WHEN the Prince of Wales complained that hotel sewage was polluting the watercourse in one of his fields, the hotel decided it was time to review its green credentials.

Now the Hare and Hounds Hotel at Westonbirt is the first Gloucestershire hotel to achieve a silver award from the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS), for its ongoing commitment to sustainable tourism.

The process of going green started in 2006, as hotel manager, Laura Price, recalls: "We started to look into how green our business was when we installed our water treatment plant in 2006. Previously we had discharged our sewage into a treatment plant across the road but some years ago, without our knowledge, the pipe was diverted into a neighbouring field and was polluting the watercourse.

"The land happened to be owned by Prince Charles who reported it to the Environment Agency. As a result we installed a state of the art bio-disk system and this is working extremely well now."

To gain the prestigious certification, the hotel was assessed against rigorous criteria, across many different business areas, including energy saving, water issues, purchasing, recycling, wildlife and landscape.

The hotel has scored highly in all of these areas by taking gradual steps to create a successful green' business.

The GTBS recognised the hotel for its extremely high environmental standards, maintained across the entire business. All paper is recycled, along with cardboard, glass, cooking oil and garden waste. The majority of hotel stationery is printed on 100 per cent recycled stock, with all internal correspondence written or printed on scrap paper.

All the hotel's water is obtained from a well across the road and treated on site to make high-quality bottled water.

This is then sold in the hotel restaurant and bar, where customers can also enjoy a Fairtrade coffee. Only environmentally friendly, chlorine free cleaning products are used and high efficiency boilers and hot water thermostats, set to 60 degrees.

"Our lighting only comes on with movement sensors. This is a small price to pay to conserve energy," added Laura.

The beautiful gardens and grounds surrounding the hotel are filled with an array of wildlife, which the hotel works hard to maintain and encourage by providing log stacks and bird and bat boxes.

Wildlife that can be found includes bat, fox, badger, weasel, squirrel, toad, frog, mice and a huge range of birds including songbirds, woodpecker, buzzard and sparrowhawk. There are 15 species of trees, 22 of wildflower and six funghi.

The hotel also works hard to support the local economy, with the restaurant using local, seasonal produce wherever possible.

The 45-bedroom hotel is a family-owned, privately run, top-end 3-star hotel.

The Green Tourism Business Scheme is the leading sustainable tourism certification scheme in the UK, with over 1,400 members. Businesses opting to join are assessed by a qualified grading advisor against a rigorous set of criteria, covering a range of areas, like energy and water efficiency, waste management, biodiversity and more.