Leicester’s Green Stays

Leicester’s hotels are continually working to improve their offer and to showcase sustainability. In this piece we focus on two hotels which are working towards a greener future in different ways.

The ‘Michelin Star’ of sustainable stays is the Green Key Award. Hotel Ibis have recently been awarded the Green Key after a long period of assessment. The Green Key is a long list of actions that a hotel operator must take in order to be certified. This covers the suppliers they use, the energy saving methods in place, the chemicals used for cleaning and the way in which the hotel encourages green travel for guests and staff.

The Hotel Ibis, which is just round the corner from Leicester Train Station, has been working hard on this for the past year and is now the first hotel in Leicester to receive Green Key certification. Their parent group Accord have long been committed to being eco-friendly and put in place the Planet 21 programme, to get their 21 hotels across the country up to scratch before pushing through Green Key.

But what does this mean in practice? Well they are removing all their paper and single use plastics, replacing all their coat hangers with wooden ones, replacing paper information sheets with QR codes. They are measuring their CO2 emissons and food waste against previous years and moving to ensure that 75% of chemicals used for cleaning are eco-friendly within three years.

Staff are being fully trained in these new ways of working and reporting, making sure that everyone at the business is bought in. They also work hard to promote green travel, using their lack of parking as an asset rather than a challenge.

Another city hotel which is looking to contribute to the environment while changing hearts and minds is The Gresham Aparthotel on Market Street. Their green story started before they opened, during the redevelopment of their Grade II Listed building in the pandemic. Their aim was to preserve and restore original features of the 1880 structure, and donate old materials to local enterprises. This maintained The Gresham as an iconic landmark in the city centre, marked with the awarding of a Blue Plaque by the Civic Society.

Their environmental commitments extend to daily operations, by removing single use plastic bottle toiletries in the studios and apartments, plus reducing waste and aiming to recycle 95% of materials. All areas of the building are thermostatically controlled, with energy efficient equipment installed throughout, including motion sensor lights, insulation, and double-glazing.

The hotel’s central location in the city means that not only are guests encouraged to travel by public transport where possible, it’s preferable to do so. The train station and bus station are around a 10 minute walk, and the whole of Leicester’s city centre is within walking distance, you can also access most of the main attractions either by walking or through the range of public transport options.

And finally, when visitors book at The Gresham, the hotel funds a tree planting in verified reforestation projects across the globe. They kickstarted the pledge in 2023 by funding 200 trees in Kenya’s Mau Region, led by Eden Reforestation Projects so by staying with them, you will be helping to rewild the world. They also plant one tree for every umbrella rental with DripDrop, and with the notoriously unpredictable English weather, it’s always worth knowing you can get an umbrella while you stay here! You can keep track of their efforts on their virtual forest, which currently stands at 629 trees!