Environmental Responsibility
We’ve always believed in reducing our impact on the environment and operating our business in a responsible way. Our sustainability credentials are part of our provenance, and it runs through the way we work and do business. Not only do we champion local produce, seasonally supplied from North Devons Larder but we also aim to reduce our impact on the environment. For example our grease traps prevent fat and grease getting into the drains and into the sea. Our rebuild of the hotel incorporated energy saving iniatives throughout. We maintain our equipment so that they work efficiently.
We’ve summarised the ways we work to reduce our environmental impact in this graphic.
Carlton Environmental Sustainablity
Food Waste Recycling
As part of our actions to act responsibly we work hard to reduce our food waste. This means we use a lot of the whole product in preparing meals, and where we can and it is safe to do so we’ll rework product. Further we are now repurposing waste plate food. In summer 2023 we opted to work with Olio as part of their well-established programme to repurpose and distribute surplus food from restaurants. Their food waste hero volunteers collect surplsu food from our kitchen and then via the Olio app “advertise” the food for free collection. This was the food is saved from being binned and our local community can benefit from the food.
Each month we track our progress, and you can follow this below.
March 2023
Our food waste statistics.
February 2023
Our food waste statistics.
January 2023
Our food waste statistics. We were closed for part of the month as we refurbished the hotel guest and public rooms.
December 2023
As we are into our winter trading, we recorded a reduction in waste food being made and therefore collected.
Our end of year statistics are quite amazing:
Since we started working with Olio in August, nearly 300kg of surplus food has been saved. That’s over 5kg each day. Over the whole period, that’s the same as over 550 meals and over 1000kg of CO2 emmissions saved. This is the same as saving 175,000 litres of water or over 3,400 car miles off the road.
November 2023
Business is always quieter this month which means surplus food is also reduced. Stats for the month are very similar to October’s performance.
October 2023
We end the first quarter of working with Olio with a reduction in both food sent for surplus and uptake. As the hotel is not as busy the amount of available surplus product has diminished. Over 3/4s of the food offered was rehomed though. This meant nearly 120 meals saved and some 37K of water and 214kg of CO2 emission saved or avoided. 19 households locally benefitted from our surplus food. Our info graphic is here.
September 2023
For our second month working with Olio, we have increased the numbers of households using the service, as the volume of surplus food has also increased. Our September info graphic tells more.
August 2023
We started working with Olio and their Food Waste Heroes this month. In a brand-new pilot for small hotels we’re seeking to repurpose our surplus food, ingredients and menu items. Using the Olio app, food is collected by Olio’s volunteers (the food waste heroes) and given to local families or individuals. It’s not sold to anyone.
Our August info graphic explains more.
Our hope is to further reduce our food waste volume and ensure that surplus food goes to a good home, benefiting the local community and environment.
Frequent Questions
The Carlton Hotel subscribes to Olio, we pay to be part of the scheme. We also incur costs in packaging the food and making the meals ready for collection. However we save on waste landfill to offset some of these costs.
Further Reading & Links
If you are interested in the calculations used click here..
You can work with Olio as a volunteer. Click here
You can download the Olio app for more information. https://olioapp.com/en/
