On the evening two special awards were also presented to June Nelsey from the Best Western Monk Bar hotel, York, for her services to the City’s hotel industry.

And the winners are…

York Ambassador – sponsored by beacon purchasing
Winner:Ian Reed, Yorkshire Air Museum

With thanks to the York Press for this photo of Ian Reed, collecting his York Ambassador award.

Guest Accommodation of the Year
Winner: Bishops

Hotel of the Year
Winner: Middlethorpe Hall & Spa

Self Catering/Caravan Park of the Year
Winner: Dovecote Barns

Pub of the Year
Winner: The Golden Fleece

Outstanding Customer Service Award
Winner: Shirley Fletcher, Hilton York

Business Tourism Award
Winner: York Marriott Hotel

Marketing Campaign of the Year
Winner: York Maze

Employee of the Year
Winner: Alan Rowley, Complete Yorkshire

Best Shopping Experience
Winner: The Hairy Fig

Visitor Attraction of the Year (under 50,000 visitors)
Winner: The Ice Factor

Visitor Attraction of the Year (50,000 visitors & over)
Winner: York Racecourse 2011 Season
Highly Commended: York Dungeon

Taste of York – The people’s Choice Award
Winner: El Piano

beacon work with industry experts to actively promote sustainable products and services and this week, we are shining a spotlight on beacon supplier Mico Lighting and Philips.

Who are Mico Lighting?

Mico Lighting are passionate in their commitment to providing the correct choice of lamp. Switching to LED lamps not only saves energy and money it gives assurance to your customers that you recognise the importance of your green credentials and will assist in meeting your carbon reduction commitment.

How do Mico Lighting work with Philips?

Philips are one of Mico Lighting’s supply partners. Mico Lighting purchase their products and work with Philips specifically within the hospitality industry.

Highlighting the Philips Master Led lamp range…

Two of the products from the Philips Master Led lamp range that show excellent sustainability savings are the 12W LED GLS lamp and the 5.5W GU10 lamp.

To find out more about Mico Lighting, Philips and the specific lamps mentioned – please visit: www.mico.co.uk

Why not calculate how much you could save with Mico Lighting and Philips…

To find out more and calculate how much money you could save, please visit www.hotelympia.co.uk/pledge.

The project was in conjunction with Liaise Loddon, who were helping to build a new school for disabled children in Zambia. Currently in Zambia, 40% of the population are under the age of 16, and many of those children have dissabilities and are in in desperate need of schools that can help them to learn.

Every little helps, so beacon donated hundreds of old branded pens, notepads, mini note pads and folders for Liaise Loddon to take to Zambia for the new school. These were gratefully received and just this week, we received this short photo montage video as a thank you.

To view the video, please click below:

http://animoto.com/play/bimdjsn6yZ3OBIgkFP5ZsQ

Liaise will be visiting the UTH school again in July, so if you would like to get involved and donate any useful equipment for their next visit, please get in touch with Liaise Loddon (details below).

Why not donate unwanted or old branded…

pens
pencils
notepads
colouring pencils
crayons
sports equipment
light fittings

To find out more about Liaise Loddon, please click on the link below:

http://liaise.co.uk/about-us/

Who are Waste2?
Waste2 are passionate and committed to sourcing the best in environmental solutions to improve your CSR performance and reduce your waste disposal costs. Waste2 provide solutions to allow businesses to reduce waste at source in an environmentally friendly way.

Highlighting the Waste-2-Water machine
The Waste-2-Water machine is a waste disposal system that offers you a “throw in and walk away” solution.

The product, the size of a wheelie bin allows the user (usually kitchen and waiting staff) to simply add biodegradable food waste, including fats, oils and greases (FOGs) into the machine and watch the machine turn your unwanted food waste into grey water. This water can then be put into the waste system or can be utilised for tasks such as watering plants. The full cycle takes 24 hours, but the bin can be topped up with food waste at any time.

How much could you save?
The disposal system results in less waste and a cleaner working environment. It eliminates the need for a macerator and also reduces the number of waste removal collections.

To find out more and read valuable case studies showing real cost savings, please visit: http://waste2.co.uk/category/case-studies/

Why not calculate how much you could save with Waste 2
To find out more and calculate how much money you could save, please visit www.hotelympia.co.uk/pledge.

Whilst some may be inspired to “save the planet”, most people, especially in these difficult times,  see that taking steps to run a more responsible business, can quite simply, help them reduce costs and save money.

So, with that in mind beacon purchasing, a selection of our sustainable suppliers and The Responsible Hospitality Partnership joined forces in January 2012 to create an online energy savings calculator.

The calculator features 5 products (detailed below) and it allows you to calculate the potential energy and money savings that can be made by switching product.

What products are featured within the calculator?

Hippo Bag
Supplier: Wolseley
Description: The Hippo bag is a weighted bag that sits in the cistern of your toilet. Every time a toilet is flushed the Hippo saves you up to 3 litres of water. Imagine the savings that this low cost solution can bring to a business such as a 100 room hotel?

Dyson Airblade
Supplier: Initial
Description: The Dyson airblade is an innovative automatic cold air hand dryer that creates a high velocity sheet of air that dries your hands in just 10 seconds. This means that running the Dyson airblade hand dryer costs up to 80% less than a traditional warm air hand dryer.

Rada Outlook
Supplier: Kohler Mira
Description: Rada Outlook is a 6 Outlet digital thermostatic mixing valve system which enables the precise control of group showering and hand washing environments, operated by non-touch or touch sensors – so water is only used when it is needed.

Waste-2-Water Food Waste Digester
Supplier: Waste2
Description: A waste disposal system that offers you a “throw in and walk away” solution! Simply add biodegradable food waste, including fats, oils and greases (FOGs) and watch it turn into grey water with a 24hr cycle. Resulting in less waste and a cleaner working environment.

