Since I did a post for Blog Action Day on eco-spas and the possible environmental impacts of spa and therapy activities, I've found myself getting more interested in this aspect of things. Having spent most of my working life dealing with these issues, and having realised that eco-spas are a lot easier to find than I'd expected, I'm keeping more of an eye out for more...
One of the upshots of this has been that I also spotted a press release recently about a new spa in Glasgow. The Spa at the new five-star Blythswood Square Hotel opens in February 2010 and as well as the usual blurb about luxury and 'discreet havens,' the media release includes the information that the spa will be using Ila (organic skincare) products and 'indigenous Scottish' beauty ingredients. It seems to be going for the 'local' trend that has swept food markets and other products areas, emphasising in this case the use of "organic seaweed sourced direct from the Hebrides" (good if it's being produced/harvested sustainably and shipped in low-carbon ways) and "Scotland’s purest ingredients including Scotch Thistle extract, seaweed and sea lavender, with healing therapies to provide a complete body and mind experience."
The food on offer is also apparently heavy on the “ locally sourced, organic dishes.”
All this is, of course, commendable and on the right track, and sustainable sourcing of all these consumables is an important step in the right direction.
But in terms of big environmental impacts I was also interested to find out more about the press release's statement that “Blythswood Square will be one of Scotland’s most environmentally-friendly hotels through the incorporation of renewable energy technologies to achieve reduced carbon emissions.” For this I had to head to the hotel company's own website, which lists a range of measures taken to reduce the hotel's carbon footprint, including:
- heating systems which combine Combined Heat & Power, geothermal and solar panels;
- “ highly efficient micro double glazing which is 300% better than the original sash windows at eliminating draughts” - which sounds like a useful resource for historical buildings, which are often constrained by conservation requirements when it comes to energy-efficient fittings;
- “energy efficient lighting” - which I'm guessing is a fancy way of saying low-energy light bulbs;
- additional insulation on internal walls and a heat recovery system in the roof;
- a rain water recovery system to supplement water supplies;
- some members of the same hotel chain also donate leftover food to FareShare, a stunningly common-sense scheme which distributes good-quality surplus food to homeless people, helping them to access better quality food and helping to reduce the shocking amount of food wasted every day in this (and other affluent) countries.
Unfortunately the actual information on the company website seems to have been written by a PR person who doesn't know anything about the subject and has got their terminology mixed up, so they've got geothermal down as meaning 'solar panels,' which doesn't do a great amount for its credibility. But it does look like this particular hotel is going beyond the pitiful and very annoying stickers that seem to have multiplied across many hotels, which point out how much water, heat and detergent is wasted in hotel laundries across the world by washing towels that have only been used once, and urging guests to only leave towels on the floor if they actively need them washing again. OK, fair enough on its own, but said sticker does not make a 'green hotel'. I hope that things have progressed since I wrote a report on the hotel sector for Ethical Consumer magazine in 2007, but at that time most hotel chains seemed to think that that was their environmental responsibilities covered...
Wednesday, 30 December 2009
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
Titanic, Huddersfield: 'Britain's first eco-spa'
Titanic Spa in Huddersfield was launched with a flurry of broadsheet reviews in 2007 as 'Britain's first eco-spa,” and its website lists some pretty impressive environmental credentials. It has invested £1.5 million in making the building 'carbon neutral,' including installing a Combined Heat & Power (CHP) plant. CHP systems use the same generator to produce both heat and electricity, so less energy is wasted, and Titanic's CHP unit runs on a biomass boiler, meaning that wood chippings are used as fuel. The trees themselves also absorb CO2 as they grow, so this is a method of power generation with a much lower carbon footprint than fossil fuel boilers, although there are some questions about the effects on biodiversity and food production of growing tree plantations for fuel.
As well as the CHP plant, Titanic also has photovoltaic solar panels to generate additional electricity, a swimming pool which uses salt instead of chlorine to keep the water clean, and an Otex laundry system which claims to “make typical average savings of 60% in electricity, 35% in gas and 80% in hot water.” And Titanic's water supply doesn't come from mains water, but from the spa's own borehole stretching 100m down into the limestone aquifer below.
