Clerkenwell hotel named greenest place to stay

A chic London hotel has been named as one of the most environmentally friendly places to stay in the UK.

The Zetter Hotel in Clerkenwell features in a new guide for green travellers.

The boutique hotel is in a converted Victorian warehouse and scored plus points for being built with sustainable timbers and finished with eco-friendly paints. The Zetter, which opened in 2004, does not use mains water, instead pumping its supply from its own borehole. Water is also filtered and bottled for the hotel's organic restaurant.

General manager Justin Pinchbeck said: "The Zetter is a hotel with an environmental conscience. Our energy efficient principles are important to us."

The only other London venue included in the guide, ecoescape, is the London Wetland Centre in Barnes.

It praises The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust for transforming the area from redundant reservoirs by planting 30 lakes, ponds and marshes. In the South-East, the guide recommends Paskins Town House Hotel in Brighton, which specialises in local, organic and homemade food.

The guide is the work of Laura Burgess who wanted to help travellers visit new places responsibly. She said: "Ecoescape is about nurturing a new mindset about travel. We don't dictate a set of dos and don'ts."