AT-BRISTOL, one of the UK’s leading science and discovery centres has been awarded “Gold” in the Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS). This hot on the heels of being awarded Bristol Tourism and Hospitality’s Attraction of the Year. The centre is the only tourist attraction in the Bristol region with gold and the only science centre in England with any Green Tourism Award, let alone gold.

The GTBS is the most established and largest scheme of its kind in the world, assessing businesses against a rigorous set of criteria across a range of areas such as: energy and water efficiency, waste management, biodiversity and more. The level of achievement is then rewarded accordingly with Bronze, Silver or Gold.

Chris Dunford, At-Bristol’s Sustainability Officer said: “With the award criteria being so stringent and broad, most applicants achieve Bronze or Silver first before progressing to Gold after several years so the assessors were very impressed that At-Bristol scored Gold on our first assessment,  we’re delighted!

He adds: “The award brings a range of benefits, some of which we are already experiencing. Our Learning Team has been invited to get involved with a sustainability project run by an organisation which chose us, in part, because of the Green Tourism credentials on our website.”

Stephen Stacey, Grading Assessor at Green Business UK Ltd, said: “At-Bristol must be congratulated on achieving a ‘Gold’ award at the first attempt, which is largely due to the innovative attitude and remarkable sustainable practices implemented within the science & discovery centre.  These can be demonstrated through the centre’s fascinating and rather unique Eutectic tank. This device is capable of storing both heat or cold resulting in greatly reduced carbon emissions. Along with this clever and innovative building services system, At-Bristol has developed a range of environmental and social community projects which significantly helps to mitigate and promote such issues.”

At-Bristol is currently working on a number of other initiatives, both short and long term, to continue improving its sustainability and reducing its carbon footprint.

On 1st November, Connecting Bristol, Bristol City Council’s Digital Partnership, launched www.greenaddict.eu – a major web site on the green use of ICT.

“ICT isn’t something you would immediately associate with being environmentally friendly, however it has quickly become an important enabler of new smarter, greener ways of living and working that will, over time, bring about major reductions in energy use and carbon emissions,” said Cllr Barbara Janke, Leader of Bristol City Council.

The website was developed as a result of an innovative study to calculate the carbon footprint of business use of ICT in the city and to develop a Green ICT solutions database. With funding from the Carbon Trust, Connecting Bristol undertook the study during the last year, which revealed among other things that the business use of ICT costs Bristol approximately £11 million per year in energy costs and produces over 67,000 tonnes in CO2.

This study is the first of its kind to provide a baseline for a city to measure progress in reducing ICT-related carbon emissions, and provides a template for other cities who wish to follow Bristol’s lead. The project will support Bristol’s commitment to achieving its carbon reduction targets, to reduce emissions by 40% by 2020 and 80% by 2050.

“Having carried out this study we have now developed www.greenaddict.eu which showcases the results of the study and will bring together Green ICT pioneers from across Bristol and Europe, providing examples of what can be achieved and encouraging greater uptake of Green ICT solutions,” said Cllr Janke.

The European ICT for Energy Efficiency Project Award was set up to promote innovation in ICT that will contribute to substantial and measurable improvements in energy efficiency, and that have the potential to provide visible and convincing showcases for investment by business, citizens or both.

“We hope that people will vote to ensure that Bristol is recognised as a leading European city for Green ICT and if we win the 20,000 Euro prize we will re-invest this in Green ICT projects for Bristol,” said Cllr Janke.