Fairmont Hotel
Fairmont Hotels are both stylish and sustainable. Photo Courtesy Fairmont Hotels.
Way back in 1990, the Canadian Fairmont hotels pioneered a Green Partnership program, a comprehensive commitment to minimizing its hotels’ impact. The program addresses energy and water conservation; waste management; redistribution of household goods and food to those in need; and purchasing from local, sustainable sources. The chain has partnered with the World Wildlife Fund to develop a Climate Change Strategy, setting a corporate-wide target of reducing its CO2 emissions to 20 percent below its 2006 levels by 2013. Its commitment has garnered the attention of notable environmental activists such as David Suzuki who stated: “The Green Partnership is a concrete example of how business can involve employees in something everyone can feel good about. It’s good for business, it’s good for morale, and it’s good for the planet.”
We spent a couple days at Vancouver’s Fairmont Waterfront, where executive chef Patrick Dore and resident beekeeper Graeme Evans tend to a rooftop herb and produce garden and a bee colony, added this year. The bees have increased the garden’s espaliered apple tree’s production from about 20 apples to 200 this year. On August 25, in an event open to the public, the hotel will harvest 300 to 400 pounds of honey from more than 500,000 bees—and, yes, that honey will be put to use in the hotel restaurant’s delicious local, organic cuisine.