Led by Chef-Patron, Raymond Blanc OBE, Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons has been pioneering its own unique brand of sustainable luxury since its inception 1984. From its signature, seasonal low-food-mile style of cooking to the biodiversity work across its orchards, hedgerows and beehives. Sustainability has been natively baked in to this 15th-century 32-bedroomed hotel, two-Michelin-starred restaurant, cookery school, and gardening school – long before it was a globally recognised issue.
The hotel has an ambitious goal to become net zero by 2030 – which involves implementing innovative strategies to tackling climate change across all areas of the business — from energy usage to waste disposal to education. As a restaurant its major focus has been on reducing waste, and the hotel has recently implemented a successful zero-to-landfill policy.
Le Manoir believes that becoming sustainable is not enough. And that it also has a responsibility to quantify and share its progress with customers, team and any other stakeholders along the way. Through telling its story Le Manoir hopes to inspire others to take action.
To help elevate ‘sustainable transparency’, Le Manoir has joined Zellar, a sustainability scoring platform. Joining Zellar has helped to enhance the hotel’s already impressive sustainability programme by enabling it to better measure, plan, activate, report and share its progress.
Sustainability Champion
One of the most important aspects of any sustainability journey – and the starting point of each and every Zellar action plan is to appoint a sustainable champion. Le Manoir appointed facilities, environmental and sustainability Manager, Rhodri Williams, to drive its sustainability programme forward and to engage and educate the team. Under Rhodri the hotel has made some incredible progress and expects to increase the number of employees trained in sustainable practices to 70% by the end of 2022.
Emissions monitoring
By streaming the hotel’s energy consumption data from the national grid and estimating Le Manoir’s vehicle travel emissions – Zellar has helped the hotel to understand its impact and make plans to reduce it.
For example Le Manoir, has partnered with Oxford Bus Company and Oxfordshire County Council to improve and re-introduce a local bus service to Le Manoir whether it’s for work or visiting. This alone has reduced combined carbon emissions, saving around 1,932kg of CO₂ and over 700 litres of fuel per week.
Green technology
One of the cornerstones of Zellar is its green marketplace – which helps customers to understand which technologies have the greatest impact on sustainability. Each investment can be recorded to each Zellar profile and shared with the outside world. Zellar also accounts for any historical investments in green technology. For example, in 2019 Le Manoir embarked on a major energy saving project – installing around 500 LED lights and reducing carbon emissions of 11,768 tonnes annually. All of this information is displayed in the sustainability timeline on Le Manoir’s Zellar profile.
Sustainability checks
Le Manoir is also using the sustainability checks within Zellar to enable the hotel to focus on using energy more efficiently and to minimise energy usage by optimising its heating, air conditioning, laundry, IT equipment and light settings.
Energy switching
All of Le Manoir’s electricity and gas consumption is certified as 100% renewable. The Zellar platform also alerts the hotel when its energy contracts are up for renewal, and allows them to search the market for a green energy supplier – avoiding expensive broker fees.
Volunteering
Zellar also helps business find, organise and publicise community and volunteering projects. For example, Le Manoir raises hundreds of pounds each year to help restore its neighbouring 13th Century St Mary’s church, as well as projects with Chilworth SEN School.
Zellar profile, sharing and score
Le Manoir’s Zellar captures every sustainable action recorded to the Zellar platform and wraps it up into one single score, enabling it to monitor progress both internally and externally.
The platform also provides a live feed that enables the hotel to communicate many of the other amazing ways it is becoming sustainable. For example, its Zellar feed has helped communicate its state of the art “Rocket” Composter and dryer for on-site composting of all food scraps and kitchen carbon-based waste.
Le Manoir’s Zellar profile has even become a valuable marketing tool. By proudly displaying it on its website, the hotel is enabling guests and employees alike to follow its sustainability progress.
