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

There are many reasons making environment improvements was important to us at Landal Brunston, with some of the key elements being:

• to preserve and protect the diversity of both our region and beyond
• to encourage visitors and staff to implement environmentally friendly practises in everyday life
• to maintain and establish new relationships with local suppliers

We understand that in today’s world more visitors are aware of the environmental impact of tourism and want to holiday at locations who actively work to minimise this – it's something that is hugely important we are part of.

As a secondary headline, along with environmental sustainability there is a financial benefit to the organisation with the goal of reducing energy consumption etc, which will benefit the business as a whole, allowing us to invest money elsewhere such as resort improvements and guest activities.

Why did you choose Green Key?

Working alongside Landal, we know Green Key to be a world recognised organisation in creating an environmentally sustainable footprint – as a business that not only attracts guests from the UK but also from Europe, we were looking for an accreditation which would be recognised far and wide.

What were the outcomes from your Green Key accreditation.

When we began to explore the Green Key criteria, we found that that many of the accreditation practices were actually always in place, which allowed us to build upon and strengthen our standard practices.

For example, we already used minimal paper but now we are almost entirely paperless as we changed procedures while working through the green key process (e.g. QR codes for guest info, paperless invoice system).

Overall, the accreditation has been a great learning piece for the wider team, as they help to implement and instil a new way of thinking, working and better serving our environment and our guests.

What support did Keep Scotland Beautiful provide? 

With anything new, the application process did seem a little daunting at first however, Jamie Ormiston (Senior Awards Officer at Keep Scotland Beautiful) was very helpful and supported us throughout the process, allowing us to see that many of the points were easily achieved and most were already in place.

What were the benefits? 

Along with increasing our awareness of how we can directly impact the environment, we have also seen in increased interest in guests visiting the resort who wish to be considerate in the way we now live.

It's great to see that this is at the forefront of peoples minds when looking for a holiday or break away – and allows a great culture on resort with people working towards the same goal.

What’s next?

As a team, we are always looking to improve suitability in every area possible whether this be from products used on site, to joining up with new local community organisations to help to establish joint ventures in sustainability.

Everyone within their own roles, has this as a main area of focus.