We have been working with Stirk House Hotel for nearly a year now; helping them to develop and implement a sustainability strategy.

It’s a beautiful hotel with some great staff. In fact we started working with them after Ann Durrant left feedback following a great stay. She commented that there was no-where on the form to leave positive feedback (which she had in spades) and asking if they were doing anything on sustainability.

As part of the work we’ve helped Stirk House identify money and resource savings, including a biomass boiler, reusable glass bottles for water in rooms, and compost heap. We’ve also helped them develop their sustainability USP (unique selling point).

Before we started working with them they had teamed up with The World Owl Trust to create a wildlife haven for many forms of wildlife. They had set up a hide for guests and local people and encouraged guests to sit out and watch the variety of wildlife within the hotel grounds. They had also started developing a wild flower meadow to encourage greater biodiversity.

Our idea was for them to build a bee hotel. A bee hotel is made up of hollow tubes provide a home for solitary bees such as mason bees. Solitary bees are great pollinators and, like other kinds of bee are under threat.

As well as being beneficial for local biodiversity, the idea of the bee hotel really caught on. It obviously fits closely with what Stirk House do, and builds on their existing work to benefit the local environment and improve biodiversity. Basically we hit on a catchy idea, and one that hit the local media even before any bees had moved in.

It’s the kind of sustainability USP we try to help businesses develop. Something which helps sum up sustainability and wave the sustainability flag for that company.

It’s worked for Stirk house. They won the Sustainable Business Award for SMEs at the Lancashire Business Environment Awards  in October and have been shortlisted for Lancashire Green Tourism Awards.

Well done Stirk House Hotel. And well done the bees!