Strand Palace Aims for Top Sustainable Tourism Award

Posted in News on 10 January, 2020

Strand Palace has recently joined Green Tourism, one of the largest and most established sustainable certification programmes in the world, with the aim of achieving one of its respected Awards.

A Green Tourism Award means that a business works responsibly, ethically and sustainably, contributes to its community, is reducing its impact on the environment and aims to be accessible and inclusive to all visitors and staff. Businesses that meet the required standard receive a Bronze, Silver or Gold award based on the level of achievement.

Strand Palace has worked tirelessly throughout 2019 to reduce water and energy use, minimise waste where possible, use more sustainable materials and now feels the time is right to join the programme and see what it can achieve.

The hotel has been graded by a qualified Assessor against a rigorous set of criteria, covering a range of areas such as energy and water efficiency, waste management, biodiversity and social involvement and communication, achieving a Silver Green Tourism Award.

Strand Palace has been particularly keen to minimise waste, including the introduction of segregated waste streams to ensure glass, cardboard and paper are recycled, the collection of empty biscuit wrappers from guests in exchange for charity donations, the distribution of reusable cups to all staff members and the installation of new carpets that have been made with 84,500 recycled bottles.

The hotel has supported a number of charities in 2019 and engaged in a number of initiatives including MacMillan Coffee Mornings, Red Nose Day, Great Daffodil Appeal, Wear it Pink, Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal, Christmas Jumper Day, The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.

A number of steps have also been taken to conserve energy and water, with LED lighting being used throughout the hotel. Showers have also replaced baths in all the refurbished rooms and water-saving devices in toilets have been installed and reduced-capacity cisterns.

Camille Huber, Sales & Marketing Assistant at Strand Palace, says: “We have been working extremely hard on implementing our Green Initiative at Strand Palace, so we are delighted to receive this award. As a business, we feel the hotel has a responsibility to both its guests and the wider community to be doing more to reduce its environmental impact.

“Having already established a Green Policy and Green Team to set targets and monitor our progress, receiving the Silver Green Tourism Award really affirms that we are moving in the right direction. For us, this is only the start of a long process to try and make the hotel more sustainable. We will continue to make improvements and strive to achieve a gold award in the future.”