Edinburgh hotel collection achieves new CommunityMark

The Town House Collection, a group of boutique hotels in Edinburgh, is amongst the first pioneering group of 21 UK-based businesses to achieve the CommunityMark, a new UK-wide standard, developed by Business in the Community, which recognises companies that are the best investors in their communities.

Successful CommunityMark companies have passed a rigorous, independent assessment including scrutiny by their employees and community partners. In one year alone, the 21 CommunityMark companies invested over £600 million in the community through employee time, funding and other contributions.

The CommunityMark was unveiled to ministers and business leaders at 10 Downing Street. John Denham, Secretary of State for Innovation, Universities and Skills, said: “The skills, strengths and sustainability of British business have never been so important to society. If the CommunityMark helps to bring about more effective partnerships between business and community groups, it holds out tremendous potential to deliver long-term sustainable solutions that will benefit us all.”

The Town House Collection supports FareShare, a charity that distributes surplus food from supermarkets, hotels and restaurants to vulnerable people in the community. In the last six years the company has challenged itself to raise £20,000 a year for FareShare, through a range of innovative activities. Despite it only being July, the company has already reached this target for 2008.

Peter Taylor, owner and chairman of The Town House Collection says “FareShare makes such a difference to people’s lives. It is great to see all the fresh food being used so positively and not thrown away. The project is a success and demonstrates so vividly the opportunity for the corporate world to work along with the charity sector to make a real difference in our communities.”

The trailblazing national mark was developed by BITC with the support of companies, public and voluntary sector bodies, and was designed to be challenging and relevant to all concerned. The CommunityMark is endorsed by government and the voluntary sector, and supported in Scotland by Scottish Business in the Community, the business-led charity which shares its president with BITC - HRH the Prince of Wales, Duke of Rothesay.

The 21 pioneering businesses with the CommunityMark other than The Town House Collection are: Rangers Football Club, Heart of Midlothian Football Club, Design Links Ltd., Contract Scotland Ltd., BT, GlaxoSmithKline, HBOS, KPMG, M&S, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, RWE Npower, Tesco, Zurich, Ernst & Young, Barclays, Deloitte & Touche LLP UK, J. Sainsbury PLC, Axis, Blackburn Rovers Football Club and EMS.