Already the recipient of a Green Tourism Silver Award, luxury hotel and spa resort Galgorm is committed to working towards a sustainable future. Through participation in responsible business network Business in the Community Northern Ireland’s (BITCNI) Climate Action Programme, Galgorm has been supported to create action plans for each operational area within the Collection, with the aim of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030.
Background
Galgorm takes responsibility for the environmental impact of how it runs its business very seriously and this ethos is instilled throughout its team.
What the company did
Galgorm started its sustainability journey in 2019, with the formation of a green committee. This committee focussed on day-to-day energy savings within the resort such as waste management and recycling, and the resort was soon awarded a Green Tourism Silver Award.
Galgorm then signed up for membership with Business in the Community, and through this, participated in the Climate Action Programme.
Through the programme, Galgorm’s Head of Spa Operations, Tara Moore, and Group Safety and Compliance Manager, Jonny McKay, completed Carbon Literacy Training and were able to relay the knowledge they gained on to seven other senior staff members.
As the next part of the programme, Galgorm received three bespoke one-to-one carbon footprinting workshops with a qualified consultant. These workshops focused on how Galgorm can measure its carbon footprint, and how to create and implement an action plan.
Galgorm then signed BITC’s Climate Action Pledge, which provided direction and a commitment to reduce its scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions, and to begin to map out the reduction of its scope 3 emissions.
Galgorm’s primary aim is to be carbon neutral by 2030, and BITC’s Climate Action Programme has played a key role in helping it to create a strategy to achieve that aim.
“[BUSINESS IN THE COMMUNITY] has been really instrumental in driving us forward with our green policies and making sure that we’re setting everything in place”
Tara Moore, Head of Spa Operations
Click here to watch the Celebrating Climate Action video with Galgorm on YouTube.
Impacts and Outcomes
- Provision of own-branded stainless steel water bottles and mains-filtered water stations throughout the spa – no plastic bottles on site
- Provision of electronic menus and an online concierge service through the Galgorm app
- Replacement of plastic room keys with environmentally-friendly wooden ones
- Introduction of an electric fleet of vehicles, which includes laundry and maintenance buggies, and an electric bus to move guests around the resort
- New BMS system for controlling heat systems – other energy systems to be integrated in to this
- Replacement of halogen lights with LED (80% complete)
- Planting of trees and plants by grounds team around new projects onsite
Click here to download this case study.