Holiday Inn Express Southwark has this week unveiled a £4.5million extension, adding 48 new bedrooms and a host of innovative eco-friendly measures including the installation of a 100m² ‘green wall’ on the side of the building.The central London hotel, which is operated by Redefine|BDL Hotels, the UK’s largest hotel management company, has also adopted a grey water system, solar panels, heat recovery units and a building management system to reduce its impact on the environment.
Steven Foster, divisional director at Redefine|BDL Hotels, said: “It’s fantastic to have incorporated so many innovations into the hotel as part of our extension – from our new rooms to the impressive green wall.
“The investment we have put into the development of the hotel is testament to our commitment to our guests and to the surrounding area. As well as reducing our own energy consumption and operating costs, we hope our eco measures will have an impact on our visitors and locals in the area.”
The hotel’s green wall is a ‘living’ wall which is specially constructed to include various types of plant life including flowering plants, ferns and grasses, as well as integrated bird and bug boxes.
Steven added: “The wall will help us to encourage cleaner air and biodiversity and will also feed into our new grey water system which harvests rain water from the roof to flush the building’s public toilets, helping to reduce our water usage.”
The hotel has also installed 24 solar panels on the roof which provide energy to be used within the building, and heat recovery units on each floor to reduce overall energy consumption.
A Trend Building Management System, managed from reception, allows the team to monitor all mechanical operational equipment to further reduce the hotel’s carbon footprint.
In addition to the new environmental measures, the hotel, which previously had 88 bedrooms, has added 24 fully accessible rooms and 24 ambulant rooms, which include extra manoeuvring space, a removable shower seat and integrated rails in the bathroom.
The extension is BREEAM accredited as a result of the ambulant rooms and green initiatives in place.
