Victorian House Hotel in Grasmere in the Lake District has teamed up with Lancaster University’s Innovation Catalyst on a mission to make Cumbria greener by 2037 and ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow at the end of this month. The hotel has launched a ‘CO2 Free’ package so guests can enjoy a carbon neutral stay.

Over the course of the last six months, the independent hotel has worked with Lancaster University’s Business School Innovation Catalyst team to calculate the carbon emissions of two guests staying there for two nights, plus the carbon emissions for various means of public transport to reach Grasmere from a range of places in the UK From now on, it will offer a CO2 Free package and plant a tree for guests opting to travel to and from the hotel via public transport, thus off-setting both the travel to the hotel and the hotel stay itself and making the break carbon neutral.

The Lake District is an ideal destination for those seeking carbon neutral activities and as part of the project the team has curated five itineraries that can be enjoyed from the hotel without leaving a carbon footprint.

Owner, Serena von der Heyde said: “We want to run Victorian House Hotel sustainably and have thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the work with Lancaster University Innovation Catalyst to establish our carbon impact. We are pleased to now be able to offer a carbon neutral stay to our guests and to showcase the Lake District as a carbon zero destination, helping to ensure that Cumbria can be enjoyed by generations to come.”

Serena and her team have also designed and are now working on the prototype for a waste bin insert that subtly fits their existing waste-paper bins to allow guests to separate recyclable items and it’s estimated that this should halve the 1kg of in-room waste per guest per night that currently goes to landfill. In addition to this, they run and host Reading for a Carbon Zero Grasmere – a book group for local businesses and residents, covering Mike Berners-Lee’s “There is no Planet B” in the hope that they can slowly build a movement of people within the local community who want to work towards a carbon zero future, without the conflict of business versus residents.