Spotlighting Smart Sustainability

Sustainability has clearly been part of The Lovat’s story from the very beginning. How did it start?

Caroline: I started the hotel in 2005, with my parents, and I do think they've been the biggest influence on the initial thought process, even just growing up. Waste was an important part of how to live properly. You don't waste things because what you put in the bin is your profit. That was drummed into us from a very early age. My dad focused a lot on the energy side of things and my mum was a chef, so she looked after the food waste side. It was a natural progression when we went into business together to intertwine all of that because it was just part and parcel of who I was.

I thought, this isn't just about me, it's about how I get the team on board. That’s how the Green Team came about. Back in 2005, nobody really understood what sustainability was. I remember putting into our business plan, and into the Green Tourism business scheme, that sustainability is survival. It's about how you operate on a daily basis and it filters into every element of a business.

We did a massive refurbishment, spent about a million pounds, got some grant funding and went to anybody who could give us advice on how to fine-tune every aspect of the business. We ended up installing a biomass boiler, the first in the Highlands to do so, using a locally sourced provider and local wood chips.

From there it moved into team training, then telling guests what we were doing. I started asking, if we need to buy something new, is it ticking at least three of four boxes: is it already recycled, can it be recycled, is it locally sourced, is it made in Scotland?

For 19 years we ran a Trees for Life donation through our booking system too, 15p per booking, going to a grove near Dundreggan the team would visit to plant trees. We've now moved that support to the charity Hospitality Action as it felt right to freshen things up and support our industry as we adapt our business.

From local sourcing to foraging, is there a strategy behind where The Lovat focuses its local impact?

Caroline: I'm not sure there's a strategy as such. With anything we're going to do, I just wonder what positive impact it could have on our community. When we started the Green Team (now aptly renamed the Coftie Crew), we wanted to do a litter pick, so we thought, why not open it up to the community too. We got funding from the Community Company for the equipment, litter pickers, rings, bags, high-vis jackets and now we've got 12 litter pickers that other people can use, so it's not just about us.

We look after the senior citizens in the village with a Christmas party every year. This year we've moved to reusable hats and crackers, which the team makes up themselves, filled with things we’ve made. It's another reinforcement of the ethos and it gets the whole team involved.

We also work with a local croft who has rare breed sheep, pigs, lamb and turkeys. She recently asked if we'd like turkey eggs, about 30 a week. We hadn't even thought about turkey eggs. So when laying they are on the breakfast menu. It just keeps evolving through having conversations with people.

How does all of this come through for the guest, day to day?

Caroline: Different people connect with different things, which is probably what's quite lovely - we're not just focused on one thing. Someone might be really interested in the biomass boiler, so we'll give them a show round. We've got a plaque outside about it and we've recently put up QR code history boards around the property so people can gather information themselves. Or someone will ask about something small, like a table display and we'll say, oh, that's made from recycled tyres or that vase was made from our old wine bottles.

All those small details add up to something we've now got a word for. Our Brand Developer, Dan, was once chatting to our PR agency and meant to say we were "comfortable and cosy," but it came out as "Coftie". We loved this word muddle, so we started using that instead. It means slow, intentional travel. It's about giving people something they didn't know they needed, so they leave feeling refreshed, relaxed and informed.  It has also evolved into explaining a moment you don't want to end.

Food seems to be such a huge part of the identity you've built. How did that develop?

Caroline: Sean started here in 2011 and he's told me, only in the last year or two, that I was a bit of a catalyst for his thinking around food foraging and waste, which hadn't really been forefront when he was working elsewhere before. We fuel each other's ideas. He was researching pasta made from fish bones the other day, that nose-to-tail, zero-waste way of thinking.

We use a lot of birch here. You take the bark off and underneath there's this fluffy wood you bind down and use as flour. They've made pastry cases from it. We also collect the birch sap and make it into a syrup, a bit like maple syrup. We make our own ginger beer in-house too, from a ginger bug that's been live for about 15 months, our Mother Sourdough starter, called Betty, named after my 107 year old Nana and Scoby for our kombuchas.  For citrus we're using sorrel from the lawn and apples from the garden for the tartness where we'd normally use lemons.

It's the same story behind the bar. We love working with a producer who gave up a marketing job in London to start a distillery on the west coast, wanting to be the most sustainable whisky distillery around. They started with a botanical spirit, now they make whisky too, and all their bottles are recycled. We send ours back so they can reuse them. There's another company whose bottles we keep here and they now send us their alcohol in five-litre pouches so we can decant it, all reusable. It's definitely a story, I'd like to think there's meaning behind what we're doing.

We'll get a bartender who's excited to make a cocktail and reaches straight for the amaretto, and I'll say, okay there’s another way. We'll use rowan shoots or when in season cherry blossom flowers instead, because they've got a lovely almond flavour, and turn them into a syrup that does the same job amaretto would. That's when you start asking what other fruits and herbs around us could go into what we do instead, because it's all about a story. It's about having something to talk about that is intrinsically you, that is your identity, that nobody can question, because that's who we are.

Finally, for independent hotels who want to take sustainability seriously but feel overwhelmed by where to start, what would you say?

Caroline: Do something you believe in. There's no point going after something because you think it's what everyone else is doing. You have to wholeheartedly want to do it. That said, some things you need to do because they're a no-brainer, so you have to understand the why. If you understand that and how it can potentially affect you financially in a positive way, that's when you get the light bulb moments.

Understand it's not just on your shoulders. There are people around you who can support, whether that's industry, external mentoring, case studies, or people within your own team who love bringing ideas to the table because if it comes from them, they'll own it.

Figure out what your vision and goal is and break it down into manageable pieces. Otherwise it's this big hairy monster you keep avoiding. Ask what you can do today that makes a difference, and how you make it a habit, until it becomes second nature.

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