(English) Best Practices

City Hotel Derry is a four-star, 158-room hotel, located on the banks of the River Foyle. In 2007 it embarked on a project to make the hotel more sustainable and reduce costs on utilities. It enlisted the help of the Carbon Trust and later Invest NI, International Synergies WRAP, and the Green Tourism Business Scheme.

The hotel took a number of steps, including engaging with its suppliers to help achieve its goals. Internally, it ran an education campaign to inform staff of the benefits of saving water, energy and reducing waste in the hotel, and also the savings that they could make at home.

“We appointed an environmental champion and a Green Team made up of staff from each department. We monitored and recorded our energy usage and the amount of waste produced and created an environmental awareness notice board and updated staff on our progress.”

The hotel implemented a number of changes to energy, gas, water, and waste. Staff, motivated by the greater environmental awareness, helped to raise funds for different charities such as £1,000 for Water Aid, and have worked on a number of environmental projects in the local community.

Staff training and awareness requires refreshing to keep it alive in the hearts and minds of an ever-changing workforce.” The team has also attended a number of events as guest speakers to share what they have learned and to demonstrate that looking after the environment, reducing their CO2 emissions and saving on utilities go hand-in-hand.

They have a list of actions and activites they have undertaken on sustainability some of these practices have resulted in the cost savings. However some are more expensive but overall the message is managing the finances sustainably will result in overall savings. This has been achieved through staff engagement.

We buy 100% renewable energy from ESB.ie wind farms.

We use rainforest alliance tea and coffee in our bedrooms.

We use fair trade sugar.

We use fair trade chocolate in our deluxe rooms.

We use bio plastic bags.

We use recycled paper for all our printed materials and guest paper.

We use 100% recycled paper in our offices.

We’ve removed all plastic straws from our hotels and have switched to PLA biodegradable straws.

We buy as much of our fish, meat, cheese and vegetables from local suppliers, we strive to support local to not only better our community but to reduce unnecessary food miles and waste.

We donated all our used toner cartridges to Action cancer.

We donate all our used cans to Can -Can recycling in Ballymoney which is a charity who help adults with learning disabilities. www.cancanrecycling.co.uk

We recycle all our glass, paper, plastic, cardboard, old cooking oil, tin. We have reduced our hotel waste from 140 tons in 2006 to 59 tons in 2010.

We have two electric car charging points opposite our hotels to encourage the use of electric cars by our guests.

We donate all our old soap and gels to a charity called Clean the World www.cleantheworld.org

We are a member of the wildlife trust and our staff volunteer with them to help protect the wildlife in our area. www.ulsterwildlifetrust.org

We use chlorine free cleaning products in our kitchens and bedrooms and phosposphate free soaps and gels in all our bedrooms.

We have aerators on each tap to reduce the flow on bath room taps and our shower heads are reduced flow.

Each toilet has a Henry Hippo bag to reduce the amount of water used.

Our toilet roll and tissue KATRIN Brand have the Nordic Ecolabel /FSC /PEFC and Ecolabel.

Our shampoo and gels are Eco – Boutique which has the NORDIC Swan certification, it is 100% organic and bottles are made from recycled materials.

“Since 2007 until 2019 we have made over £438,930 savings on our utilities bills despite increasing our occupancy levels and our number of meals severed per year, with the highest savings being made in the earlier years.

The hotel has won a number of awards for its work, such as The Gold Star Award with the Green Tourism Business Scheme, UTV Business Eye Award for Waste Reduction, the Zero Waste Gold Award and the Energy Efficiency Award at the Sustainable Ireland Awards.

Staff training was key and keeping the staff engaged with the reasons for making the savings.

Accessed on 30/6/23 https://www.charteredaccountants.ie/docs/default-source/dept-public-policy/sustainability-for-small-businesses.pdf?sfvrsn=f0dbc7c_4

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Accessed on 30/6/23 https://www.cityhotelderry.com/sustainability