Historic Callendar House in Falkirk has been awarded a national award for its approach to sustainable tourism.
The venue picked-up a ‘silver’ Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) award last month following a rigorous inspection of its approach and practises towards sustainability.
Factors such as energy use, water efficiency, waste management, biodiversity and many more criteria were all used to measure the house’s ‘green’ credentials.
A small team of staff worked on the project that set about making improvements across the board.
Some of the bigger improvements included:
-
Better and more efficient use of the heating system;
-
Getting more locally sourced products and foodstuff in the shops and tearoom;
-
Reducing the amount of paper based marketing undertaken by Callendar House;
-
Actively encouraging people to use public transport/walk or cycle to the park.
Additionally, visitor improvements were made across a number of areas including:
-
Provision of a ‘Green’ room that provides visitors with a wide range of information about the park and its wildlife, flora and fauna;
-
More and better activities for visitors to get to know the House and;
-
Better informed and trained staff to encourage a ‘greener’ visitor.
Chairman of Falkirk Community Trust, Ian Scott said: “This is a great achievement for the staff at Callendar House. They have put in a great deal of effort to ensure that what they do is based around sustainable tourism.
“The Trust will aim to be as sustainable as it can be in all its activities.”
In their report, GTBS Assessors said: ‘Callendar House has done very well to enter the scheme at a high end silver award. There are a number of excellent practices on this site.’