October 30th, 2009: Choosing a luxury country house or castle for a weekend away is not usually associated with being "eco". Unless you choose one from Ireland's Blue Book, and its collection of exclusive country getaways. A year ago, Ireland's Blue Book agreed with members to work towards achieving the EU Flower Ecolabel, a prestigious international green accreditation, supported by Failte Ireland, which is awarded to tourism businesses with exemplary green practices, As many of these businesses now strive to change their ways, two have now been awarded this coveted award - Belle Isle Estate in County Fermanagh and Coopershill Country House Hotel in County Sligo.

Simon O'Hara, the seventh generation of O'Haras to live at Coopershill, an elegant 18^th century manor house, points out that he was given an unfair advantage in "modernising" his hotel for a cleaner, greener future; "Like so many buildings of its era, Coopershill was designed with sustainability at its core. It still houses the vast wood burning stove which heats the whole house from one source. We use an original rainwater harvesting system and water is still sourced from our natural spring." O'Hara has also maintained the farming tradition here, and converted the land into pasture for fallow deer, producing venison now in great demand at farmers' markets.

At Belle Isle Estate, which boasts a castle, cottages, courtyard apartments and a cookery school at its stunning location on the shores of Lough Erne, agent for Belle Isle Charles Plunket started his green journey by replacing the ancient oil burning boiler with a wood pellet one a couple of years ago. After recognising the huge cost benefits of going green, Plunket investigated a transformation of the rest of his business. The biggest obstacle was, surprisingly, changing lightbulbs, "I discovered, to my horror, that there were 553 light bulbs, of which only 7 were low energy."

Both businesses recycle as much as they can, use environmentally-friendly cleaning products, scrupulously monitor energy usage, and inform all their guests of environmental and economically sustaining activities in their area such as walking trails, cycling, public transport and slow food options.

Coopershill and Belle Isle have been overwhelmed by the reaction of staff during their period of change, "I had no idea of the amount of paperwork that was involved! But there was considerable enthusiasm from all the staff which made the process much easier", says Plunket. O'Hara agrees, adding that not only has his staff whole heartedly committed to achieving an ethical business, but his guests love it too, "Far from feeling patronized, they feel more involved with Coopershill and ask us about our water, energy and food sourcing. By proving that being green doesn't mean you have to live in a teepee and become a vegetarian, we can inspire people to live more environmentally friendly lives when they get home."

Ireland's Blue Book has been a major lever of change in Irish tourism, working closely with Greenbox, an award-winning organisation set up to give Irish tourism businesses a true shade of green. Hilary Finlay, Blue Book's Marketing Director is delighted, not only with Belle Isle and Coopershill, but of with all members striving to put Ireland on the rapidly changing international map of green tourism. "When the opportunity arose for the Blue Book to assist our members with the EU Flower process, we did so without hesitation. The commitment shown by our members is quite staggering. We hope to be the vanguard for Irish hotels and are confident of having a bouquet of Blue Book members with EU Flower accreditation by the end 2009".