Macdonald Hotels & Resorts, one of the UK’s most successful independent hospitality groups, has had 27 of its properties certified by Green Tourism, a world-leading sustainability standard for tourism, events and leisure businesses.
Six of the group’s hotels have achieved a silver certification, with the remaining 21 venues awarded bronze for their efforts to reduce energy consumption and operate sustainably.
Macdonald Inchyra in Falkirk, Leeming House in the Lake District, Macdonald Windsor Hotel in the historic market town of Windsor, Bath Spa Hotel in Bath, and Macdonald Aviemore and Spey Valley Resorts, both in the Cairngorms National Park, were awarded silver for their outstanding efforts, leading the way in sustainable behaviour. Stand-out elements noted by the judges included a high prevalence of low-carbon activities available at the properties and specialist educational and cultural experiences. Supply chain provenance was commended, charitable initiatives and actions taken towards biodiversity conservation was a highlight in addition to a strong commitment to employee wellbeing across all of the hotels.
The judges praised Macdonald Hotels & Resorts’ commitment to its energy conservation efforts, with particular reference to annual year on year savings, on site monitoring, behaviour change initiatives and an industry-leading 10% reduction target for 2025. In 2024 alone, Macdonald Hotels & Resorts reduced its electricity consumption by 5% across the group. Since the group started using a monitoring system to reduce energy use in its properties, a total of 45 million kWh of electricity has been saved, equating to a reduction of 10.6million kg of CO2 entering the atmosphere.
Green Tourism certification marks the latest milestone on Macdonald Hotels & Resorts’ journey to more sustainable operations and builds on the group’s overarching ambition to reaching Net Zero. The group has also set a target of recycling 85% of all waste and generating less than 0.5% waste to landfill across the business by the end of 2025.
Macdonald Hotels & Resorts is actively working to reduce its impact on the environment. This includes initiatives such as replacing miniature, single-use toiletries from hotel rooms by installing refillable, recyclable dispensers in bathrooms with ELEMIS products, a Certified B Corp company with the goal to become the most sustainable premium British skincare brand. The group has also removed all single use plastic and most glass bottles from hotel rooms, and installed water dispensers and a jug in rooms for guests to use.
Electric vehicle charging points have also been installed at hotels across the group, representing a substantial investment in infrastructure to support EV charging, supporting low carbon travel for guests. All hotels, excluding The Burlington in Birmingham and New Blossoms in Chester, have EV charging in place.
Macdonald Hotels & Resorts has a portfolio of upmarket hotels, spas and golf resorts throughout the UK, from Aviemore in north-east Scotland to the New Forest on the south coast of England.
Green Tourism has been at the forefront of championing sustainable tourism for more than 27 years. A world-leading sustainability certification for travel, tourism and hospitality businesses, Green Tourism aims to help embed responsible, sustainable and environmentally friendly practices across businesses and the wider tourism sector.
Michael Savage, head of energy and sustainability at Macdonald Hotels & Resorts, said:
“We are a proud partner of Green Tourism and have seen first-hand the importance of the work the organisation carries out. We take sustainability seriously at Macdonald Hotels & Resorts – as a responsible hospitality group, it’s essential to look at the impact we have on the environment and actively work to reduce our footprint. Our accreditation is a significant milestone in that journey, and we are committed to constantly evolving our sustainability practices across the group. In 2025, we will start measuring our Scope 1, 2 & 3 carbon emissions. This will provide us with the ability to report our carbon emissions and for the business to calculate and provide data on the carbon footprint of a guest stay and per delegate for events and conferences.”
The full list of hotels accredited by Green Tourism is:
Silver
- Macdonald Aviemore Resort
- Bath Spa
- Spey Valley Resort
- Macdonald Inchyra
- Leeming House
- Macdonald Windsor Hotel
Bronze
- The Compleat Angler
- Cardrona Hotel, Golf & Spa
- Crutherland House
- The Bear
- Linden Hall Hotel, Golf & Spa
- Portal Golf & Spa Resort
- The Burlington
- Craxton Wood Hotel & Spa
- Elmers Court Hotel & Resort
- Forest Hills Hotel & Resort
- Tickled Trout Hotel
- Plas Talgarth Resort
- Botley Park Hotel & Spa
- Kilhey Court
- Frimley Hall Hotel & Spa
- Alveston Manor
- The Berystede
- Hill Valley Hotel, Golf & Spa
- Houstoun House
- Lochanhully Resort
- New Blossoms Hotel
