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Chateau takes first steps towards sustainability

‘Low hanging fruit’ already showing returns Before Whistler even heard of The Natural Step sustainability framework, the Fairmont Chateau Whistler was a community leader in its environmental initiatives.

‘Low hanging fruit’ already showing returns

Before Whistler even heard of The Natural Step sustainability framework, the Fairmont Chateau Whistler was a community leader in its environmental initiatives.

In past years hotel staff have attempted to reduce, reuse and recycle materials, and even built a huge worm bin to help compost their kitchen waste. Their golf course was certified by the Audubon Co-operative Sanctuary Program for building log weirs, interpretive signage, and limiting pesticide use to the greens.

When Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt visited Whistler for the first time in March of 2000, explaining The Natural Step program to local businesses, the Chateau, under then general manager David Roberts, became one of the first Whistler businesses to adopt the program.

Other "Early Adopters," as they came to be known, included Whistler-Blackcomb, Tourism Whistler, the Resort Municipality of Whistler, AWARE, and Whistler One Hour Foto Source.

The Chateau was not idle. In the past two years they have worked economic, social and environmental sustainability into every department and procedure within the hotel, and have already made significant improvements in both their energy consumption and waste stream.

However they are still the first to admit that sustainability is not going to happen overnight.

"Along the way we’re discovering that it’s going to be a journey," said Dan Wilson, the sustainability co-ordinator for the Fairmont Chateau Whistler.

"We’re just starting to work towards sustainability. While our environmental programs have always been strong, sustainability sets the mark quite a bit higher."

The corporate culture has adopted a Sustainability Management System that asks management and administrators to consider The Natural Step framework in everything they do. The Chateau has applied this framework to four key areas: Material flows and waste; energy consumption; knowledge and education; and in their commitments to the community at large.

While there are some costs associated with the move to sustainability, the Chateau’s investments in reducing waste and energy consumption are already seeing returns.

By applying the TNS framework to material flows, Wilson estimates that they are already saving in the neighbourhood of $30,000 per year.

"Sustainable material flows would involve everything from reducing what we use, to recycling things or purchasing different types of products and then closing the loop by recycling," explains Wilson.

Since he was first hired as the sustainability co-ordinator in June of 2001, Wilson’s focus has been on tracking and auditing sustainability programs at the hotel to measure what kind of impact they are having.

"We felt it was important to set up some kind of measurement system from the beginning to track our progress."

They started conducting waste audits two years ago, going through a day’s garbage bag by bag and seeing what could be diverted from the waste stream.

"Since then we’ve reduced the amount of garbage going to the landfill from one pound per day, per guest, to 0.67 pounds."

Through Carney’s Waste Systems, the Chateau currently recovers an estimated 91 per cent of food waste, sending it to International Bio Recovery in North Vancouver to be turned into compost.

All recyclable materials are recycled, but the Chateau staff have made a bigger contribution, according to Wilson, by using fewer materials and creating less waste within their own departments.

"The staff have really put themselves into our sustainability program, which is great because none of this would be possible if they weren’t behind it," said Wilson. "They know how their departments work better than anyone, and they have a lot of their own ideas on how to save materials and make things work better. Managers are listening and a lot of these things are happening."

The Chateau’s own suppliers were made aware of the sustainability initiatives, and are also helping out by providing more environmentally friendly materials with less packaging.

"We’re just starting to work with our suppliers, that’s kind of the next step, but so far it’s been encouraging."

In June, the hotel diverted a record amount of its total waste from the landfill.

"I though we hit the wall when we hit 75 per cent, but in June we managed to divert 83 per cent of our waste from the landfill," said Wilson.

To track waste, everything brought to the waste bay is weighed, and Wilson then collects invoices from contractors to determine how much went with Carney’s, how much was recycled, and how much went to the landfill. The results are included in a month sustainability report, along with information on everything from volunteer hours to energy usage to recycling.

