Our approach to corporate responsibility
Supporting our local community
At Brend Hotels we want to play our full part in supporting good causes in our local community in Devon and Cornwall, as well as providing help to national charities. As a family business, we are pleased to have built close working relationships with the local communities where we work and our teams get personally involved in the charitable organisations that we help. We have supported hospices across the South West as well as Macmillan Nurses and many local sporting teams, including local rugby, football, swimming, bowls and tennis clubs amongst others. We are also thrilled to sponsor the South West Coast Path Association, helping to preserve this great asset to the region. There is hardly a day that goes by when we do not help support a local charity in some way or other.
Supporting the environment
We believe it is important that all our hotels do all that they can to follow good environmental practices. We are privileged to be based in a beautiful part of the world and we want to do everything possible to help preserve the natural environment. That’s why we have embarked on a substantial investment programme to replace old infrastructure with new high-efficiency equipment using renewable technologies wherever we can. We also strive to make sure that our team keep the environment in mind as they go about providing an exceptional experience to our guests.
Working with people
Each of our hotels has a dedicated team of staff who work together to ensure our working practices are as efficient as possible and that we maximise opportunities to reduce our energy use and to consume less raw materials.
Helping our guests remember the environment
Each hotel has an environmental policy which we communicate to our guests, showing them many simple ways in which they can help us to save energy and water.
Here are some of the steps that we are taking to protect our environment:
Recycling: We have reduced by 45% the amount of our waste sent to landfill. All our luxury hotels recycle metal, glass, plastic, card and paper and almost all our waste is recycled or re-used.
Green Energy: All of our food waste is collected by a specialist contractor and converted into green electricity at a local power plant in Somerset.
Making Common Sense Change: Since embarking on our environmental programme we’ve reduced our total energy use and Co2 emissions by 15%. We have done this by making common sense changes such as lighting and boiler upgrades, insulation and oil to gas projects. These projects have seen us invest more than £600,000 in the last 4 years, with a programme to continue this level of investment going forward.
Carbon Emissions: We have reduced our carbon emissions by an estimated 6500 tonnes and regularly review our use of energy and raw material to ensure we are continuously reducing our carbon footprint across all parts of the business.
Local Sourcing: We buy as much of our fish, meat, cheese and vegetables from local suppliers as possible, helping to support local farmers as well as cutting down on unnecessary food miles.
Low energy light bulbs: We use low energy LED lights across our hotels, but always in a way that reflects the sensitivity of our hotels, their beautiful locations, and our guest’s desire for a luxurious experience.
Renewable Energy Solar and Biomass: We have two solar power installations at the Barnstaple Hotel, one provides electricity to reduce our dependence on external supplies, and the other provides hot water for our pools. The Saunton Sands Hotel now has all of its heating and hot water, (including for both of its swimming pools) provided by renewable energy with our Biomass woodchip boiler installed at a cost of £300,000.
Awards, recognition and external links
Since we adopted our group environmental policy, we have won many awards, including from Green Apple and North Devon Business initiative, and we have been highly commended in the Cornwall Sustainable Tourism awards. More recently the group has adopted the TripAdvisor Green Leader Standard and has already achieved a Gold Status for The Barnstaple Hotel.
Partnership working
We have strong links, which we continue to nurture, with a wide range of external groups including Business Link, Somerset, Exeter and Hertfordshire Universities, The North Devon Biosphere to The Earth Charter, and The Green Organisation.
Gender Pay Gap Report
Read our report for 2017...