SIMPLY Staffordshire has been in operation since 2006, and originally started as an eco-friendly self-catering holiday home called Rowan House. The company now also offers eco-living courses, which focus on topics such as green housekeeping, growing your own vegetables and herbs, and creating decorative items for gardens. In addition, at the end of the summer co-director Emily Whitehead, pictured right, will be relaunching Simply Staffordshire's website, which will include a directory of local businesses and a small on-line shop.

Emily, aged 37, runs the firm with her mother, Maggie Peet. She says: "Rowan House was originally our family home and mum decided to downsize, and moved next door. She did up that place in an 'eco-way', and it featured on the BBC 2 television programme It's Not Easy Being Green.

"We decided to let out Rowan House as a holiday home. I'd always wanted to run a nice holiday place in the countryside. As a family we've always been environmentally conscious, and I worked for an eco-parenting charity called Babygroe when my children were smaller. So it made sense to run the accommodation as a four-star holiday home, but with environmental aspects which would make it easier for the guests. The end result is that the environmentally-friendly side has no impact on people's holidays, and their holiday has little or no impact on the environment in return."

Rowan House is located in the village of Alton – around one-and-a-half miles from the theme park Alton Towers. The holiday cottage sleeps up to eight people, and long and short breaks are available all year. There are four bedrooms – one with an en suite bathroom – and it has proved popular with families, walkers, climbers, abseilers, and hen parties alike. Guests can take advantage of the additional educational day courses and workshops provided by Simply Staffordshire, and also get help in tailoring their holiday so they can explore the area. An information pack and maps are available at the house for those wishing to make the most of where they are staying, and Emily and Maggie are always happy to pass on ideas about places to visit and things to do and see.

"We want people to come and discover Staffordshire," says Emily. "When the new website is launched, the strapline will be 'Living and Loving Staffordshire' and the idea is for it to be used by visitors and local people alike. It's such a beautiful area and there are so many wonderful places to visit. And the best thing is that we can help people to have a fantastic holiday which has no impact on the environment – often without realising."

The main ethos of an eco-friendly holiday with Simply Staffordshire is that guests can enjoy all the regular luxuries and treats of being away from home, yet with environmentally friendly methods running along in the background. Emily and Maggie provide a number of eco-friendly products for people to use while they are at Rowan House, and have had a great deal of positive feedback as a result.

Emily says: "A lot of people say they are surprised at how well some of the products work, and say they will be using them again once they get home. We provide things like rechargeable batteries, and we discourage guests from bringing their own detergents for example from home – providing instead a range of household cleaning items for them to use. We use brands like Ecover, Faith in Nature, and Bio-D. We also provide full recycling facilities. We ask people to sort out their rubbish into the different bins, and we take it from there.

"Rowan House has all the comforts of a modern home – a flat-screen television in the lounge, games consoles, 100 per cent cotton bed linen – but in the background all these environmentally friendly systems are running. Most of the furniture is reclaimed and revived, and all new items have been bought locally. We also have 'Hippos' in the toilet, which help to conserve water in the cisterns.

"Our garden has been organically-managed for years. We only use collected water in the garden and never use a hose pipe. We grow all our own herbs and vegetables – none of which have pesticides or other chemical sprays put on them. And we leave our plants in the soil until winter, which provides food for the birds. There is a wonderful range of birds in our garden as a result. We also leave piles of wood, bricks and metals as a home over the winter months for useful insects like greenfly-eating ladybirds. These are known as Bug Hotels. The milk and eggs that we use in cooking are bought from a local farmer's shop.

"Other measures we take include only using eco-balls in the laundry, which prevents the build-up of residue in sulphate-based washing powders. Our washing machine is AAA energy efficiency rated, and we never tumble dry what we wash.

"Our website is powered by the environmentally guided internet service Green ISP, which is a not-for-profit provider and does things like planting a tree for every new broadband and web hosting customer. Most of our business is non-paper based as all our booking forms are done via email and we don't produce a paper brochure. And if we do print anything, we use vegetable-based inks and recycled paper."

Simply Staffordshire also leaves an information pack out for its guests at Rowan House, which contains useful household tips on how to be Earth-friendly. These include pointers about taking a shower instead of a bath to save water, and not leaving the tap on while brushing your teeth.

Emily adds: "We don't ram it down people's throats, we just provide the information and the alternative products for those who want them. There are added incentives as well, like a 10 per cent discount off the price of the accommodation for those who travel by public transport. And we'll pick people up from the station or wherever for free.

"People often don't know what is right on their doorstep, and Rowan House is somewhere from which they can explore the local area while respecting the environment they are in."