Vale Resort Sustainability

VALE RESORT SUSTAINABILITY

The Vale Resort includes a 143-hotel, two championship golf courses, a health & racquets club, Wales’ largest spa, and the Grade 1-listed Hensol Castle with its 23 bedrooms, distillery, and visitor experience. As well as the above the resort has seven pitches used as the training base for Wales’ rugby and football teams, employ five hundred staff, and have a host of measures in place to make the resort as sustainable as possible.

Water

The Resort has two bore holes and a natural spring which supplies the hotel, it uses as its main source of water for the hotel and which are also used for irrigation for the golf courses and pitches.
A complex system of lakes across the 650-acre estate and a 20-acre dammed reservoir attenuates the effects of heavy rain before the water finally reaches the River Ely.

Waste

An on-site sewage treatment plant serves both the resort and the village of Hensol.
The Resort operates segregated waste and recycling programmes for cardboard, glass, paper and food waste.
Waste is compacted to improve re-cycling efficiencies and reduce the number of pick up journeys.
All garden waste is recycled on-site.
Printed marketing (brochures, etc.) is being phased out and replaced by digital alternatives.
Hotel amenities have been switched to an environmentally-friendly brand with biodegradable packaging.

Energy

The Resort has recently invested £300,000 in solar panels to service its hotel and leisure operations.
Air source heat pump technology has been used for heating and cooling the resort for the last twenty years.
There is phased programme of replacing older lighting with more efficient LED alternatives (e.g. driving range).
The resort has reduced its energy consumption with efficiencies from on-site provisions for:-

Water
Sewage
Garden waste

Supply Chain

Local suppliers are used wherever possible to enhance the Vale’s reputation for provenance.
Plastic bags have been replaced by sustainable paper alternative, as have all on site drinking straws in bars.

Travel

The golf club operates an electric fleet of 50 buggies and will be replacing its existing fleet of vehicles with electrical alternatives wherever possible.

Other Initiatives

30,000 trees planted across the resort over three decades to offset the resort’s carbon footprint.
The Resort is home to a number of protected species and has an active ecology management plan which seeks to enhance biodiversity on site.
Sustainability and inclusiveness included in all new starter induction training and employee handbooks.
The Resort is currently working towards Green Key accreditation, a leading standard for excellence in the field of environmental responsibility and sustainable operations within the tourism industry.