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Britain’s greenest hotel opened by Premier Inn, the UK’S largest budget hotel chain. The hotel will set the standard for environmentally friendly hotels. Guests at the 20-bed Premier Inn Tamworth (Staffordshire) will enjoy the same facilities and amenities as at a ‘normal’ Premier Inn but with the knowledge that they are sleeping ‘green’. Rooms will still cost from just £53 per night. The building materials and technology used in the new hotel are not matched anywhere else in Britain and have been heralded as an example to other hotel chains by The Carbon Trust. The hotel will reduce energy use by 80% vs. a standard hotel; thanks to radically different approaches to heating, cooling, lighting and ventilation.
Premier Inn has over 550 hotels in the UK and says this new site at Tamworth is a flagship site for the company to trial the best green technologies available, to see which are viable for their hotels in future – a move welcomed by Building Research Establishment (BRE).
Key features of Britain’s greenest hotel include:
1. Natural Energy From the Earth – ground-source heat pumps will use the earth’s natural energy to cool and heat rooms and provide hot water throughout the hotel.
2. Re-using Water – toilets flushed with recycled water from showers and baths will save 20% of the hotel’s entire water usage and will provide 100% of the hotel’s toilet water usage
3. Inventive Insulation – sustainable sheep’s wool from British sheep is used in the walls to create exceptionally efficient thermal and acoustic insulation
4. Clever Lighting – low energy Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting with motion sensors ensures lights are only on when needed – an energy saving of 80%.
5. Here Comes the Sun – solar panels will heat bath water
Staff at the new hotel will be trained to understand the technologies behind the design and to help with minimising everyday energy and water consumption, such as in washing, water usage, excessive heating or cooling.
Guests will be able to see the energy saved as part of a visual display in the hotel lobby, as well as learn about the technologies that have gone into the new building.
Alan Parker, CEO of Premier Inn’s parent company Whitbread, says “This hotel is truly ground-breaking in that this combination of technologies has never been used before in any hotel in the UK, let alone a budget one. We chose from a range of technologies that we believe deliver the most positive social and environmental impact on future hotel buildings.
As well as designing the hotel to be energy efficient, we will also be involving our team members and customers in the green challenge. This is a unique joint approach which we will be testing in Tamworth as a first step to making more green changes across our hotel estate.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
