Green Initiatives at The Westin Ottawa
The Westin Ottawa has been recognized with the coveted 5 Green Key Award from the Hotel Association of Canada. This award acknowledges hotels that exemplify the highest standards of environmental and social responsibility throughout all areas of operations. Our downtown Ottawa hotel employs cutting edge technologies, policies, and programs that set the international standard for sustainable hotel operations.
FRONT DESK
- Make a Green Choice Program: Guests are presented with the option of declining housekeeping services during their stay to help conserve natural resources.
- Guests are presented with the option of having their folio emailed at check-out to reduce paper
- Public transportation options are available to delegates
KITCHEN AND STEWARDING
- Our chef observes responsible food planning and purchasing practices to reduce waste and spoilage
- We buy locally available product whenever available
- Careful disposal of organic matter (composted off site)
- Recycling of all bottles, tins, containers, pallets
- Dishwashers installed that are more energy efficient and use less water
- Supply orders are in bulk and in bulk packaging
- All our dishes, cutlery and linens are reusable and condiments are served in bulk
- Boxed lunches and bags are compostable or recyclable
- Unconsumed food items are donated regularly to local food banks or shelters
- Our waste company has reduced their garbage pick-ups to bi-weekly visits instead of weekly
- Fryer oil is recycled by a third party company which is later converted into bio-diesel fuel
- Our hotel has eliminated the use of Styrofoam
- Condiments can be placed in bulk containers to reduce wasteful packaging
BANQUETS
- In-house water filtration systems installed which eliminates an estimates 250,000 1.5L bottles of water annually.
- Menus, floor plans and capacity charts are available online
- Recycling receptacles in all meeting rooms
- Comprehensive recycling program (paper, plastic, cardboard, glass, aluminum) is in place in our guest and meeting rooms and back of the house areas
- To reduce waste pads of paper, pens and mints can be set as stations in meeting room instead of at each setting
- All our dishes, cutlery and linens are reusable
- All meeting/office supplies provided to our guests are environmentally friendly
- Flipcharts provided for guests are made of 75% post consumer recycled content
- Our banquet and catering department offers a full sustainable menu (breakfast, lunch and dinner) that feature local, fair-trade and sustainable items available online
- Socially Conscious Meeting Programs and Meeting Impact Report are available through your Catering/Conventions Services Manager
- A Meeting Impact Report is available to all meeting planners which indicates the environmental impact of their even based on waste management, energy consumption, building water conservation, sustainable food choices and volunteer programs.
HOUSEKEEPING
- Our guest rooms have all been equipped with recycling bins: we recycle paper, bottles, cans and plastics
- Optional linen cleaning program allows guests to choose whether or not they want to reduce their linen washing - saving energy and water
- Non-toxic cleaners used in Housekeeping and laundry
- Left over shampoo is collected and given to charity
- Used room amenities are donated to a local shelter
- "Hanger caddies" are located in Housekeeping and associate locker rooms to recycle hangers
- Used linen is recycled as rags and drop sheets for painting
- Guest rooms do not have telephone books
- Old beds, furniture and equipment is sold to a liquidator for resale
- Casement closed in guest rooms - thermostats at 20°C (68°F) in winter and 22°C (72°F) in summer
- Chemicals are in spray bottles as opposed to spray cans
- All guest rooms are Breathe Westin non-smoking - reduced the use for air freshener chemicals
- Old memos and letters to guests are used as scrap paper in Housekeeping
- Vacuums were changed to a more dust free disposable bag
- Make a Green Choice program rewards guests for choosing to conserve natural resources in their guestroom
ENGINEERING
- Energy efficient digital signage installed in all public areas
- Building Automation System (BAS) to ensure all meeting rooms, common areas and kitchens are
timed off when not in use - Occupancy sensor lighting controls have been installed on all service elevator lobbies
- Exterior signage is set on timers and the main exterior lighting in the driveway are energy efficient fluorescents and ballasts
- Replaced all exit signs with energy efficient LED's
- Escalators are turned off when not in use
- Retrofitted boilers to be more energy efficient
- Retrofitted 3500 twin lamp florescent strip lighting to energy efficient ballasts and lamps
- Installed timers on Health Club sauna heaters
- Replaced 150 incandescent pot lights and table lamps in common areas to compact fluorescents (13w to 18w)
- Installed 5 LCD Energy Efficient Monitors in back of the house for internal communication
- Installed energy efficient gas heaters for the pool and hot tub
- All toilets are low flow
- Waste Minimization
- Sophisticated control system for our cooling plant that senses a number of different variables before deciding which chillers to start and stop = saves electricity
- Building Control system - gives Engineering individual control over the temperature of every meeting room - ensures that empty rooms have their heating and cooling reduced as required
- State-of-the-art digital room thermostats in all new rooms which sense the guest's presence in the room as well as whether the patio door is open
- Two new very high efficiency boilers, used for both heating and domestic hot water production.
- Meeting rooms - lights are turned off after meetings
- Guest floors are closed down in low occupancy months
- The Hotel also uses Six Sigma methodology to ensure we are importing every possible best practice from within our company
INFORMATION TECHONOLOGY
- IT department diverted 1320 lbs of computer equipment from landfill sites.
- Our photocopiers are defaulted to print double sided
RAISING AWARENESS THROUGH ENGAGEMENT
- Green Committee established with an objective to create, improve and control the hotel's eco-friendly practices.
- Green departmental manuals created for each department as a resource
- Energy Conservation bulletin board installed and updated monthly with information for hotel associates
- Annually, our hotel participates in Earth Hour and Ottawa's Annual Capital Spring Clean Up
- The Housekeeping department is trained in green housekeeping practices which include: handling hazardous materials, disposal and recycling of cleaning materials, using daylight while cleaning to the extent possible (instead of electric lighting), checking for light bulb functionality during dusting, reducing water usage by avoiding running water where possible, closing sheers to limit heat loss in winter and heat gain in the summer, turning off TV's and radios, returning HVAC to optimal energy efficiency and checking and reporting on faucet leaks or running toilets
RECOGNITION AND AWARDS
- Hotel Association of Canada: Green Key Eco Rating 5 Green Key award
- Hotel Association of Canada: Energy and Environment Award 2009
- Istaygreen.org - Rewarded with 3 eco - green leaves
- Hydro Ottawa: Companies for Conservation Certificate of Recognition
- Starwood Hotels and Resorts (NAD) Most Energy Efficiency and Energard Top 10 List, best Performer 2006/07 in Full Service Category
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