Whitbread PLC is the UK?s largest hotel and restaurant group. Its well-loved brands are Premier Inn, Beefeater, Brewers Fayre, Table Table, Taybarns and Costa Coffee.
Energy, water and carbon are significant aspects for the company with rising utility prices and increased legislation pushing the compliance and cost of carbon upwards.
As a responsible company we actively look at green and grow development solutions and innovative ways of reducing our energy signature, carbon footprint and impact on the environment.
Whitbread?s corporate responsibility programme, ?Good Together?, was launched in January 2010 along with a series of targets. It?s an overarching strategy and programme of initiatives to drive sustainable performance and further deepen corporate responsibility in our business. The broad and ambitious programme aims to help Whitbread?s people, customers and supply chain partners make changes to how they work and how they ‘eat, sleep and drink’ Whitbread. When combined, these changes will make a significant difference to the Company?s overall environmental and social footprint.
To help drive Good Together, we aim to;
- Reduce our relative CO2 emissions by 26% by 2020.
- Achieve 80% of waste diverted from landfill from Whitbread sites by February 2012.
- Achieve a relative 20% reduction in water consumption by 2020.
- 100% of all UK Costa Coffee production to be Rainforest Alliance certified.
- Achieve 3,000 qualifications from Whitbread Apprenticeship scheme.
- Raise ?1 million for WaterAid.
- Enable 15,000 children to be educated as part of the Costa Foundation.
To support these targets we have now opened our second green hotel.
Premier Inn Burgess Hill ? the latest evolution in sustainable leisure development
The 60-bedroom hotel which opened in November 2010, adopts the best-performing green technologies on the market to deliver 70% carbon and 60% water savings and includes:
- ? Ground-source heat pumps using the earth?s natural energy to provide heating and cooling cool as well as hot water saving 50% of the buildings heating.
- ? Rainwater harvesting and grey water recycling providing 100% of the hotel?s toilet water use and saving 20% of the hotel?s entire water use.
- ? High-efficiency thermal insulation is achieved by using recycled glass wool materials and triple glazed windows all reduce heat loss by over 60%.
- ? Low-flow showerheads delivering the feel and effect of a powerful shower without the associated water consumption.
- ? Heat-recovery systems capturing and reusing energy used by the building?s HW boilers
- ? LED lights used throughout use 80% less energy than similar lamps and automated light controls with intelligent sensors turning lights off when they?re not needed.
- ? Sun pipes reducing the need for artificial lighting by increasing natural light, saving electricity.
Adjacent to the hotel, Whitbread has developing its first energy-efficient restaurant ? a 220-cover Beefeater Grill restaurant using energy efficient grills, refrigerators, coffee machines and dishwashers to reduce energy usage by 50%.
As the hotel has only just opened, it is too early to comment on any robust energy performance data.
However at our first green hotel in Tamworth, the site demonstrated significant carbon and water savings in its first year. The water footprint of the hotel was reduced by approximately 66% and the site used only 19% energy demand resulting in a carbon and energy saving profile footprint of 81%.
We are expecting Burgess Hill to perform at least as strongly in its first year.