The Brend Collection recognises that we have an impact on the communities and environment in which we operate and we want to ensure that where possible, this impact is positive. Our Corporate Social Responsibility agenda outlines five key areas that we have prioritised for our effort and investment. 

1. Supporting our local community

At the Brend Collection we want to play our part in supporting good causes in our local community in Devon and Cornwall, as well as providing help to national charities. As a family business, we are pleased to have built close working relationships with the local communities in which we work and our teams often get involved in helping the charitable organisations that we support. 

Over the years we have supported hospices across the South West as well as Macmillan Nurses and many local sporting teams, including rugby, football, swimming, bowls and tennis clubs amongst others. We are also thrilled to sponsor the South West Coast Path Association, helping to preserve this great asset to the region. 

2. Supporting the environment

We believe it is important that all our hotels do all that they can to follow good environmental practices. We are privileged to be based in a beautiful part of the world and we want to do everything possible to help preserve the natural environment. With that in mind, we have embarked on a substantial investment programme to replace old infrastructure with new high-efficiency equipment using renewable technologies wherever we can. We also strive to ensure that our team keeps the environment in mind as they go about providing an exceptional experience to our guests, for example when preparing entertainment programmes. 

Below are just some of the steps we are taking to reduce our impact on the environment. 

  • Recycling: We have reduced the amount of waste sent to landfill by 45%. All our luxury hotels recycle metal, glass, plastic, card and paper and almost all our waste is recycled or re-used.
  • Green Energy: All of our food waste is collected by a specialist contractor and converted into green electricity at a local power plant in Somerset.
  • Making Common Sense Change: Since embarking on our environmental programme we have reduced our total energy use and Co2 emissions by 15%. We have done this by making common sense changes such as lighting and boiler upgrades, insulation and oil to gas projects. These projects have seen us invest more than £600,000 in the last 4 years.
  • Carbon Emissions: We have reduced our carbon emissions by an estimated 6500 tonnes and regularly review our use of energy and raw material to ensure we are continuously reducing our carbon footprint across all parts of the business.
  • Local Sourcing: We buy as much of our fish, meat, cheese and vegetables from local suppliers as possible, helping to support local farmers as well as cutting down on unnecessary food miles.
  • Low energy light bulbs: We use low energy LED lights across our hotels, but always in a way that reflects the sensitivity of our hotels, their beautiful locations, and our guest’s desire for a luxurious experience.
  • Renewable Energy Solar and Biomass: We have two solar power installations at The Barnstaple Hotel, one provides electricity to reduce our dependence on external supplies, and the other provides hot water for our pools. The Saunton Sands Hotel now has all of its heating and hot water, (including for both of its swimming pools) provided by renewable energy with our Biomass woodchip boiler installed at a cost of £300,000.

3. Awards, recognition and external links

Since we adopted a group wide environmental policy, we have won many awards. This includes Green Apple and the North Devon Business initiative, as well as being highly commended in the Cornwall Sustainable Tourism awards. More recently the group has adopted the TripAdvisor Green Leader Standard and has already achieved a Gold Status for The Barnstaple Hotel.

4. Partnership working

We have strong links which we continue to nurture, with a wide range of external groups including Business Link, the North Devon Biosphere, Plastic Free North Devon, Visit Devon, The Earth Charter, The Green Organisation and several universities including Somerset, Exeter and Hertfordshire.

5. Gender Pay Gap 

With the support of our dedicated team, our family-run company has been a leader in West Country hospitality for over fifty years, with 11 hotels and 18 restaurants around Devon and Cornwall. We value the diversity of our workforce, who are from a variety of different backgrounds, genders and ethnicities, and continue to be the key to our success - more than 5 decades after it all began. View our 2022 Gender Pay Gap Report here.