sustainability
Here at The Bruntsfield, we are committed to creating a better future. We are committed to reducing our carbon footprint through, waste management, ethical purchasing, and energy efficiency. We model our sustainable practices through the Three Pillars of Sustainability (Environmental, Social, and Economic). The Bruntsfield has partnered with Mission Net Zero and is audited by Green Tourism.
Please read our Environmental, Social and Governance policy here
Sustainability may often be interpreted as just environmental sustainability; however, it is much more than that, and the three pillars of sustainability are the fundamental framework to understand it. The three pillars of sustainability are the environment, society, and the economy. Sustainable development is built on top of those three pillars because it can be achieved only when environmental protection, social fairness, and economic profitability coexist without one area taking over any of the others.
The Bruntsfield aims to adopt social sustainability through the way we treat our employees and by being good neighbours and community members, both locally and globally. This is achieved by adopting a sound corporate social responsibility (CSR) model, that can offer our staff members benefits such as learning and development opportunities, and fair liveable wages. Additionally, by becoming more involved in the community, we have come up with many ways to give back, The Bruntsfield has partnered with Invisible Cities, a social enterprise that recruits and trains people who are affected by homelessness to become walking tour guides in their city. They support their guides through one-to-one training and use part of their profits to support their guides through personal projects such as further education or connecting with families.
At The Bruntsfield, we offer delegate packages for our meeting spaces. Our delegate booking package includes £5 which is contributed to Invisible Cities. Invisible Cities’ commitment is that they will use this to offer free tours to Ukrainian refugees who have newly arrived in Edinburgh. This means one delegate at the Bruntsfield equals one refugee who can attend a free city tour.
At The Bruntsfield, we avoid using single-use plastic wherever we can. Our bathroom amenities are refillable and sourced from ethical companies such as BeeKind. The BeeKind collection from Gilchrist & Soames infuses their soaps and shampoos with natural honey with other organic ingredients. Additionally, with every BeeKind product sold a profit of sales goes towards bee conservation and research.
Our local producers and suppliers all uphold our high ethical, environmental and social standards. Using ethically sourced food and drink e.g. Fairtrade, helps provide better lifestyle and living conditions for producers. Responsibly sourced food and drink means that the environment is better protected during the production process and can help increase biodiversity.
At our restaurant, The Neighbourhood, we aim to source our meat as locally as possible. We source our meat from John Gilmour who is based in Tranent. Their beef is chosen from sustainable small-batch farms which grass feed their animals throughout the summer and silage (a type of natural food that contains plants and forages) throughout the winter.
Recognising the demand for plant-based and vegetarian food is growing significantly our menu has various delicious vegan, vegetarian and gluten free options that can have a lower environmental impact compared to meat and can help promote a healthier lifestyle. Our healthy eating options can help customers make informed choices especially if they are weight conscious or have medical reasons for eating healthily such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Please do let us know if you require any information on the food and drink options on the menu.
We are re-wilding our secret garden and testing more sustainable planting schemes. Our Green Team member, James Murphy, is heading up this project. Please read his plans for this year here