So when I spotted a 2-4-1 offer for Titanic Spa on Lastminute.com, at the same time as my co-author on my first book and I were discussing treating ourselves to a post-manuscript weekend away, it seemed like the chance to find out what an eco-spa might look like.
Apart from the pleasant no-chlorine atmosphere of the swimming pool, the only discernible effect of these environmental measures are the little plaques explaining the pure borehole water, positioned above the drinking fountain in the Heat Experience area. This is a full-on luxury spa, offering a huge range of massages, wraps, scrubs, manicures, pedicures, facials, hydrotherapy and hammam treatments. The swimming pool incorporates a large jacuzzi and is surrounded by loungers in which to while away the hours or to sprawl on in between visits to the adjacent sauna or steam room. And the fabulous Relaxation Room is home to a squadron of vast, squashy armchairs and loungers, a huge sunken pit full of giant beanbags (just be careful not to fall asleep in there...) and an impressive collection of trashy magazines.
The accommodation for those lucky enough to be staying over at Titanic is also pretty plush. According to a local we got chatting to, the guest apartments were originally designed as flats in this vast renovated nineteenth century mill building, but didn't sell. This means they have top-of-the-range kitchens and nice bathrooms, as well as TVs and DVD players for those too exhausted to do anything but flop after their spa day.
The half-hour Target Massages we got as part of the Lastminute offer package were more than adequate, and in my case surprisingly effective for such a short time. My therapist was confident and able, delivering a back and shoulder massage using forearms and elbows as well as hands, and finishing off with a slick of circulagel to make the effects of the massage last longer.
The biggest reason to head for Titanic, though, is the Heat Experience. This is a dimly-lit circular room with the feel of a Middle Eastern hammam, where you can spend hours working your way around a range of small rooms ranging from a gorgeously tiled blue Steam Room, a roasting sauna or milder saunarium, a clean-scented aromatherapy room or a row of bubbling foot spas, to an ice room or a freezing plunge pool. After a few rounds of this your skin feels fabulously clean, your muscles relaxed, and if you've braved the cold plunge pool after some time in the sauna, your circulation and endorphins are racing.
Titanic is, in my estimation, pretty damn good, and its environmental investments are very impressive. But it's not quite there yet. The small eco-failings seem odd; there things that even hotels that haven't grasped the bigger environmental picture manage to do (if only for PR reasons) which Titanic doesn't. The tea, sugar and orange juice in the apartment kitchens, for example, are neither organic nor Fairtrade, although they all easily could be switched over as coffee is already FT. There are no recycling bins in the apartments or around the drinking fountains, and although there are some paper cones to drink from, there were also plastic cups by many of the fountains. The freebie toiletries in the bathrooms, while pleasant-smelling, weren't from any of the widely available eco or fair trade brands, and were labelled 'made in China.' The products on sale and used in treatments were good quality but not eco or fair trade, and although the Decleor saleswoman in the foyer was lovely, she was totally baffled by our questions about the ethics of the company behind the brand. And the Directions page on the Titanic website only gives instructions on how to get to the spa by car, not by public transport from Huddersfield train and coach station, which are a ten minute cab ride away.
Titanic Spa should be justly commended for its major environmental investments, for using serious renewable energy, energy-efficient and low-chemical technologies and for introducing debates on these subjects into the spa world. And as a destination spa it's well worth heading for (by public transport!) for a top-notch relaxing break. But there are still some changes – and not necessarily big ones - which management could make to achieve ethical perfection. I'm certainly looking forward to going back to see if they've made any of them...
Titanic Spa, Low Westwood Lane, Linthwaite, Huddersfield HD7 5UN, 01484 843 544, enquiries@titanicspa.com. Lastminute.com special offer £129 for two people for lunch, dinner, bed & breakfast, full use of the spa and pool/gym facilities and a half hour treatment.
A version of this article was also published in the Ethicsgirls online magazine in January 2010.
