Founders of new luxury ‘green’ hotel plan more

The £5 million Green House opened in Bournemouth last month and boasts an array of environmentally friendly features.

It is the brainchild of businessman Christopher Airey who three years ago formed City Eco Hotel Ltd with business travel management executive Harish Sodha and interior designer Sarah Burrows. Their aim is to bring "hotels with style as well as green credentials" to the hospitality sector and they are now planning to develop a further three 'green’ properties within the next three years.

The Green House is set in a renovated Grade II Victorian Villa and its owners have been painstaking in the range and standard of green upgrades they have introduced. For example, green energy features include solar thermal panels on the roof and an on-site combined heat and power unit for heating and hot water. Insulation is provided through a combination of cavity wall insulation and recycled newspaper in all floor and loft space and where double-glazing has not been permitted under Grade II regulations, a 'Ventrolla Perimeter Sealing System' has been used to reduce heat loss through windows. The hotel is lit throughout using energy CFL and LED lighting while use of natural light has been enhanced through 'roof lights’.

Green interior design features
As well as low carbon and renewable technologies, the hotel also boasts many green interior design features, including specially commissioned carpets made from 100 per cent UK wool fabrics, solid hard wood furniture, either recycled or hand crafted in the UK from fallen trees damaged through storms or disease, and British designed and made wallpaper using vegetable inks and printed on Forest Stewardship Council-certified paper. Meanwhile, the function rooms contain chairs made from recycled Playstations.

Sustainable food
The food served in the 60-cover restaurant by head chef, Gordon Jones, is sourced within a 30-mile radius of the hotel, and is organic or 'home’ grown, wherever viable. The hotel’s signature is its '9 course Tasting Menu’, which includes dishes such as nettle cappuccino soup and flat-iron steak with Mrs Tee’s mushrooms and leek porridge.

The hotel’s mature gardens have eco-habitats, such as bat and bird boxes and log piles to encourage natural eco-systems and there are also plans afoot for growing kitchen herbs and keeping bees.

Green travel
The company car, meanwhile, runs on recycled vegetable oil and hotel staff, who have been trained in the benefits of sustainability, are encouraged to cycle to work with the help of bicycle loans.

The Green House is undergoing ISO14001 environmental accreditation and has been registered under the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method.

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Related links:
www.thegreenhousehotel.com