St Michael's Green Journey

Stage 6 - The Techno Fix Approach

Sustainability is about operating at the businesses optimum capacity, at minimum cost to the environment. Achieving a high level of efficiency is integral to reaching this goal. A full review of our utilities was undertaken by The Carbon Trust helping us to identify areas of the hotel where this could be improved.  This lead directly to our energy management policy and the successful application of a carbon trust loan. Over a twelve-month period we were able to achieve a 33% reduction in our gas consumption by investing in a maximum efficiency boiler and relocating our hot water and heating plant, further increasing the effectiveness of these appliances.

Following on from the Carbon Trust review, it was decided that a more in-depth assessment would be important. We are currently working with EnVision, a regional organisation who, on completion of a full audit has provided realistic and achievable methods of utility reduction. We are hoping for some exciting developments in this area over the coming months that will be included in this file.

During the redesign of the hotel kitchen in January 2007 one of the primary aims was to reduce the load placed on all utility services. As well as completely re-wiring and re-plumbing; refurbished catering equipment and new storage systems helped us in the mission. In addition, staff training has proved crucial in achieving this goal by encouraging staff to assess their energy needs with respect to running taps and unattended gas rings left on. A simple yet highly effective measure!

At present we are test marketing LED compact fluorescent low energy lamps throughout the corridors and other parts of the hotel grounds. When the changeover is complete this will drastically reduce electricity costs.  In many of the public areas (toilets and changing rooms) we have incorporated motion sensing light switches.