Energy Saving Lamps
Supplier: Mico and Philips
Description: Changing to a more energy efficient lamp, such as those available from Philips and Mico can save thousands of pounds in electricity bills, as much as 85% for a hotel each year.

To find out more and calculate your savings today, why not visit www.hotelympia.co.uk/pledge.

beacon would like to thank our sustainable suppliers Wolseley, Mico, Philips, Initial, Waste 2 and Kohler Mira for their partnership in the Hotelympia and energy savings calculator campaign.

- The Considerate Hoteliers awards feature eight categories. These are as follows:

- The Considerate Hotel of the Year 2011/12

- The Considerate Supplier of the Year Awards 2011/12 (locally and nationally – two separate awards)

- The Considerate Small Accommodation Provider of the Year 2011/12

- The Considerate Sustainable Food 2011/12

- The Considerate Green Team of the Year 2011/

- The Considerate Green Champion of the Year 2011/12

- Best Green Marketing Initiative for 2011/12

For further details regarding the Considerate Hoteliers Association and to find out how you can get involved and enter the the awards, please visit:

www.consideratehoteliers.com

Landfill Tax applies to all waste:

- disposed of by way of landfill
- at a licensed landfill site
- on or after 1 October 1996
- unless the waste is specifically exempt

How much does it cost to put waste in landfill?
The current charge per tonne to dispose of your rubbish to landfill is £56. On the 1^st of April, this will increase to £64 per tonne (a 15% or £8 increase), the tax is then set to continue to rise every year on the 1^st April by £8.

Remember, that this is just the tax on your disposal. You are also likely to be paying a waste disposal company to take away and sort your waste!

How can you reduce your tax?
Whilst the charge will remain at £64 per tonne (from 1^st April) will never go down, there are ways that you can reduce the amount of waste that you dispose to landfill.

Why not look at producing less waste for landfill in the first place by…

- Ordering stock more efficiently (such as in bulk to reduce packaging)
- Sorting and recycling your waste upon disposal in office kitchen spaces
- Adopting a more environmentally friendly waste disposal company?

By taking some of these initiatives on board, you can do your bit for the environment and also increase your businesses profitability. After all, surely dumping our rubbish in a big hole in the planet can’t be a valid option forever…

It is estimated that those who have yet to take action and put water reduction plans in place, can reduce their water consumption by 30 – 50%. So, just think of the savings on the business bottom line too…

Every litre of water saved means a reduction in the size of your water bill.  What’s more, most savings can be achieved using very low cost technologies, or just by changing staff behaviour.

There are lots of ways of reducing water consumption, and by taking action today, you can also raise awareness of the importance of fresh water and support World Water Day 2012.

To reduce the volume of water you use, you may wish to review how much is flushed down the loo (toilet flushing can account for 20% of total water consumption in some hospitality businesses) or look at installing low flow devices or digital controls.

There are lots of options that will provide great quality for your customers while reducing cost significantly.

Why not use our handy energy saving calculator now to find out how much money your business could save on its water bills.  The good news is that when you save hot water, you will reduce energy bills too. Simply click here – it will take less than 5 minutes and could save you thousands of pounds.

The energy savings calculator is kindly sponsored by beacon purchasing suppliers…

Great quality bacon is made with great quality pork, so during Bacon Connoisseurs’ Week lovepork.co.uk will be celebrating the Red Tractor farmers and bacon producers that make that a top priority.

The week will focus on all things ‘bacon’ and will begin the search to reveal the finest bacon in the country, and a mission to bring you the best tips and recipes out there.

To kick off Bacon Connoisseurs’ Week, Love Pork will be raising the flag for Red, White and Bacon on the 19th March with broadcasting legend Angela Rippon, who says…

‘Delicious on its own or used to add extra flavour to a meal, bacon is one of Britain’s best loved ingredients. The once humble rasher can turn any meal into an occasion to savour’.

Find out more…
For more information about Bacon Connoisseurs’ Week, please visit www.lovepork.co.uk.

To find out more about Red Tractor, please visit: http://redtractor.org.uk/why-red-tractor/

The benefit of one central bin is that it makes it easy for staff to donate and we often find it overflowing after a weekend – when people have been doing a ‘spring clean’ at home. By people bringing their unwanted items into work, a trip that they will already be taking, we are also saving on wasted mileage to make the deliveries independently.

The initiative has been extremely successful, with staff so far donating just over 275kg to the well deserved charity.

So what do the British Heart Foundation do?

They are the nation’s heart charity. Their vision is a world where people don’t die prematurely from heart disease. The BHF believe that they will achieve this through pioneering research, vital prevention activity and ensuring quality care and support for everyone living with heart disease.

Why do beacon and Best Western support the charity?

Many people within the offices and our loved ones have been touched in some way by heart conditions of varying scales. Through supporting the British Heart Foundation, we believe that we are doing our bit to give back to a fantastic charity that has helped us and our families in the past, and will continue to do so for generations to come.

National Wear It Red Day

On 24th February National Wear It Red day took place and to support the charity Best Western and beacon head offices dressed in red! Dressing in red raised £80.35 for the British Heart Foundation – every little helps…

For more information on National Wear Red Day and how to get involved next year, please visit: www.bhf.org.uk/get-involved/fundraising/red-for-heart.aspx

For more information about The British Heart Foundation and to find out more  about how you can get a wheelie bin into your office or place of work, please visit: http://www.bhf.org.uk/get-involved/how-your-organisation-can-help.aspx or telephone 0207 554 0000.

Why not follow the beacon green hotel on twitter @bgreenhotel to follow our green initiatives, tips and achievements?