As well as the CHP plant, Titanic also has photovoltaic solar panels to generate additional electricity, a swimming pool which uses salt instead of chlorine to keep the water clean, and an Otex laundry system which claims to “make typical average savings of 60% in electricity, 35% in gas and 80% in hot water.” And Titanic's water supply doesn't come from mains water, but from the spa's own borehole stretching 100m down into the limestone aquifer below.
So when I spotted a 2-4-1 offer for Titanic Spa on Lastminute.com, at the same time as my co-author on my first book and I were discussing treating ourselves to a post-manuscript weekend away, it seemed like the chance to find out what an eco-spa might look like.
Apart from the pleasant no-chlorine atmosphere of the swimming pool, the only discernible effect of these environmental measures are the little plaques explaining the pure borehole water, positioned above the drinking fountain in the Heat Experience area. This is a full-on luxury spa, offering a huge range of massages, wraps, scrubs, manicures, pedicures, facials, hydrotherapy and hammam treatments. The swimming pool incorporates a large jacuzzi and is surrounded by loungers in which to while away the hours or to sprawl on in between visits to the adjacent sauna or steam room. And the fabulous Relaxation Room is home to a squadron of vast, squashy armchairs and loungers, a huge sunken pit full of giant beanbags (just be careful not to fall asleep in there...) and an impressive collection of trashy magazines.
The accommodation for those lucky enough to be staying over at Titanic is also pretty plush. According to a local we got chatting to, the guest apartments were originally designed as flats in this vast renovated nineteenth century mill building, but didn't sell. This means they have top-of-the-range kitchens and nice bathrooms, as well as TVs and DVD players for those too exhausted to do anything but flop after their spa day.
The half-hour Target Massages we got as part of the Lastminute offer package were more than adequate, and in my case surprisingly effective for such a short time. My therapist was confident and able, delivering a back and shoulder massage using forearms and elbows as well as hands, and finishing off with a slick of circulagel to make the effects of the massage last longer.
The biggest reason to head for Titanic, though, is the Heat Experience. This is a dimly-lit circular room with the feel of a Middle Eastern hammam, where you can spend hours working your way around a range of small rooms ranging from a gorgeously tiled blue Steam Room, a roasting sauna or milder saunarium, a clean-scented aromatherapy room or a row of bubbling foot spas, to an ice room or a freezing plunge pool. After a few rounds of this your skin feels fabulously clean, your muscles relaxed, and if you've braved the cold plunge pool after some time in the sauna, your circulation and endorphins are racing.
Titanic is, in my estimation, pretty damn good, and its environmental investments are very impressive. But it's not quite there yet. The small eco-failings seem odd; there things that even hotels that haven't grasped the bigger environmental picture manage to do (if only for PR reasons) which Titanic doesn't. The tea, sugar and orange juice in the apartment kitchens, for example, are neither organic nor Fairtrade, although they all easily could be switched over as coffee is already FT. There are no recycling bins in the apartments or around the drinking fountains, and although there are some paper cones to drink from, there were also plastic cups by many of the fountains. The freebie toiletries in the bathrooms, while pleasant-smelling, weren't from any of the widely available eco or fair trade brands, and were labelled 'made in China.' The products on sale and used in treatments were good quality but not eco or fair trade, and although the Decleor saleswoman in the foyer was lovely, she was totally baffled by our questions about the ethics of the company behind the brand. And the Directions page on the Titanic website only gives instructions on how to get to the spa by car, not by public transport from Huddersfield train and coach station, which are a ten minute cab ride away.
Titanic Spa should be justly commended for its major environmental investments, for using serious renewable energy, energy-efficient and low-chemical technologies and for introducing debates on these subjects into the spa world. And as a destination spa it's well worth heading for (by public transport!) for a top-notch relaxing break. But there are still some changes – and not necessarily big ones - which management could make to achieve ethical perfection. I'm certainly looking forward to going back to see if they've made any of them...
Titanic Spa, Low Westwood Lane, Linthwaite, Huddersfield HD7 5UN, 01484 843 544, enquiries@titanicspa.com. Lastminute.com special offer £129 for two people for lunch, dinner, bed & breakfast, full use of the spa and pool/gym facilities and a half hour treatment.
