The Manor House conference centre and hotel near Guildford, Surrey has completed the refurbishment of the smallest room in the house, the gents' toilets.
The Manor House is already accredited with a gold award by the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS), the national sustainable tourism scheme for the UK. Although this refurbishment is only a small project, the conference centre's manager, Howard Canning, hopes that it will increase the Manor House's green credentials by reducing water and electricity consumption.
Waterless urinals have been installed, which according to Canning will reduce the conference centre's water usage by an estimated 66000 litres annually. "As we're expecting a drought this summer in Surrey, that's a small, but vital saving" he says.
The toilets are lit with new LED bulbs which, as well as giving much better lighting, use 50% less electricity than the previous lighting system. An efficient Airblade hand drier will altogether remove the need for expensive paper towels, "money" says Canning, "that goes straight in the bin."
The refurbishment has been done by the conference centre's Facilities Manager, Jeyson Fosbury, who has been keen to minimise the environmental impact of the work. "We were going to buy new doors" he says "but thought we'd try stripping the old doors down first." He was delighted and amazed to discover they were original solid oak doors from the 1920's." Naturally, these doors have been re-instated they will finish the job off to a tee
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