The luxury hotel, Swinton Park, in the North Yorkshire Dales has been awarded with a prestigious bronze Green Tourism Business Scheme award. The hotel has had to demonstrate their green credentials in a variety of ways to clinch the award, including showing a commitment to sustainability, reducing carbon emissions, monitoring and reducing waste as well as promoting green awareness in the local community.

Some of the initiatives that helped the luxury eco hotel stand out to be given the award included:

• Installing a woodchip boiler to provide all the hot water and heating needs of the hotel which helped to make the establishment carbon neutral
• Setting up their own on-site laundry to reduce transportation, and with the latest O-Zone technology, enables the hotel to wash at lower temperatures and reduce energy and water consumption
• Using their 4 acre walled garden to provide much of the fruit and vegetables used in the kitchen, again reducing transport and food miles.

Other environmental measures have been put into place too, such as installing energy efficient light bulbs and offering guests reusable water bottles.

Although the green tourism business scheme has presented higher ranking awards to other establishments, the size of the Swinton Park hotel makes their achievement particularly remarkable. You can read more about The Green Tourism Business Scheme and recipients of their awards here.