In the energy department, the Fairmont Chateau Whistler has considered several options for reducing power usage and even meeting its own power needs.

"In the end we went with the low hanging fruit first, the things that were easiest, and that was to try and reduce consumption," said Wilson.

In February, the Chateau received a $65,000 grant from B.C. Hydro’s PowerSmart Incentive Program to retrofit light fixtures with energy efficient compact flourescent bulbs – approximately half the cost.

The bulbs use 70 per cent less energy and last up to five times longer than regular bulbs. They are also significantly more expensive up front to purchase, although they will save money over the long run.

Already Wilson says the hotel has saved more than 350,000 kilowatt hours of electricity, or an average of $4,000 each month compared to last year’s invoices.

The hotel is also currently evaluating a proposed geo-exchange system that would help the Chateau meet some its own energy needs. The system would reduce heating costs in the winter and cooling costs in the summer by transferring heat from the ground in the winter and putting it back in the summer. This would be done by installing pipes 300 feet into the ground. Wilson estimates that the system could reduce the hotel’s greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 3,000 tonnes each year.

The third aspect of the Chateau’s program is their commitment to improving communication and knowledge within the hotel as well as among staff, colleagues and suppliers. The hotel has not attempted to involve guests at this point, but is planning to in the future.

"Every member of our staff has gone through a sustainability seminar, and every new staff member will be given the seminar down the road. We really want to engage people with this initiative, teach them what it’s about and get them involved. We are making it part of our culture to understand sustainability and what we’re trying to do and what Whistler is trying to do," explained Wilson.

Sustainability has even become part of the staff hiring process, as interviewees in many departments are asked what they would do to help the environment and the community. A knowledge of sustainability is not a necessary qualification, but the hotel is at least curious to see if people are interested in the environment.

The Chateau is also just starting to meet with suppliers to make their sustainability initiative known, and to conduct their own TNS presentations in attempt to get more companies involved.

"A lot of them already know and always mention if there are environmental attributes for their products when they’re making a sales pitch to us. There is still more to do there," Wilson said.

The fourth aspect of the Chateau’s sustainability program is their commitment to community needs, which also happens to be one of the four pillars in the hotel’s business plan. The have also expanded the definition of community to include the global community.

For example, all of their unused soap and shampoo is sent to a company that melts it down and repackages it for use in Third World hospitals.

The newly created Fairmont Chateau Whistler Foundation donated more than $25,000 last year to non-profit community groups, including the environmental group AWARE. The foundation has already raised $28,000 this year through employee events and donations and an annual golf tournament.

As well as waste and energy, the Chateau has also started to track volunteer hours in the community as a measure of sustainability, and according to Wilson the numbers are steadily increasing.

"We’re encouraging employees to volunteer in the community, to get involved. We track fundraising activities and volunteer hours, and in some months we are contributing hundreds of hours. That goes with the whole social side of sustainability, making this a better community to live in," said Wilson.

One of Wilson’s favourite examples of staff members making a difference took place at an off-site staff event with more than 500 guests. After it was over, a supervisor and a sous chef went through every bag of garbage at the event, separating recyclable materials from actual garbage.

"They ended up with just two bags of real garbage and everything else was recycled. It was probably another 10 bags," he said.

"The staff are starting to believe in the program themselves, and there have so many little changes, and even some big changes in the way things are done, that it’s almost impossible to see what we’re doing right. Our waste is down, but part of the reason is the staff isn’t creating as much waste as they used to. The staff are being more power smart. They’re not printing as much paper.

"If this is going to be successful, it’s going to be because of the people," he added.

The Chateau is learning as it goes, and is eager to share ideas as well as learn from the other early adopters and other members of the community, according to Wilson.

Eventually the hotel will have to tackle some of the larger sustainability issues, like energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, but you can go a long way by tackling all of the smaller issues.

"What the sustainability movement really needs is leaders, and we don’t have a shortage of them in this hotel or in this community," Wilson said.