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Elizabeth Gaskell’s House Gets a Silver Sustainable Tourism Award

Elizabeth Gaskell’s House has been successful in achieving a Silver Green Tourism Award after joining Green Tourism, the largest and most established sustainable certification programme in the world.

A Green Tourism Award means that a business works responsibly, ethically and sustainably, contributes to their community, is reducing their impact on the environment and aims to be accessible and inclusive to all visitors and staff.

Elizabeth Gaskell’s House has worked hard since opening to reduce the impact of the business on the environment and to improve links with the local community and felt the time was right to join the programme and get recognition for the work carried out so far.

The Elizabeth Gaskell’s House was graded by a qualified Assessor against a rigorous set of criteria, covering a range of areas such as energy and water efficiency, waste management, biodiversity and social involvement and communication.

 The assessor, Lisa Watson, commented; “Elizabeth Gaskell’s House have done an excellent job at achieving Silver on their first Green Check on the Green Tourism Programme. There are many good examples of good sustainable and environmental practices onsite. With good systems in place to encourage recycling with clear labelling on bins including food waste, efficient boilers, Green policy and responsible visitor charter on the website, they are involved in and do well to support the local community by offering rooms, supporting events and by having a strong volunteer programme. This is just the beginning of the sites Green Journey and I am sure as it continues to develop it will increase the score.”

House Manager Sally Jastrzebski-Lloyd said: “We are delighted to get the Green Tourism Silver award– which has been achieved through the enthusiasm and support of our staff, volunteers and board. However there is still lots we can do and we have lots of exciting plans for our garden and ways in which we can engage our visitors with our EGH Responsible Visitor Charter”

Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is open to the public every Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, 11am-4.30pm – click here for more information