A version of this article was also published in the Ethicsgirls online magazine in January 2010.
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Jutika, Bodywise, December 2009
OK, so I've been tarting it round various other massage providers in Manchester, largely lured by spa facilities and Lastminute.com 2-for-1 offers. But a pilates class just across the hallway and some seriously sore shoulder muscles from hauling myself around on crutches has seen me hurrying back to Manchester's finest.
As usual, Bodywise is just a lovely, calming environment to walk into, with its faint scent of incense and aromatherapy and strangely soothing curved walls. Jutika, as usual, dug out her file of notes on me – now going back the best part of ten years – and checked for any new clinical issues, as well as talking through my general mental and emotional health.
The massage was, as usual, spot on – plenty of pressure point work and good firm strokes using forearms and elbows. The muscles down the side of my neck and along my shoulders were predictably bunched into a big knot, so after trying to get into them with her hands and thumbs out came Jutika's elbows, leaning slowly and firmly into the sorest points, breaking down the tension and pain and returning my shoulders to somewhere around their natural position rather than the previous sense that they'd been stuck somewhere near my earlobes.
And hey, back again tomorrow. Lucky me!
The great addition to this particular massage was that Jutika is currently doing a 20% off recession-busting offer, but I don't know how long for so it's well worth getting in touch asap...
Bodywise Natural Health Centre, Manchester Buddhist Centre, 16 - 20 Turner Street, Manchester M4 1DZ, 0161 833 2528, health [at] bodywisenaturalhealth.co.uk. C. £30 including discount.
As usual, Bodywise is just a lovely, calming environment to walk into, with its faint scent of incense and aromatherapy and strangely soothing curved walls. Jutika, as usual, dug out her file of notes on me – now going back the best part of ten years – and checked for any new clinical issues, as well as talking through my general mental and emotional health.
The massage was, as usual, spot on – plenty of pressure point work and good firm strokes using forearms and elbows. The muscles down the side of my neck and along my shoulders were predictably bunched into a big knot, so after trying to get into them with her hands and thumbs out came Jutika's elbows, leaning slowly and firmly into the sorest points, breaking down the tension and pain and returning my shoulders to somewhere around their natural position rather than the previous sense that they'd been stuck somewhere near my earlobes.
And hey, back again tomorrow. Lucky me!
The great addition to this particular massage was that Jutika is currently doing a 20% off recession-busting offer, but I don't know how long for so it's well worth getting in touch asap...
Bodywise Natural Health Centre, Manchester Buddhist Centre, 16 - 20 Turner Street, Manchester M4 1DZ, 0161 833 2528, health [at] bodywisenaturalhealth.co.uk. C. £30 including discount.
Friday, 27 November 2009
Massage and the recession
I was chatting to a friend today about the impacts of the recession on her massage business - and they've not been good. Some regular customers have, she says, cut their visits - from weekly to monthly, or monthly to every two months. Some have fallen away altogether, and new clients are not appearing at a fast enough rate to replace them. Customers she's spoken to about it have either been hit directly by job losses or are simply afraid to spend what money they do have. Tough times, and a pity because with the additional stress of the current economic situation it's probably the time when many of us most need a good kneading.
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Real Aromatherapy Massage, Jessica, the Treatment Rooms, Brighton, November 2009
OK, so it's Brighton not Manchester. But hey, people from Manchester go on holidays don't they? And in this era of 'staycations,' Brighton has to be a potential destination?
Well if it is, the Treatment Rooms, on a picturesque little street right next to the splendidly hideous Brighton Pavilion, should definitely be on this list. This is a classy joint, full of warmly attentive staff and fabulous-smelling things in bottles, and worth adding onto any city break.
Reception is downstairs in the shop where treatments such as manicures also take place. But for massages and the like, you're ushered upstairs to a wood-and-wicker furnished waiting room with aspirational books about Zen and spa holidays strewn on the low tables. While the staff pour you a glass of water or cup of soothing herbal tea, you're shown into the (separate men's and women's) changing rooms, where there are lockers for your clothes and bags and cosy brown waffle robes and slippers (hurrah! A place with the sense not to insist on showing off how good their laundry system is by having everything white! It always terrifies me that I'm going to spill something, and makes me think they must be using a lot of environmentally-unfriendly washing powder and scalding hot water).
