Whitbread to open second 'green' Premier Inn
Whitbread has unveiled plans to open its second 'green' Premier Inn and its first low-carbon restaurant in Burgess Hill, West Sussex this autumn as part of its plans to cut carbon emissions across the company by 26 per cent over the next 10 years.
The 60-bedroom hotel is being built following the success of Whitbread's flagship green hotel, opened in Tamworth, Staffordshire in December 2008, and will adopt the best-performing green technologies from the first site.
Some of the green initiatives include installing ground-source heat pumps to provide heating, cooling and hot water and recycling rainwater and grey water to provide water for the hotel's toilets, which will save 20 per cent of the hotel's water use. In total, the initiatives are expected to cut carbon emissions by 70 per cent and save 60 per cent of water.
Both the hotel and its neighbouring 220-cover Beefeater restaurant will be of timber frame construction formed of sustainably sourced wood.
Whitbread chief executive Alan Parker said: “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.
“Our low-carbon Beefeater restaurant at Burgess Hill is another first for Whitbread and brings us another step closer to achieving a 26 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2020.”
At the end of last year, Whitbread announced it was on a major mission to reduce its carbon emissions by 26 per cent from its 580 hotels and 375 pub restaurants across the country by 2020.
For more details about Whitbread's initiatives and for how to make your business greener and more sustainable, visit BigHospitality from 25-29 January for our Sustainability Week
