Irelands Greenest Hotel

We’re proud to be one of Ireland’s Greenest Hotel. For over seven years we’ve been actively working to make our hotel as green and environmentally-friendly as possible.  We’re very proud of what we’ve achieved and of the many awards we’ve won.  Our guests tell us they prefer staying in a green hotel too.

Our environmental plan has resulted in changing the way we use energy, our recycling and composting activities and our approach to building and renovation.  We no longer use oil for heating and we have significantly reduced our carbon footprint (we’re aiming to be carbon neutral).  Even the swimming pool and leisure centre are more eco-friendly than most.

Recycling

We recycle as much waste as possible, and involve our guests in this through green bins in the bedrooms.  We have installed an ultra-efficient composter, endearingly called “Big Hanna”, which takes cooked as well as raw waste, so even leftover food can be composted.  All this means we have reduced the amount of waste going to landfill from 240 tonnes a year right down to just 35 tonnes.  Overall our carbon emissions are already down by 65%.

Supplies

In the kitchen we have policies of purchasing in bulk whenever possible and have cut out individual jams, butters etc.  In the bathrooms you will notice hand wash dispensers are used instead of soaps.  We source local foods where possible and use locally harvested seaweed in our seaweed baths in the Cedar Spa.

Any extensions to the hotel follow international best practice in terms of air tightness, materials used and energy use.

The grounds

Take a walk around outside and you’ll see the effects of an arboriculture programme including 2,000 new hardwood trees (and soon a nature trail.)  The play-top playground surface is comprised of recycled car tyres and runners while the adventure area uses natural tree bark.

The future

Our plan for the future is to make the hotel carbon neutral.  This is ambitious but we always set our sights high. We will do this through continuing to implement our environmental plan, focusing on energy, waste, water and light management.  Our guests and their positive experience while staying with us will remain a priority.  On a wider scale, we have a vision of a greener Westport, involving environmentally-friendly transport (of guests and of supplies).