Green lodging and eating in England

A new Premier Inn, set to open in Fall 2010, will be the second “green” property for Whitebread, the UK’s leading dining and hospitality group. The property will feature green construction, amenities and a “low-carbon eatery”.

Situated in West Sussex, the upcoming 60-room Burgess Hill Premier Inn represents the latest evolution in environmentally-friendly budget hotels. It will adopt the best-performing green technologies trialed in Whitbreas’s pilot green property to deliver 70 percent carbon and 60 percent water savings.

Adjacent to the hotel, Whitbread will develop its first low-carbon restaurant—a 220-cover Beefeater open grill restaurant.

Whitbread’s pilot green hotel – in Tamworth, Staffordshire – debuted as the country’s first green budget hotel in December 2008.

Going “Good Together”

Launched in December 2009, Whitbread’s corporate sustainability program “Good Together” pledges to reduce carbon emissions by 26 percent by 2020. To meet these standards, the new property will include:

• Geothermal heat pumps using the earth’s natural energy to provide heating and cooling
• Rainwater harvesting and grey water recycling
• High-efficiency thermal insulation
• Low-flow showerheads delivering the feel and effect of a powerful shower without the associated water loss
• Heat-recovery shower systems capturing and reusing energy used by the boilers
• Automated light controls with intelligent sensors
• Sun pipes reducing the need for artificial lighting by increasing natural light

Sustainably sound

Both the hotel and restaurant incorporate timber frame construction methods from sustainably sourced wood. Timber frame has the lowest carbon content of any commercially-available building material and its flexible design allows for high levels of insulation to achieve maximum energy efficiency.

“Burgess Hill’s clever combination of high-tech environmental features and advanced construction methods will allow us to achieve truly impressive results in terms of cutting carbon and conserving water,” said Alan Parker, CEO of Whitbread. “The hotel will include many of the best performing technologies pioneered at our first green hotel in Tamworth. Our low-carbon Beefeater restaurant at Burgess Hill is another first for Whitbread and brings us another step closer to achieving a 26 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020.”

This announcement coincides with the start of a special Good Together Week, bringing Whitbread people together for the first time to focus on how everyone can be involved to make a difference.

Involving customers will also become a core component of the Good Together strategy with Whitbread aiming to help its guests play an active part in achieving sustainability targets.