We’re celebrating another win here at the Green House, Bournemouth’s eco-friendly luxury boutique hotel: a silver trophy in Sustainable Tourism category of this year’s South West Tourism Excellence Awards. We’re delighted, given that the competition was the stiffest of any regional category (the ‘South West team’ laid claim to no fewer than 15 of last year’s national VisitEngland Finalists).
The entries in this year’s South West awards came from as far afield as the Isles of Scilly, Salisbury and Cirencester. The Green House was proud to be one of only a handful of finalists from Dorset and one of only two from Bournemouth.
It’s been an amazing 12 months for us here at the Green House, having already received Gold Trophies in the Dorset Tourism Awards for Sustainable Tourism and Eating Out. We also received the maximum 3-star rating from the Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA) in 2014 and became a Trip Advisor Platinum Green Leader too.
And it’s not over yet! Arbor, the Green House’s 2 AA-rosette restaurant, has also been shortlisted for yet another award – this time by the SRA – to be presented next week (23 February). Arbor is in the running for the “Environment” category which recognises restaurants’ eco-friendly practices such as water-saving, waste management and energy efficiency. We were shortlisted after achieving an incredible 99% in this category in our 2014 assessment – up from 75% in 2013 – thanks to our ‘excellent’, ‘unique’ and ‘innovative’ solutions. We also saw a big increase in our overall score, achieving 90% in 2015, up from 83% (‘an exceptional achievement’ according to the SRA) which puts us in the top 3% of its members.
So we’ll be getting the glad rags on again next Monday and heading up to the Oval Space, one of London’s most innovative and green event spaces, in Bethnal Green, along with 250 other guests to see if we’ve won. Wish us luck!