QHotels, the award-winning collection of 21 four-star hotels across the UK including the Ashford International and Bridgewood Manor hotels, has come out top hotel group in the first Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) League Table. This makes them second out of all hospitality companies ranked in the league and 30th out of over 2000 UK organisations ranked.

QHotels, who also recently received AA Eco Hotel Group of the Year 2011-12, was second only to Center Parcs Limited and beat other hotel groups including Hilton International Hotels, Accor and Marriott Hotels in the table, which was published by the Environment Agency.

The CRC league table measures the performance of more than 2000 UK organisations that fall under the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme and aims to provide a strong financial and reputational incentive for participants to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions.

QHotels' Managing Director and chair of its CSR steering group, Michael Purtill said: “This ranking is a superb recognition of our commitment to C02 and energy management. As a group, we are very aware of the business benefits and opportunities associated with performance in the area, as the green credentials of venues are increasingly informing the decisions of our customers / conference, meetings and events organisers.

Measures we have introduced to improve our carbon efficiency have included retro fitting low energy lamps, pipe and roof insulation, air conditioning timers, PIR controlled lighting, water flow regulators for showers and digital gas meters that can record consumption every half hour. We have saved more than 2,747 tonnes of C02 in just one year – and we’re looking to improve on that year on year”.

Actions to further the group’s energy efficiency in 2011 have included rigorous targeting and monitoring of energy use, further training of all maintenance teams on energy management, implementing boiler optimisation controls, increasing recycling and the launch of a conference carbon offset scheme which allows conference delegates the opportunity to offset the carbon they use during their conference to benefit third world carbon reduction projects.