The Fairmont hotel chain is known, internationally, for its superior level of upscale service and luxury amenities. Luxury travel fans appreciate how each Fairmont resort and hotel is different, and architecturally appropriate to its setting. What tourists may be unaware of, however, is that the Fairmont chain of luxury hotels and resorts has long been at the forefront of sustainable tourism and environmentally friendly travel.
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, as a company, was a leader of the green travel philosophy before it was in vogue: In 1990, it was the first hotel brand to launch an environmental program across an entire chain. It started small, with a policy regarding paper and glass recycling. This slowly translated into an overall world view regarding what it means to be part of the travel industry, and its environmental impact on the world. Over 15 years ago, Fairmont was the first to initiate the now-familiar optional towel and sheet exchange. It's now a common sight at any hotel, resort, or B&B, to see a post about water conservation, offering to only exchange the towels that hotel guests leave on the bathroom floor. Other key areas of conservation and sustainable tourism promoted by the Fairmont initiative include waste management, other water conservation, and donating food to local food banks and shelters.
The Fairmont Green Partnership Guide, now in its third edition, serves to help other hotels learn how to be more energy efficient without sacrificing the appeal of luxury vacations for tourists. The Green Partnership Guide focuses on how to start, maintain and grow an environmental program for sustainable tourism. Fairmont (recently combined with Raffles/Swisshotel) offers a blueprint with a list of environmental initiatives for each of its hotels and resorts. For example, the Fairmont Kea Lani, in Maui, plans to use the renewable energy resource of wind power, and to work with local farmers to provide more locally grown produce on the resort restaurants' menus. Further, every Fairmont hotel and resort in California offers free parking for guests that arrive in hybrid cars. This environmentally responsible tourism is expected to catch on at other hotels, luxury or otherwise, as awareness of humans' impact on the planet continues to grow.
Fairmont Initiatives for Development of Sustainable, Green Tourism:
- Offset greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing green tags/energy certificates
- Waste management via guest room recycling, 'back-of-the-house" recycling, eco-friendly hotel cleaning products (Ecolab supplies Fairmont hotels with less harmful cleaning products)
- Partially used and unused amenities and goods are donated to local shelters
- Alternate energy, such as renewable wind power and use of biodiesel, implemented where possible, in the appropriate Fairmont resorts
- Optional towel and linen exchange program throughout entire chain
- Grounds and golf courses increasingly being irrigated with wastewater on Fairmont resort properties
- All Fairmont owned golf courses take part in the environmental management programs with Audubon International, conserving water, reducing pesticide use and optimizing the golf course green spaces as refuges and habitat for wildlife
- Water conservation through low-flush toilets and low-flow showerheads in guest rooms and suites
- Free overnight parking for hotel guests with hybrid cars
- Lighting retrofits; incandescent bulbs replaced with fluorescent bulbs for energy efficient lighting
- Local transit and carpooling information available at front desks
- Energy efficient lighting used in guest rooms and suites, and meeting rooms; some rooms in tropical zones feature tinted windows to reduce need for air condtioning
- Energy efficient HVAC system in rooms and suites
Guests don't always see the greening of a hotel, but any tourist who stays at a Fairmont hotel or resort, is supporting the greening of the travel industry. Tourism generally leaves a big carbon footprint, and Fairmont is a leader in reducing tourism's negative impact of the environmental health of local communities. Through many aspects of environmental stewardship, Fairmont luxury hotels and resorts add to sustainable tourism and its positive impact on the environment.
Related, on Suite 101:
The Fairmont Kea Lani Luxury Resort
Luxury Eco Travel Destinations
Carbon Offset Program for Travel
Copyright Jennifer Miner and Suite 101. All rights reserved.
Jennifer W. Miner - Jennifer has years of travel writing experience, spoken at several national conferences, and more. See Jendeavor.com for more details.
