The Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel is proud to announce that it has successfully achieved the Gold Award for Green Tourism through the Green Tourism Business Scheme. This outstanding accolade recognises Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel's hard work, dedication and commitment to providing responsible tourism practices throughout the hotel. 

The Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel excelled in areas relating to energy usage, waste management and environmental impact and the award highlights, amongst other things, the efforts of the hotel's 'Green Team' that include daily energy monitoring, increased investment into recycling efforts for staff and visitors and regular ecology and biodiversity monitoring throughout the hotel's lakeside setting. Significant steps have also been put in place towards the installation of an alternate energy source and the hotel now has a dedicated 'Sanctuary' for the promotion of important flora, fauna and wildlife. 

Kellie Appleyard, resident manager at Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel who heads up the hotel's 'Green Team', says "We are so proud and delighted to have achieved this outstanding accolade. It is testament to the dedication of both the staff and the management team who continue to strive and look for innovative ways to reduce the environmental impact of our business practices. Winning the award highlights how committed we are to being 'green' throughout the hotel whilst not compromising the standards that guests expect." 

The Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) is the national sustainable tourism certification scheme for the UK and is the only national scheme to be independently validated by the International Centre for Responsibility (ICRT) on behalf of Visit England, Visit Wales and the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and endorsed by Visit Scotland and Failte Ireland. Businesses opting to join the scheme are assessed by a qualified grading advisor against a rigorous set of criteria, covering a range of areas, such as energy and water efficiency, waste management, biodiversity and more. Those businesses that meet the required standard, receive a Bronze, Silver, or Gold award based on their level of achievement.

Four Pillars Hotels has a further five hotels within its collection and each of these hotels also individually hold a Silver Award for their efforts in sustainable and responsible tourism. One of the group's initiatives is for companies hosting events and conferences. Through a partnership with OxTreeGen (who offer sustainable woodlands in the UK) companies wishing to mitigate the effect of their carbon footprint can use an online tool on www.meetingsfouryou.co.uk to calculate what it would take to make the event carbon neutral and then Four Pillars Hotels will plant the requisite number of trees via OxTreeGen. 

For more information on the Green Tourism Business Scheme visit www.green-business.co.uk

For further details on Four Pillars Hotels visit www.four-pillars.co.uk

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For further press information or images, please contact:

Lucy Mayes at Hume Whitehead Ltd - 0845 498 9985 / lucy@humewhitehead.co.uk

About Four Pill ars Hotels:

Based in Witney, Oxfordshire, Four Pillars Limited is an independent company which currently owns and operates six predominantly four star hotels in Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire with an inventory of over 900 rooms. The company's operating philosophy is that it "does the simple things well" - essentially a no-fuss approach to quality hospitality offering comprehensive facilities together with swift and friendly service at competitive rates.  Four
Pillars Hotels are located in Witney, The Cotswolds, Oxford, and south Gloucestershire. For reservations, please access the website at www.four-pillars.co.uk.