AN award-winning York hotel is “growing for gold” as it aims to win the Green Tourism Business Scheme’s ultimate accolade.

The Best Western Monkbar Hotel – which was the first city centre hotel to be presented with the Silver award – is undertaking a new raft of environmental initiatives to help it achieve the scheme’s gold standard. Victory would add to its title of The Press Think Green Business Of The Year 2010. The hotel’s “Green Team” has created an organic vegetable garden in its courtyard.

The team, comprising of employees from all the hotel’s departments, have planted strawberries, chillis, peppers, beans and a host of herbs, all of which will be used by in the hotel’s kitchen for the summer menu.

The aim of the Green Tourism Business Scheme is to offer guidelines to tourism businesses on how to make their operations more sustainable while still delivering a high quality service.