You are collected from the waiting room by your therapist and taken down a subtly-lit corridor to one of the candlelit treatment room. These are very nicely turned out; no stacks of towels on the massage couches but soft sheets, again in warm brown, and glittery Indian-looking throws.
I was there – courtesy of my lovely friend Zoe – for a 70 minute Real Aromatherapy body, face and scalp massage. Before I got as far as the couch I was invited to sit down and have my feet washed in scented water, while Jessica discussed whether I wanted a relaxing or an invigorating experience from my massage. Having narrowed it down to relaxing, I was then presented with a choice of three types of blended oils, ranging from the usual lavender-based relaxation preparation to an ylang and sandalwood, which I chose for the sake of interest as well as because it smelt lovely. We then had a discussion about skin types for the facial massage, and we came up with a rose and sandalwood blend for that. She also checked whether or not I wanted her to do the scalp massage without oils in case I needed to look presentable after I'd left! And she asked sensible, perceptive questions about what she should and shouldn't do to work around my hip injury.
The massage itself was a firm but gentle experience, using a lot of pressure point techniques. She started with my back and shoulders, using her strongest pressure here, and then went over my lower back, arms, hands and then legs and feet. I was invited to turn over for the gorgeous-smelling face and scalp massage, which included the intriguing technique of little pulling bunches of my hair. Odd, but effective. She then worked her way over my stomach and down to the front of my legs and finally feet again. By the end of the 70 minutes several months' worth of pain and tension from sitting writing books and articles hunched over various computers had been spirited away and I was feeling fantastic.
Continuing the top-class experience, although the Treatment Rooms isn't a spa per se, there is no pressure to rush back out into the real world. The relaxation room, on the same corridor as the treatment rooms, is a candle-and-fairylight-lit room with recliners, cushions and chairs where you can lie back for as long as you like, borrowing those aspirational books from the waiting room or bringing some trashy magazines yourself, or simply lying and enjoying the sensation of being supremely relaxed and smelling lovely.
Real Aromatherapy Body, Face & Scalp Massage, 70 minutes for £64
The Treatment Rooms, 21 New Road, Brighton BN1 1UF, www.thetreatmentrooms.co.uk, 01273 818444
For anyone planning a break in Brighton, other parts of your holiday could very well include (depending on budget):
- The White House 'boutique hotel' in Kemptown, a very charming place to stay with gorgeous rooms, fab breakfasts and a supremely helpful and friendly owner;
- Terre a Terre: one of the UK's best vegetarian restaurants, for top-notch yet healthy food and great service - with a special mention to Milo for his great etiquette at dealing with customers on crutches;
- Kemptown Bookshop: for a great range of good books and a cute little cafe that does great sandwiches (just make sure Megan the soppy dog doesn't wheedle them out of you);
- the Lion & Lobster pub in Hove – friendly staff, decent beers, good food.
Well if it is, the Treatment Rooms, on a picturesque little street right next to the splendidly hideous Brighton Pavilion, should definitely be on this list. This is a classy joint, full of warmly attentive staff and fabulous-smelling things in bottles, and worth adding onto any city break.
Reception is downstairs in the shop where treatments such as manicures also take place. But for massages and the like, you're ushered upstairs to a wood-and-wicker furnished waiting room with aspirational books about Zen and spa holidays strewn on the low tables. While the staff pour you a glass of water or cup of soothing herbal tea, you're shown into the (separate men's and women's) changing rooms, where there are lockers for your clothes and bags and cosy brown waffle robes and slippers (hurrah! A place with the sense not to insist on showing off how good their laundry system is by having everything white! It always terrifies me that I'm going to spill something, and makes me think they must be using a lot of environmentally-unfriendly washing powder and scalding hot water).
