Winton House has just achieved a gold Green Tourism Business Scheme award (GTBS) for its sustainable approach to hospitality and corporate responsibility. Winton, an exclusive use venue in East Lothian, is committed to running Scottish weddings, tailor-made events, team-building activities, gala dinners, conferences and meetings whilst minimizing its impact on the environment. The GBTS is the UK’s most highly regarded sustainable tourism certification scheme, validated by VisitBritain.
Winton House has joined other well known tourist and hospitality venues with gold awards such as Dynamic Earth, Prestonfield, The Bonham, Holyrood Park and the Scottish Seabird Centre. Winton House, half an hour from Edinburgh in East Lothian, has been a successful, ‘exclusive use’, corporate and private hospitality venue for the last 10 years.
“It’s fair to say that what we call ‘corporate responsibility’ today has been at the heart of Winton Estate’s management for hundreds of years, simply because it is good for the long term development of the Estate and the House. We’re obviously delighted with this Gold award,” says Sir Francis Ogilvy owner of Winton House.
The key components of Winton’s approach to sustainability are as follows:
- Wherever possible, Winton uses local suppliers and employs people living locally to support surrounding communities and minimize travel to work.
- Winton House is heated using its own waste wood and monitors energy consumption. The House and 5 cottages are heated by a wood chip fired boiler fuelled with wood from the Estate. This is estimated to save some 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions each year.
- Winton House’s gardens are managed for the long term by developing about 1,000 of its own plants each year from cuttings and seeds; encouraging wildlife by not over-cultivating; recycling its water, pots and compost; and restricting the use of pesticides. Consequently, the garden attracts butterflies, ducks, herons, geese, buzzards, woodpeckers, fieldfares, house martins and swallows, and even partridge, hares, roe deer and badgers.
- Winton Estate’s 850 acres of forestry and further 1,450 acres of farmland contribute to about 2,500 tonnes of carbon being absorbed from the atmosphere (the same as the carbon emissions from 250 average households).
- The farmland and forestry are managed in a sustainable way which encourages wildlife and biodiversity through wildlife corridors, uncropped areas and careful use of chemical sprays and fertilizers.
- The Winton events team recycles products consumed in the House and in the large, self-catering country houses (eg aluminium, glass, paper, computers).
- Winton’s events team has a long tradition of running charitable and community events each year, as well as our corporate and private events.
“We know that we can always do more, so we try not to be complacent,” adds Sir Francis.
You can see more at www.wintonhouse.co.uk and in the Corporate Responsibility section of their website.
Background for Editors
Winton House, an exclusive use venue, is perfect for memorable conferences, dinners and activities. Winner of World Travel Awards for three years for its exceptional customer care, Winton’s blue chip corporate guests have included Barclays, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Standard Life, Tesco Personal Finance, BBC Worldwide, Cisco Systems, Mercedes Benz, Microsoft, Toyota, PGA of America, as well as leading companies from France, Spain and Sweden.
Winton House’s layout with inter-connecting halls, drawing room, King Charles room, Cabinet Room and dining room, means that it caters well for intimate corporate dinners and business lunches for up to 84 people, as well as for bigger dinners of up to 200. It also provide team-building activities including the Winton Highland Games and clay pigeon shooting with the 22 times Scottish champion.
For more information, please contact Christopher Lamotte on 07957 870071 or at Winton House on 01875 340222 christopher@wintonhouse.co.uk
