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Four-star destination hotel Richmond Hill has received a gold award by Green Tourism, the highest-level award in the programme.
The Green Tourism awards certification programme recognises the commitment of tourism businesses which actively work to be more sustainable in all areas. The gold award was given to Richmond Hill following an “impressive” score of 80%.
The accreditation is measured across three main goals; people, places and planet which includes social responsibility, energy saving and waste minimisation.
Throughout the project, the hotel has implemented a number of sustainability initiatives to ensure its services are as eco-friendly as possible, including creating a “Green team” that meets once a week to help drive these initiatives.
Initiatives include working with like-minded businesses and suppliers who “share the same sustainability values”, including food and drink products served within the hotel and restaurant 144 On The Hill.
The hotel has also promoted biodiversity throughout the business and has a mini herb garden and bird feeds in the grounds whilst maintaining the front garden to help attract wildlife.
Meanwhile, energy use from all fuel sources is regularly monitored with initiatives like light timings and sensors installed to reduce electricity use, while the hotel also recycles 100% of all glass.
Richmond Hill was also recently certified as a Carbon Neutral hotel by Carbon Neutral Britain for its sustainability efforts.
Liva Jones, HR manager of Richmond Hill Hotel, said: “Sustainability plays a significant part in the hotel’s day-to-day operations and achieving gold status highlights the great work the team are doing on a daily basis.
“More and more travellers check out environmental credentials and it’s so important that we play our part and showcase Richmond Hill as a business which is doing all it can to be as sustainable as possible.”
She added: “We have a number of initiatives in place which have helped us to achieve this award, from running green tourism awareness training for all employees, to encouraging the use of public transport and our Cycle to Work scheme.
“This gold accreditation and our recent carbon neutral achievement is a credit to the team who work hard every day to improve our environmental efforts.”