You are collected from the waiting room by your therapist and taken down a subtly-lit corridor to one of the candlelit treatment room. These are very nicely turned out; no stacks of towels on the massage couches but soft sheets, again in warm brown, and glittery Indian-looking throws.
I was there – courtesy of my lovely friend Zoe – for a 70 minute Real Aromatherapy body, face and scalp massage. Before I got as far as the couch I was invited to sit down and have my feet washed in scented water, while Jessica discussed whether I wanted a relaxing or an invigorating experience from my massage. Having narrowed it down to relaxing, I was then presented with a choice of three types of blended oils, ranging from the usual lavender-based relaxation preparation to an ylang and sandalwood, which I chose for the sake of interest as well as because it smelt lovely. We then had a discussion about skin types for the facial massage, and we came up with a rose and sandalwood blend for that. She also checked whether or not I wanted her to do the scalp massage without oils in case I needed to look presentable after I'd left! And she asked sensible, perceptive questions about what she should and shouldn't do to work around my hip injury.
The massage itself was a firm but gentle experience, using a lot of pressure point techniques. She started with my back and shoulders, using her strongest pressure here, and then went over my lower back, arms, hands and then legs and feet. I was invited to turn over for the gorgeous-smelling face and scalp massage, which included the intriguing technique of little pulling bunches of my hair. Odd, but effective. She then worked her way over my stomach and down to the front of my legs and finally feet again. By the end of the 70 minutes several months' worth of pain and tension from sitting writing books and articles hunched over various computers had been spirited away and I was feeling fantastic.
Continuing the top-class experience, although the Treatment Rooms isn't a spa per se, there is no pressure to rush back out into the real world. The relaxation room, on the same corridor as the treatment rooms, is a candle-and-fairylight-lit room with recliners, cushions and chairs where you can lie back for as long as you like, borrowing those aspirational books from the waiting room or bringing some trashy magazines yourself, or simply lying and enjoying the sensation of being supremely relaxed and smelling lovely.
Real Aromatherapy Body, Face & Scalp Massage, 70 minutes for £64
The Treatment Rooms, 21 New Road, Brighton BN1 1UF, www.thetreatmentrooms.co.uk, 01273 818444
For anyone planning a break in Brighton, other parts of your holiday could very well include (depending on budget):
- The White House 'boutique hotel' in Kemptown, a very charming place to stay with gorgeous rooms, fab breakfasts and a supremely helpful and friendly owner;
- Terre a Terre: one of the UK's best vegetarian restaurants, for top-notch yet healthy food and great service - with a special mention to Milo for his great etiquette at dealing with customers on crutches;
- Kemptown Bookshop: for a great range of good books and a cute little cafe that does great sandwiches (just make sure Megan the soppy dog doesn't wheedle them out of you);
- the Lion & Lobster pub in Hove – friendly staff, decent beers, good food.
Monday, 16 November 2009
Fairtrade ingredients - coming to a beauty product near you
Between various events I've been to and articles I've researched recently, I've come across an encouraging number of initiatives bringing ethical ingredients to beauty products.
One of the most exciting of these is organic certified Somali incense, being used in the gorgeous-smelling frankincense range from Neal's Yard Remedies. The frankincense is a tree resin gathered by the women from semi-nomadic pastoral tribes, whose families mainly depend on their livestock - cows, goats and camels - to make a living. Despite the long-running unrest in Somalia, wholesalers have managed to get accreditation for frankincense gathered by women from the Samburu people. More information from here and here.
The second project that caught my notice was from Tropical Wholefoods which, as its name suggests, usually sells dried fruit and nuts. But as a by-product of this, it has started sourcing from its dried apricot growers in the Gilgit area of Northern Pakistan other parts of the apricot, with Fairtrade certified crushed apricot stone hulls going to Boots for Fairtrade body scrubs, and apricot kernel oil again heading for Neals Yard's lovely products. And, of course, most of this comes from parts of the fruit that would normally go to waste.
One of the most exciting of these is organic certified Somali incense, being used in the gorgeous-smelling frankincense range from Neal's Yard Remedies. The frankincense is a tree resin gathered by the women from semi-nomadic pastoral tribes, whose families mainly depend on their livestock - cows, goats and camels - to make a living. Despite the long-running unrest in Somalia, wholesalers have managed to get accreditation for frankincense gathered by women from the Samburu people. More information from here and here.
