Q. Why did you make environmental improvements a priority in your organisation?

A. We as an organisation believe that this is the only way forward and is part of our Marriott Serve 360 initiative.

If we each as an individual person prioritise making change and combine this with the power of our company and worldwide reach we can make an impact and work together to protect our world and the planet.

Q. What were the outcomes from your Green Key certification?

A. The set requirements of Green Key, combined with the flexibility of what to focus on, allowed us to create  meaningful and actionable plans.

We set 10 specific action plans, for the first year which were a combination of the required Green Key accreditation list and our focus on food waste in 2024. The action plans are relevant to 'on the job' activities, which makes them very practical.

Q. What support did Keep Scotland Beautiful provide? 

A. Keep Scotland Beautiful provided clear guidelines and took time to explain the criteria requirements with us. We had conversations about our size and operations, and they recognised and highlighted some unique areas for us, that we could make success of. They also helped to remove a couple of barriers by sharing examples from other hotels.

Q. What were the benefits? 

A. Green Key got the team refocused on being environmentally conscious after the years of single use during covid. It made us stop and think about what we were doing instead of “just doing”. Some examples included removing any single use cups and plastic glasses from staff usage by replacing them with Plexiglas options and swapping blue tissue paper (used to clean tables) to washable fibre cloths.

Q. What’s next?

A. Future activities might include:

• Combining Green Key and our food waste project to a bigger extent.
• Creating a small garden and greenhouse and using coffee grounds to enrich the soil.
• Looking at how we as a hotel (with being built for energy efficiency) can still make changes – such as reducing our water usage.