A Pembrokeshire holiday village has been found to have some of the cleanest air in the UK.

Bluestone National Park Resort has been monitoring its air quality and found it to be on par with Narberth, one of the 16 rural locations used by the UK Government as a baseline for the cleanest air in the country.

The resort is now inviting public and private landowners across the UK and internationally to use its operation as a model for improving biodiversity.

Professor Paul Lewis, chief scientific officer at Health and Wellbeing 360, the environmental data company overseeing the air quality monitoring at the resort, said: "The monitoring being undertaken at Bluestone measures the concentration of tiny particles in the air known as PM2.5 from the likes of tiny specks of dust to pollen.

"Of the annual average PM2.5 measured over the last year across the 16 government monitoring sites, Narberth, Bluestone’s hometown, comes fifth, highlighting the better air quality in the area compared to many other parts of the UK.

"We started monitoring the air quality at Bluestone in August 2024 and look forward to benchmarking its average figure in the scheme of this league table in 12 months’ time."

Bluestone National Park Resort has a range of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives to support social, economic, and ecological resilience.

The resort, located within Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, has transformed dairy farmland, which was once an ecological desert, into a thriving nature reserve.

Environmental scientist Marten Lewis, who joined the resort to implement founder William McNamara’s biodiversity visions, said: "We hear a lot about carbon reduction in the race to net zero and less about the importance of biodiversity but the two are inextricably linked.

"Our model of increasing biodiversity means the landholding is set to sequester, or capture, around 1,591 tonnes of carbon over 30 years, over what the dairy farm it replaced would have done.

"The Adonis Blue Environmental Wildlife Trust Consultancy estimated that Bluestone’s site and its plans to further protect and transform its significant habitat and green space to a biodiverse rich mosaic of grassland, woodland and hedgerows could achieve more than a 50 per cent net gain in biodiversity managed for future generations.

"In doing this, Bluestone is creating a natural area connecting habitat and species enhancing the national park.

"If our model were to be adopted by a public or county owned entity the profits could be used for further regeneration.

"We’re hoping to inspire landowners to follow suit using Bluestone as the blueprint.

"A biodiversity net gain of 50 per cent is five times the 10 per cent introduced in February 2024 as required of most new developments in England."

Among its ESG initiatives, Bluestone has a five-hectare 3.2MW solar farm, has fully transitioned to BioLPG, provides electric buggies for guests, is electrifying its cars and vans, and uses Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil to fuel tractors.

More than 850 people are employed by the resort, which generates at least £10 million worth of business for suppliers in Wales each year.

Neighbouring businesses are supported through life cycle assessments relating to carbon reduction, and communities benefit from the business’ charitable fund through three streams of funding spanning mental wellness and environmental projects.

Since 2018, Bluestone has reduced its carbon emissions from purchased energy by more than 90 per cent.

It was the first business in the world to recycle nappies and use them in road surfaces on its site, has planted more than 60 acres of native woodland, and attained the international Green Key award in recognition of its environmental standards.

For more information about Bluestone National Park Resort, visit its website.