RIDGWAY, COLO.—TheBestGreenHotels.com, a leading ratings service focused on environmentally friendly hotel operations worldwide, has announced its first-ever award of seven trees—the website’s highest possible rating—to the Old Chapel Forge Bed & Breakfast in Sussex, United Kingdom. The Old Chapel Forge B&B is an AAA four-star hotel built in and around a 1611 chapel building. The hotel also won a 2006 Gold
award from the UK’s Green Tourism Business Scheme.
“To us, green tourism is not a product to be tagged on to a holiday; it is integral to the way we run the Old Chapel Forge,” says proprietress Sandra Barnes-Keywood. “Through every aspect of your stay we strive to use environmentally friendly alternatives—whether it is our use of solar panels for water heating or the fact we try to use only organic and locally produced food.”
Environmental hospitality is an accelerating trend that encompasses conservation of resources, sustainability, recycling, and other strategies to reduce the environmental impact of a hospitality business. Just as importantly, environmental hospitality significantly reduces operating costs.
TheBestGreenHotels.com rates properties based on 29 criteria, including their use of recyclable disposables; energy conservation; maintenance for conservation; bedsheet and towel re-use program; use of cotton towels and sheets; use of alternative energy; gray-water recycling; guestroom recycling bins; participation in green programs; and use of compostable disposables.
“The seven-tree rating is not easy to come by,” says Kit Cassingham, founder of TheBestGreenHotels.com. “We are very pleased to present this hard-earned award to the Old Chapel Forge.”
TheBestGreenHotels.com and its sister site, EnvironmentallyFriendlyHotels.com, currently have ratings on more than 2,800 hotels worldwide. The ratings service has been cited in the Washington Post, USA Today, Newsweek, the New York Times, and on MSNBC.
