Lamington Group Appoints Award-Winning Designer Josh Renouf to Lead Circular Design Initiative

Posted in Business, News, People on 10 April, 2025

Lamington Group, a leading developer and operator of the award-winning sustainable Hometel brand, room2, is proud to announce the appointment of Josh Renouf as Circular Design Manager, marking a major step forward in the company’s commitment to zero-waste-to-landfill and circular economy practices.

In this newly created role, Josh brings his creativity to a fresh challenge: reducing hospitality waste and transforming it into ‘new’ purposeful and functional products.

Josh joins Lamington Group with a strong background in sustainable product innovation. He is best known for creating The Barisieur, the viral coffee-brewing alarm clock, and founding Joy Resolve, a brand known for its functional, environmentally conscious designs – including a coffee table made from coffee grounds.

In his new role, Josh will lead the development of a dedicated circular design studio in Hammersmith, West London, focused on transforming hotel waste into high-quality, functional products. Working closely with Lamington Group’s operations at room2 Chiswick, Southampton, and Belfast, the initiative aims to intercept and repurpose waste generated across hotel sites, from plastic and textiles to food and construction materials, and reintroduce them into the guest experience.

“Our ambition is to close the loop on hotel waste,” said Renouf. “We’re building a financially viable circular design studio that makes sustainability tangible and engaging – not only for our guests but for the industry.”

Lamington Group’s room2 is the UK’s first hospitality brand to commit to zero-waste-to-landfill. In 2021, they began experimenting with circular design at room2. They have created a welcome table from their own broken shampoo bottles, coasters from bottle caps, and sourced carpets made from recycled fishing nets and light fixtures made from orange peels. The success of these projects revealed an opportunity to further invest in circularity across design and operations.

This new initiative is a key milestone in Lamington Group’s broader sustainability strategy and One Planet Living framework, which includes its industry-leading commitment to develop and operate net zero hotels and embed circularity into every stage of design and operation.

“Josh brings both creativity and technical expertise to this next phase of our sustainability journey,” said Robert Godwin, CEO, Lamington Group. “His work aligns with our mission to lead the hospitality sector towards a circular future.”

In addition to Lamington Group’s ongoing initiatives related to composting, targeted recycling programs for guests and waste-to-energy partnerships, they are undertaking a comprehensive waste audit to better understand the nature of waste across their portfolio. These insights will inform the development of products and materials that align with the Group’s operations and commitment to zero waste. The circular design studio will also serve as a platform for public engagement and industry collaboration, including a future online store, workshop and partnerships with like-minded organisations.

About Lamington Group
Lamington Group is an independent family-owned real estate investment and development company, which was founded in the 1960s and is based in West London. Led by Managing Director Robert Godwin, the group has made the commitment to only build and operate to whole-life net zero standards for any new properties that started being developed after the launch of their net zero roadmap in September 2021. Lamington Group has a family of brands comprising room2; Lamington Apartments; Lamington Developments; Lamington Lettings and Missionworks, the first foray into co-working spaces.

About room2
room2 is the UK’s first hometel brand, conceived in 2015 by Lamington Group. The brainchild of brothers Robert and Stuart Godwin, former members of the British Olympic Development Sailing team, hometels combine the best elements from Airbnb, serviced apartments and boutique hotels in an offering designed to appeal equally to corporate and leisure guests and those seeking alternative forms of residential accommodation. With innovative features such as 24-hour stays as standard, mattress selection, room2’s highly flexible offer provides kitchens in most rooms and is available from one night to one year.

room2 currently has four operational locations, in Southampton, Hammersmith and room2 Chiswick, which opened in December 2021 marking the world’s first fully whole life net zero hotel. room2 Belfast opened in October 2023. room2 has a further pipeline of live projects across the UK with a Gross Development Value of over £100 million, featuring a mix of wholly owned assets and those pre-leased to room2 by development partners. room2 has signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism and is committed to accelerating climate action to cut global tourism emissions. room2’s Southampton and Belfast properties were recently rated as the top hotel in Southampton and Belfast by TripAdvisor thanks to guest reviews.