Swinton Park celebrates environmental award success

Staff at Swinton Park have been celebrating this week, following the announcement that the Sustainable Restaurant Association has awarded the hotel’s restaurant, Samuel’s, the status of “Three Star Sustainability Champion”. The award follows a survey of 14 areas of sustainability with a focus on the three key areas of Sourcing, Society and Environment. The overall score was 84%, which is the SRA’s highest score this calendar year in the whole of the UK, with the restaurant achieving 100% in some areas.

Mark Linehan, managing director of the SRA, said: "Samuel's at Swinton Park proved itself to be exceptional across all areas of sustainability. It achieved one of the highest ever scores in the SRA Sustainability Rating impressing us particularly with its exceptionally strong sourcing practices and its outstanding waste and water management."

One of the measures that was noted for particular praise in the survey was the hotel’s commitment to recycling. Working in partnership with waste management firm F D Todd from Thirsk, the hotel’s glass, paper and cardboard are separately recycled, and more recently ALL residual waste is now used for a “waste to energy” scheme. This means that the waste is treated at the Thirsk plant and then shipped to Rotterdam (utilising empty container space) where it is incinerated to create hot water for local manufacturing plants and also electricity that is fed into the grid. Each ton of treated waste creates 12,000KJ of energy, and FD Todd are expecting to ship 35,000 tons this year – and the outcome for Swinton Park is that NONE of its waste reaches a landfill site.

“We are delighted to have achieved such a high level of recognition within the Sustainable Restaurant Association award scheme “, commented proprietor Felicity Cunliffe-Lister, “Our landfill-free status is something we are very proud of, and the award also recognises our Executive Chef Simon Crannage’s commitment to the local food producers, who are the real champions behind every successful restaurant.”

For more information, visit swintonpark.com.