The second project that caught my notice was from Tropical Wholefoods which, as its name suggests, usually sells dried fruit and nuts. But as a by-product of this, it has started sourcing from its dried apricot growers in the Gilgit area of Northern Pakistan other parts of the apricot, with Fairtrade certified crushed apricot stone hulls going to Boots for Fairtrade body scrubs, and apricot kernel oil again heading for Neals Yard's lovely products. And, of course, most of this comes from parts of the fruit that would normally go to waste.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
Eco-spas and environmental massages
Inspired by Blog Action Day on climate change, I've been thinking about the environmental impacts of spas and treatments. All that heating up saunas, steam, treatment rooms and pools, the chlorine that goes into cleaning them, the various resources that get put into making the things we get wrapped in and rubbed down with.
Titanic Spa in Huddersfield (not so very far from Manchester) claims to be 'the UK's first eco-spa' and has been the subject of umpteen newspaper and online articles to that effect. There are plenty of places nowadays that claim environmental credentials, but looking at Titanic's, it does go beyond the usual Ecover surface cleaner and recycled paper. It's got a biomass CHP plant and solar photovoltaics for energy generation and a chlorine-free, salt-regulated swimming pool, and uses a cold-water laundry system for its towels, robes etc.
I'm slightly less bowled over by its statements about using product supplies with 'authentic green statements' as I've never had Decleor or Elemis down as green pioneers, but given the extent of some of their other initiatives, I'm willing to let that one slide.
A spa break at Titanic, however, is not cheap, so I was also interested to find this article suggesting ways that a home bathroom can be made into the setting for luxurious DIY spas, in an eco-fashion. It's got some good tips, ranging from sustainable flooring, which tallies with reliable sources such as Ethical Consumer's report on floor coverings, and covers other DIY issues as well as the products you might use in a home spa.
In terms of products, since I'm particularly interested in massage the main product involved is of course the oil used, so I want to finish by flagging up two ethical examples – Neals Yard, which supplies sustainably-sourced (often organic or sustainably wild-crafted) carrier and essential oils as well as ready-mixed versions, and Visionary Soap, which makes lovely ready-mixed massage oils using Fairtrade certified olive oil from Palestine (grown on often ancient trees which generate an environmentally sustainable income for farmers under military occupation by the Israeli state) and sesame oil from Nicaragua.
Titanic Spa in Huddersfield (not so very far from Manchester) claims to be 'the UK's first eco-spa' and has been the subject of umpteen newspaper and online articles to that effect. There are plenty of places nowadays that claim environmental credentials, but looking at Titanic's, it does go beyond the usual Ecover surface cleaner and recycled paper. It's got a biomass CHP plant and solar photovoltaics for energy generation and a chlorine-free, salt-regulated swimming pool, and uses a cold-water laundry system for its towels, robes etc.
I'm slightly less bowled over by its statements about using product supplies with 'authentic green statements' as I've never had Decleor or Elemis down as green pioneers, but given the extent of some of their other initiatives, I'm willing to let that one slide.
A spa break at Titanic, however, is not cheap, so I was also interested to find this article suggesting ways that a home bathroom can be made into the setting for luxurious DIY spas, in an eco-fashion. It's got some good tips, ranging from sustainable flooring, which tallies with reliable sources such as Ethical Consumer's report on floor coverings, and covers other DIY issues as well as the products you might use in a home spa.
In terms of products, since I'm particularly interested in massage the main product involved is of course the oil used, so I want to finish by flagging up two ethical examples – Neals Yard, which supplies sustainably-sourced (often organic or sustainably wild-crafted) carrier and essential oils as well as ready-mixed versions, and Visionary Soap, which makes lovely ready-mixed massage oils using Fairtrade certified olive oil from Palestine (grown on often ancient trees which generate an environmentally sustainable income for farmers under military occupation by the Israeli state) and sesame oil from Nicaragua.
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