A York restaurant has become a 'water filling station' in a bid to reduce the number of environmentally-damaging use-once plastic bottles.
The initiative by The Yorkshire Bar & Grill – which is located within the DoubleTree by Hilton York – will see staff happily refilling reusable drinking bottles belonging to guests, visitors, passersby and tourists alike.
Last month, staff in both the restaurant and the hotel began a review of their use of plastics, ranging from drinking straws and disposable coffee cups through to toiletry containers and bin liners in housekeeping and disposable bottles and pens in conference rooms.
Additionally, suppliers will also be asked to look at how they deliver their goods and services to the hotel, including food, beverages and bedding.
Graham Usher, The Yorkshire Bar & Grill general manager, (pictured left with Amie Thurlow) said, “As an environmentally conscious business, we are constantly looking at ways that we can reduce our carbon footprint, hence our plastics review.
“As an extension of this, we are encouraging the wider public to think twice about buying disposable water bottles when out and about in York, and instead bring a reusable one in to us, which we will gladly fill with chilled tap water.
“And, if colleagues in the city’s hospitality sector follow our lead, then together we can demonstrate a collective commitment to the environment and help reduce the number of plastic bottles thrown away each and every day.”
For its part The Hilton Group uses LightStay, its award-winning corporate responsibility performance measurement platform, to manage and report its environmental impact across its global portfolio of nearly 5,300 hotels.
Since its launch in 2009, the group has saved more than £750m by operating sustainably and carefully managing its energy, carbon, water and waste. LightStay enables us to drive efficiencies and continuous improvement across our portfolio.