have air con on, the waste is huge 2. turn it off if you are not inside the apartment as it takes literally minutes to make it fresh 3. have it on like 1 hour before going to sleep and then turn it off. We won't be responsible if  the system goes in safe mode and stops working to selfprotect as it means that the mentioned criteria haven't been respected and we believe and rely on our guest's care for the environment. Recently Italy has approved a new law to contain the waste of energy which limits the use of heating and cooling to a few hours per day and forbids the use of air con in mid season when not really needed. Please be responsible and don't use it then in May, September and October.

WATER

we live in a dry area so ask our guests kindly not to waste water and to use it responsibly. We collect rain water for irrigation in a big tank and have also 2 ponds which together as a water supply, are full of wild life with toads, frogs, salamanders, ducks and goose free to fly away but here by choice, sharing our place with us. We will only change your towels when asked.

LOCAL FAUNA

We protect it as much as possible infact deers, hairs, wild boars are free to live and escape hunters inside our fenced property and we don’t mind if they eat some of our olives.

OUR APARTMENTS have old recycled furniture, no plastic, low consumption light bulbs.

BIODIVERSITY we try to plant mainly local plants, have a cow and 5 sheep eating the grass in the olive grove so we reduce hours on tractors and practise some permaculture, have a rotation in the veg garden.

THE LAZY OLIVE FOOD

Most of our ingredients come from local suppliers which reduces the environmental impact of your food and supports local people maintaining and continuing local traditions. We do our best to have zero kilometre food and only a very small percentage of our shopping comes from supermarkets where we still only buy Tuscan organic products.

The olive trees around you provide the organic cold pressed extra-virgin olive oil that we use exclusively here.

Many vegetables come from our small organic garden. More produce comes from Sabrina at Podere Percenna, who has a larger organic vegetable garden in Buonconvento, a few kilometres away. You can find her every Saturday morning at the Asciano market. We try to serve mostly season vegetables.

Tuscany is famous for its pecorino cheese and you may have seen the Monni family sheep grazing the fields in front of us in the mornings, or on the other side, the Farina Brothers sheep, who are also making an incredible ricotta, stracchino and more soft cheeses. All of our bread is homemade with flours from Podere Pereto, a local bio-dynamic grower which uses systems that improve the soil while giving us delicious flavours to work with, so try not to miss our focaccia!

Meats are all organic and from the area as we really care about promoting farms with grass fed happy animals. Beef in particular comes from Tenuta La Fratta, an organic beef farm close to Sinalunga: they farm Chianina cows, once used as a traction animal and now famous for T-bone steaks. The cows are mostly pasture fed and live a happy laid back life without ever having to pull a plough.

We are strong on Vegetarian and Vegan menus and totally encourage them. As a family we are 90% vegetarian. Only offer tasting menus or menus decided in advance, to avoid wasting any food.

We are happy to share our home and lifestyle with you and with your contribution we can be even more sustainable!!!