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From Times Online

May 1, 2008

Green Spaces: Titanic Spa, West Yorkshire

One of the judges in our 2008 Green Spaces Travel Awards explains why the Yorkshire spa is her favourite nomination for April

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Anna Shepard

That someone has nominated Titanic Spa, outside Huddersfield, for a Green Spaces award pleases me enormously. Since its opening in 2006, I've been impressed by its environmentally friendly practices and low-key approach to broadcasting them. The nomination confirms my belief that it is the only true eco-spa in the UK. Why? Because it puts other contenders - claiming to be green by offering Fairtrade snacks in the bistro or organic products in the treatment room - in the shade.

Rather than superficial tweaks, Titanic is tackling the big boys: energy use, water waste and the overall carbon footprint of the building. Spas are vociferous consumers of resources. They rely on heat, water, pool chemicals and truckloads of overpackaged beauty products. There may be talk of a “natural” or “holistic” approach, but this is likely to benefit you and not the planet, especially if you fly halfway around the world to reach it.

Travelling to Linthwaite, 15 minutes outside Huddersfield, gets you off to a good start. The spa is set in a converted textile mill, built in the same year as the unfortunate ocean liner was commissioned, hence the name. Photovoltaic panels provide electricity, topped up with a renewable supplier, and a biomass generator burns tree chippings for heating.

Twenty metres from the entrance, the spa has its own borehole - the original water source for the mill - which provides drinking water as well as water for the pool and showers. And if all this starts to sound a little worthy, don't forget that Titanic is billed as “indulgence with a conscience”. Customers can take as little notice of the pioneering green technologies as they like, instead losing themselves in the suite of sauna, aromatherapy, steam and ice rooms.