Fairmont Hotels & Resorts: Green Partnership Program

The Fairmont Green Partnership program began in 1991 and since then has been the leader in global hospitality and commits to world-class greenhouse gas reduction targets. The Fairmont Green Partnership program has expanded throughout Fairmont’s worldwide business partnerships. The Fairmont hotels and resorts have continued to grow this program in 44 diverse resorts around the globe and numerous destinations across 8 countries. Fairmont employees work hard to sustain the environmental and operational duties in the areas of waste management, energy and water conservation. Contributing to the success of this environmental program is Fairmont’s community awareness and it’s involvement with partnering with local shelters to provide them with food, furniture and other donations.
The main focus of this program is sustainability, recycling and organic waste in the hotel’s kitchens to come up with different ways of energy efficient lighting. The Fairmont hotel has become business savvy though having a triple top line approach, by saving and making money consistently. Here are some examples of some of the projects: The Fairmont San Francisco completed a lighting retrofit in the main building and the Tower corridors, changing from 40 watt incandescent to 9 watt compact fluorescent light bulbs. There was a resulting annual reduction of 351,942 kilowatt-hours and a cost savings of USD 41,564. 
Earlier in 2012, The Fairmont Royal New York installed a commercial water softener that reduced water use in the laundry to one wash and one rinse per cycle, saving 476,000 liters of water per day this is enough water to supply 500 homes.
In 1990, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts were already leading the industry with their Green Partnership program. Committed to minimizing their hotels' impact on the planet, they keep current with a steely focus on waste management, energy and water conservation, and connection to community. This was the first luxury hotel group to formally address climate change. The Fairmont group partners with the World Wildlife Fund and also boasts a "Climate Savers" program pledging dramatic reductions in CO2 emissions. A new energy and carbon management mandate ensures existing and future properties will strive to be in ever-greater harmony with nature. Fairmont has even published a guide to lead other corporations looking to green up their practices—the Green Partnership Guide. Their "Eco-Meet" program helps event and meeting planners minimize the ecological footprint of their activities and conferences, utilizing organic menu items for breaks, food and beverage service that is free of disposable waste (no plastic or paper throwaway service items), and eco-inspired meeting break activities.

Fairmont also redistributes household goods and food to those in need, purchases wind and hydro power, has in-room recycling for guests, offers organic and sustainable food on menus, serves biodynamic wine, and grows on-site herb gardens. Many people today are fully aware and conscious of pollution and how to properly recycle to help better the environments live and work in. The EMA is a high profile non-profit organization that integrates sustainability and environmental messaging into television, magazines like National Geographic, and supermarkets Whole Foods. In today’s hotel industry there is a increasingly high demand on environmental responsibility, which is not surprising, as green programs are a consideration in environmental tourism and destination planning. Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has become the industry leader in embracing and making it a core value of their business. Their early execution of this program has made the company one of the most significant environmental accomplishment so far: Fairmont is leading by example.”
Our biggest environmental challenge: “Planning for the future as we look to grow outside of North America. Coming up with innovative ways to engage