The Ritz GREEN POLICY
The Ritz takes its commitment to minimising its environmental impact very seriously. Our aim is to reduce our energy use by 3% every year for the foreseeable future.
Food and Drink
The Ritz London’s policy demonstrates our dedication to the environment by sourcing fresh, seasonal ingredients from local, sustainable, and organic suppliers where possible. We recognise our responsibility to retain a reduced carbon footprint while providing our guests with the highest quality of service. For example, our meat is sourced from accredited suppliers, predominantly based in the UK, and we are proud to source all our fish from the British Isles. Our coffee is ‘CSC certified’ and Fairtrade. CSC guarantees that purchases are made from only certified plantations checked by independent auditors to ensure the conditions for the growers and their coffee are high.
The Ritz Restaurant holds three stars in the Food Made Good Standard, the highest level of this accreditation, driving positive change and creating a better food system for people and the planet. Run by The Sustainable Restaurant Association since 2010, the Food Made Good Standard is the only global sustainability accreditation developed for the hospitality industry. It helps to create a more socially responsible and environmentally friendly sector, encouraging, supporting, recognising, and celebrating sustainable practices across the hospitality industry.
The Ritz Restaurant offers a separate vegan menu that is available upon request.
Rooms
The Ritz offers an environmental opt-out option for servicing our guests’ rooms. ‘Just a Tidy’ allows guests not to change towels or sheets daily, thus saving energy and reducing water consumption in the laundry process.
Transfers
The Ritz encourages using electric and hybrid vehicles for all hotel transfers. We also have electric car charging facilities available for our guests. Our concierge team can provide further information.
Equipment
Disused or dilapidated equipment that can be broken down into reusable components is disposed of by a registered waste contractor under the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive (WEEE) regulations.
CleanConscience – charity
The Ritz supports CleanConscience, which recycles toiletries and gifts them to charities in the UK and aid organisations abroad.
We donate partly used soap and toiletries to charity. With the assistance of predominantly disabled volunteers, CleanConscience creates fresh bars of soap, which are then gifted to humanitarian aid organisations.
Part-used bottled toiletries are decanted and re-bottled for charities that help at-risk people in the UK, and the plastic bottles are recycled.
Considerate Hoteliers
For many years, The Ritz has been a member of Considerate Hoteliers, a community recognised for its commitment to responsible business practices in hospitality. Considerate Hoteliers regularly support The Ritz by designing our Corporate Social Responsibility calendars.
Insulation
All the hotel windows are double-glazed, and the entire building is thermally tested yearly to monitor energy losses.
Gas
All gas appliances in the hotel kitchen have been replaced with an all-electric system. We use gas for heating and hot water, which our building energy management system monitors.
Electricity
All electricity that is procured is Green energy.
We keep lighting in all public areas to a minimum overnight except for emergency lighting. We have replaced over 5,500 lamps in all guest bedrooms and corridors with LED energy-saving bulbs, which have reduced energy output from 40W to 4W.
Water
We have installed low-flow showerheads, pressure-reducing systems, smaller cistern capacities, flush volume measurement, and urinal sensors to reduce water use.
Our recently refurbished rooms have water pressure reducers to limit wasted water.
Our water quality is regularly checked to ensure it conforms to the latest legislation.
Buildings
Our teams carry out regular maintenance checks on all the hotel buildings.
Waste Disposal
All hotel waste is disposed of following the relevant legislation:
- The Environmental Protection Act 1990
- The Controlled Waste Regulations 1991
- The Special Waste Regulations 1996 (as amended)
Recycling
We recycle paper, cardboard, glass, and food waste. We work closely with Westminster City Council and Veolia, a company specialising in environmental solutions, to find new ways to recycle waste. We are now proudly ‘zero waste to landfill’.
Pollution Control
Air
Vehicles cannot leave their engines running while delivering to the premises. Our consolidation centre allows us to limit the number of deliveries of non-perishable goods to the hotel, all transported to the site via electric vehicle.
Drainage
Grease traps are used throughout the kitchen, and a planned maintenance programme is in place to regularly maintain all hotel drains.
Green Achievements
The Ritz fully understands its responsibility to minimise its impact on the environment and is committed to this at all business levels.
- All printers have been set to ‘Double-sided’ black and white printing as the default.
- Reduced carbon footprint by 1,000 tonnes since 2017
- 96% of all lights are LED.
- Reduced electricity, gas and water consumption and costs by 10% since 2017.
- Increased recycling from 44% to 54% since 2022.
- Donate over two tonnes of soap to CleanConscience every year.
- We reduced waste by 365,000 paper cups per year, which are not going to landfills. We introduced reusable thermos mugs in the staff canteen and stopped using paper cups.
- We annually participate in ‘Earth Hour’ and several corporate social responsibility events.
- All new starter packs are now paperless.
Ritz Bees
Bees play a vital role in our ecosystem, pollinating flowering plants, trees, and crops, but they are becoming an endangered species. Parasites and disease, climate change, and air pollution all impact bee health, especially pesticides.
Bees pollinate approximately 80% of our flowering crops, constituting one-third of everything we eat. Losing them could affect our only dietary staples, such as apples, broccoli, strawberries, nuts, asparagus, blueberries, and cucumbers. Bees are of inestimable value as managers of cross-pollination, and many plants are entirely dependent on particular kinds of bees for reproduction.
The Ritz London has three beehives as part of our green initiative to protect our environment. Each beehive has 20,000 Buckfast bees and a Queen bee. Eight trained beekeepers from the Ritz team have volunteered their services for free to ensure the bees’ health and maintenance.
Green Tourism
The Ritz is a member of Green Tourism and has achieved a Gold award.
Green Tourism London attractions:
- Chelsea Physic Centre – Chelsea
- The Museum of London – London Docklands
- ZSL London Zoo – Regents Park
- London Transport Museum – Covent Garden
- Dominion Theatre – Tottenham Court Road
- The Imperial War Museum – Lambeth
- WWT London Wetland Centre – Barnes
- Horniman Museum – Forest Hill
Sustainability Leaders Programme
The Ritz London has become the first hotel to be acknowledged as a Sustainability Leader by Leading Hotels of The World. This recognition is given to members of the collection who have been certified according to standards aligned with the criteria of the Global Sustainability Tourism Council. It is a testament to the hotel’s commitment to exceptional hospitality, particularly in community, culture, and environmental responsibility.
