The Knight Residence has declared their car park to be the greenest in the city. From October 2010, the luxury five star serviced apartments in the city centre has been charging guests £5 per night to use the car park with 100% of the profit donated to Trees for Scotland.
Energy conscious General Manager, Colin Stone, has set guests the challenge of raising enough money to plant 3,000 trees over the next ten years. This means that not only will the apartments be carbon neutral today, but the contributions will offset carbon generated by the business since the day it opened in August 1999.
The company estimate that planting 3,000 trees by 31st December 2019 will offset the approximately 2,181,000 kg of CO2 generated by the business over preceding 20 years. Anyone parking at The Knight Residence for four nights or more will have contributed a whole tree, and will receive a certificate to remind them of their contribution to Scotland’s landscape.
Colin commented: -“Since opening we have tried to minimise our environmental impact, including recycling waste and using energy saving bulbs and recycled paper, but we wanted to do more to help Scotland meet its climate change targets.
“We are very pleased with the response. We even had guests asking to pay before the scheme had properly started! So far, 112 trees have been planted, right on the target of 28 trees per month.”
Angus Crabbie from Trees4Scotland said: -“We are in the business of helping our clients be as imaginative as possible in the way they engage their customers with the climate change agenda. Creating a ‘green car park’ is one of the best yet and we thank The Knight Residence and their guests for their continued support.”
Trees4Scotland was founded in 2008 and is dedicated to planting native permanent woodlands in Scotland. The current project is called Teaghlach Wood (meaning family or clan) located on a 35 hectare site in central Scotland with space for over 35,000 trees.
Located in the heart of Edinburgh’s Old Town, in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle and walking distance to the city’s main business districts and best loved attractions, the Knight Residence five-star serviced apartments offer space and comfort, teamed with the luxury of a fully serviced hotel.
