Summary

Ok. It's a spa... and luxury and conservation rarely go well together. But it has done all its work with conviction - and manages to pull-off the difficult trick of being an eco-spa with all mod cons. The spa is on the ground floor of an old mill, a building renovated using the foundations and original brickwork.

The rest of the building is filled with flats, some of which provide self-catering accommodation for the spa, some of which are privately owned. This has brought jobs and wealth to an area with several derelict buildings, where natural beauty was being forgotten among the wrecks of industry.

The Titanic Mill is constructing a biomass generator; harvests energy through solar panels and gets all its water from a borehole that sits so close, inhabitants have to park around it. The spa works, because the whole building sustains it, and where it might be functionally wasteful (use of hot water; copious towels and dressing gowns) the carbon neutral building allows it to make up for its sins.

Warrick Burton, the director, is modest about their achievements, but ambitious for the building. They plan more flats, another restaurant and even less waste. The spa is rightly included in the awards for it's non-preachy, "non-wellies" attitude to loving, preserving and sharing their patch of ground.

Siting and design

Some local stone used & orginal bricks left in building

Room service

No organic towels or linen but therapist uniforms are bamboo fabric, from a fair-trade Macclesfield company. They use natural Elemis products - a green UK company that uses organic extracts.

Energy conservation

K2 glass - particularly good insulation; low energy lighting systems, intelligent lighting systems, solar photovoltaic panels, a biomass boiler being built

Reducing waste

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