SUSTAINABLE BUILDINGS WARD
“It seemed like the ideal solution to invest in an on-site recycling system, which would cut out the middle man and be kinder to the environment in the process.” The journey begins inside the four-star 196-bedroom hotel, where hundreds of guests enjoy a drink in one of the restaurants, bars, conference suites or golf clubhouse every week.
Empty bottles are collected and placed in recycling bins from where they are carried every lunch time to the glass crushing machine.
The bottles are fed in, labels and all, and the spinning hammers pound the glass into a delicate powder, which is then collected in a tray ready to transport in wheel barrows to the golf courses. Carden Park boasts two
championships golf courses on its 1,000 acre estate – the Nicklaus Course, designed by golfing legend Jack Nicklaus and his son Steve, and the Cheshire Course. Each requires year-round care from a dedicated team of 18 ground staff and in excess of 100 tonnes of sand to increase surface aeration
The specialist crusher cost £12,000 and produces a finer quality sand than the hotel can import. “The sand is fine enough to be scattered easily on the green surrounds, roughs and walk offs and spreads nicely between the block paving,” Hamish added. “As an added bonus it tends to have a green tint to it because many of the recycled bottles are green, so it blends very well with the grass.”
The Cheshire Course at Carden Park, which benefits from sand derived from recycled glass to help with aeration.
In a further bid to make their golf
course “greener”, Carden also utilises the services of a team of divers, who brave all seasons to collect balls from more than 25 individual water hazards at the resort, to be recycled and eventually reused on the golf courses.
The HSE qualified scuba divers are employed by a company called UK Lake Management, who recover the balls free of charge. Once the balls have been collected they are then taken away for cleaning and grading. The company then returns 25% of all the high quality balls free of charge back to Carden Park and is free to sell the rest.
During their latest dive they retrieved around 7,000 balls and last year alone recycled more than 100,000 golf balls from Carden Park. As a GTBS accredited business,
Hotel manager Hamish Ferguson with the onsite glass crusher.
Carden Park will now be assessed every two years against rigorous criteria, covering areas like energy efficiency,
waste minimisation and recycling, use of local produce, and support of public transport. The GTBS is the leading green tourism certification scheme in the UK. Its aim is to encourage businesses to become more sustainable, help the government meet targets for sustainability and give consumers the option to choose greener venues.
Carden Park is a luxury resort, offering short breaks, extensive conference and banqueting facilities, two championship golf courses, a golf academy, fitness and spa facilities as well as on-site fun and team activities. For more information on Carden
Park’s green agenda log on to
www.cardenpark.co.uk/216/ responsible-business.html. You can also follow Carden Park on
Facebook and Twitter at:
www.facebook.com/CardenPark and
www.twitter.com/cardenpark
SUSTAINABLE FM | FEBRUARY 2011 |27
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36