Sustainability

Since achieving ISO 14001 certification back in 2010 for Environmental Management, Greenlands has gone on to implement numerous systems to continue to improve its sustainability; segregating waste for recycling has been common practice on the estate for many years.

In June 2012, Greenlands investing in two in-vessel composters. These Komposter units are able to process cooked and uncooked food waste and, instead of having the food waste collected and sent to an anaerobic digester many miles away, it is now composted on site.

In the summer of 2013, Greenlands went full circle by establishing raised beds, with its own compost, to grow herbs for the kitchen. Greenlands ethos of a ‘plate to plate’ service started here. It tells a story whereby the guest first receives their food, through to the end where herbs are produced back into the kitchen.

In early 2014, it was identified that the complimentary toiletries which included small bottles of shampoo and shower gel provided for guests were creating a great deal of waste that was not recyclable.

The housekeeping staff began working with CleanConscience, to redirect their waste toiletries from landfill and incinerators. CleanConscience are a local organisation who identified that whilst every day, millions of bars of soap are discarded worldwide, at the same time, millions of people are dying each year from disease and infection, many of whom could be saved by the provision of soap.

Waste hand-soaps are now collected and re-purposed by CleanConscience into new bars for distribution by health organisations, to reduce disease in areas of the world where hygiene is extremely poor. Part-used bottled toiletries are also collected. Any remaining product is removed and re-purposed, allowing the empty plastic bottles to be diverted from landfill and recycled.

In 2015, the Henley Business School needed assistance with the emptying and sorting out of a very large furniture storage unit that was previously their finance building.

CleanConscience were able to redistribute everything that had been stored in the finance building, without the need to send anything to landfill or to be incinerated, and in turn Henley Business School saved the equivalent of 45.5 tonnes of CO2 and 10 tonnes of waste which would’ve cost £6,500 in waste costs. An equivalent of £90,000 worth of redundant, or end-of-service, office furniture and decommissioned equipment was donated to charity or gifted to start-up entrepreneurs.

Greenlands have Solar Photovoltaics (PV) in the new accommodation block.

We are currently exploring the potential for an innovative water source heat pump at our Greenlands campus. This would transfer heat from the river Thames into the buildings, reducing the need for oil fired boilers. It’s an exciting project but complicated due to many planning, heritage and environmental considerations.

With our many acres of gardens and wetlands, following the initiative at Whiteknights, Greenlands introduced a Bee Hotel which has been installed on the wall behind Berry Brook House as you walk towards the West Car Park.  

Of the 250 species of bee found in the British countryside there is a specialist group which nest in small cavities, such as cracks in walls, hollow plant stems and beetle holes in dead wood. However, changes in land management and agriculture mean these cavity nesting bees often struggle to find places to nest. Man-made bee hotels can provide them with a suitable alternative, providing them with nesting sites to start the next generation of bees. Cavity nesting bees are particularly good at pollinating many of our crops such as apples, pears and cherries, and also many of the beautiful wild flowers we find in the spring time.  Solitary bees are particularly docile, as they don’t make honey, and so have nothing to defend.

The bee hotel has been built by Robin Dean, a visiting Research Fellow at the University, and a commercial supplier of bees.

The wild garden was once part of a large apple orchard which stretched from Paddock House to Ferry Cottage beyond the fence.

A single apple tree still stands in the garden and hosts some of our next box visitors. Watch for activity during the spring nesting season!

Some wildflower planting has been done in the garden in the past but nature has now taken over and a variety of species can now be seen.

The aim of the design of our conference and meeting rooms is to provide comfortable and well equipped work areas, whilst at the same time moving towards fully sustainable operations. We also use maximum levels of recycled and recyclable materials for non-mechanicals in each room – some of the steps taken to date are:

Eco stationary is used in all meeting and conference rooms and recycled paper is used in all copiers and printers.

In 2018 we removed the majority of paper cups in our conference rooms and replaced with glasses. We enhanced our provision with bottled water that is produced and replenished from in-house water dispensers.

Virtual servers are replacing existing hardware, consolidating maintenance andpower requirements to one central server.

Upgraded energy efficient air conditioning in the server room.

Power out software automatically puts unused PC’s, peripherals, copier and printersinto standby and turning off outside working hours.

All new computers are either EPEAT gold or silver star items. This means that theyreach high standards of environmental performance.

For the end of life recycling we use an approved supplier which has a zero landfill policy.

Heating/Cooling for our Conference Rooms are centrally controlled via a BMS system

Desk Top printers have been removed across the site and replaced with centralised MFD’s which are controlled via the Canon Uniflow management system.

The ethos of high quality, highly sustainable operating carries across into all areas of the business at Henley, encompassing the household management processes, dining and refreshments and day-to-day running of the business school.

Airblade hand dryers are used in restrooms replacing hand towels and less efficient dryers.

Towels are reused as requested by our clients. Low energy lights and fittings, movement sensors where appropriate and replacing halogen with LED lighting to reduce energy usage.

Thermostatic radiator valves replace static valves enabling more efficient local control.

All heating boilers across site are fuelled by Kerosene instead of Gas Oil – a cleaner, more efficient & cheaper fuel.

Dedicated Hot Water boiler for summer use – cheaper and more efficient than running all boilers.

Cooking equipment has power down facility.

We are committed to using local seasonal produce wherever possible for our kitchens and our menus celebrate seasonality, fresh and sustainably farmed local produce.

Ongoing Supply Chain review in place to establish suppliers environmental credentials.

We only use Fair-trade coffee and beverages.