David Cameron presents green hotel award

UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, presents Four Pillars Hotels with Green Tourism Business Scheme silver award for all six hotels

Charles Holmes, CEO of the Four Pillars Hotel Group, was recently presented with a Silver Green Tourism Business Award accreditation across the whole group of hotels, by UK Prime Minister, David Cameron.

The presentation took place at the Oxford Witney Four Pillars Hotel during an event for English Tourism Week on Friday 16th March 2012, which gave the industry an opportunity to examine the value of tourism to the nation as well as demonstrating its role in promoting the Oxfordshire Cotswolds to tourists and visitors.

The Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) is the national sustainable tourism certification scheme for the UK.

Businesses opting to join the scheme are assessed by a qualified grading advisor against a rigorous set of criteria, covering a range of areas, such as energy and water efficiency, waste management, biodiversity and more. Those businesses that meet the required standard, receive a Bronze, Silver, or Gold award based on their level of achievement.

Charles Holmes, CEO of Four Pillars Hotels, says: "We are delighted and honoured to receive this award from the Prime Minister, David Cameron. It is a tremendous accolade to have achieved a Silver rating across the whole group, and a great credit to the teams involved. Responsible tourism is an important part of what we do and we will continue to work towards improving our ratings as we move forward".

Said Andrea Nicholas of GTBS "In our 15th year of operations and with over 2400 green graded businesses through the UK it is great to have the support and endorsement of Green Tourism at the highest level of government.  Four Pillars have worked very hard as a group on their commitment to sustainability and we are pleased that this has been recognised by the Prime Minister."

Four Pillars Hotels has also recently introduced another green initiative for companies concerned about the effect of their carbon footprint when it comes to hosting events and conferences.

Through a partnership with OxTreeGen (who offer sustainable woodlands in the UK) Four Pillars has devised a solution to mitigate the effect of an event’s carbon footprint, by calculating what it would take to make the event carbon neutral and then planting the requisite number of trees.

http://www.meetingsfouryou.co.uk has an online calculator tool to determine how many trees would need to be planted to offset an event or meeting.

Valere Tjolle
Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2012 Special Offers HERE