Original Irish Hotels Supporting Sustainability
At Original Irish Hotels we are committed to achieving the highest level of sustainability and reducing our carbon footprint across each of our hotels in support of a greener environment.
We continually strive to improve our environmental practices across a range of areas including waste, energy, water, and travel. Initiatives undertaken by our hotels include switching to LED lighting or installing combined heat and power systems which are healthier for the environment. Plastic is slowly becoming a thing of the past with most hotels switching to glass or reusable bottles and paper straws.
Image above: Headfort Arms Hotel Clean Cup campaign promoting reusable cups
Many hotels such as Parknasilla Resort & Spa, Lough Rynn Castle or Casey’s of Baltimore have implemented their own organic kitchen and herb gardens, minimising their impact on the environment. Other hotels such as Cabra Castle Hotel and Ballynahinch Castle have made a conscious effort to plant more trees which has created a new habitat for birds and other wildlife.
Several of our hotels have been awarded for their environmental practices while many others are proud members of REPAK, the environmental non-profit organisation which promotes recycling and sustainability.
Image above: The kitchen garden at Parknasilla Resort & Spa
The Dunraven Adare produce its own herbs and micro herbs in the Dunraven garden, enriched by its own compost produced from some of its organic waste. The remainder of the hotel’s organic/food waste is removed from onsite and converted into biofuel by its selected food waste collector with whom the staff collaborate with once a year. The hotel has also constructed its own Insect Hotel to provide an ideal habitat for all sorts of beneficial insects, particularly for solitary bees and wasps that make individual nests for their larvae.
Image above: The Dunraven Adare Insect Hotel
Other properties such as Randles Hotel boast a 20m indoor pool which has been converted to a green friendly Zero Carbon heating system making it Kerry’s only carbon neutral swimming pool.
Image above: Carbon neutral swimming pool at Randles Hotel
Fitzgerald Woodlands House Hotel & Spa are proud holders of the TripAdvisor, Green Leader, Bronze Award and were also Green Awards Finalists in 2019. Caring for the environment is second nature for the Fitzgerald Family with them implementing several proactive measures to help protect the environment throughout their hotel, restaurant, and spa. All food-waste is composted and used for Mary’s Organic Garden and the organic farm, both of which are home to trees planted as part of the resort’s carbon offset programme.
Microbeads are banned from the hotel’s in-room toiletries and Revas Spa and staff right across the resort are working towards eliminating single use plastic with the hotels to-go packaging being 97% fully compostable. What’s more the resort also has its own well and waste-water treatment plant on-site, which means it is entirely self-sufficient.
Image above: Woodlands 97% fully compostable "to go" packaging
Woodlands and others such as Knockranny House Hotel & Spa have installed a state-of-the-art combined heat and power system, significantly decreasing their electricity and natural gas usage over the years. The CHP system uses less energy and lowers CO2 emissions, creating a more stable ambient temperature throughout the hotels.
Image above: Combined heat and power unit at Knockranny House Hotel & Spa
Brooklodge & Macreddin Village has a variety of venues onsite offering free range, organic and wild food options. The Strawberry Tree is Ireland's first certified organic restaurant, which features the freshest organic and wild foods, many grown to order on nearby organic farms, or foraged by the hotel’s own chefs and full-time food foragers in the fields and woods surrounding Macreddin Village. The Strawberry Tree Brigade set out daily to harvest wild foods to showcase on all menus at the Village. With help from its producer and farmer friends Brooklodge proudly rear, grow and harvest all its own produce and ingredients required for its ZER0KM dinner within less than one Kilometre from Macreddin Village. The world’s first ZER0KM Dinner took place in Macreddin Village at the beginning of October 2017 and history was made…!
Image above: Brooklodge & Macreddin Village
The Bush Hotel was the first hotel in Ireland to receive the EU eco label award. This is an international standard recognising exceptionally high environmental performance and management for accommodation providers in the tourism industry. The ‘Flower’ comprises 84 very specific and technical criteria in energy, water, and waste management – with much emphasis on environmental awareness & innovation. The hotel also does not accept pallets, shrink wrap, bubble wraps or polystyrene, all deliveries now come in returnable and reusable plastic crates and all excess packaging is removed by suppliers.
What’s more the Bush Hotel along with many of our hotels has an electric car charging facility for guest’s convenience.
Image above: Electric car charging facility at the Bush Hotel
As well as all this, we have recently renovated our central office at Original Irish Hotels incorporating more efficient and eco-friendly elements throughout. Our old heating system has been swapped out for an efficient Daikin heat/chill unit with a built-in thermostat to ensure the working environment is always at an optimum level. All our lighting has now been switched to the most modern LED fitting operating at a fraction of the cost. We are also working towards becoming a paper free office by converting all documents into digital forms.
At Original Irish Hotels we are always looking for ways to increase our sustainability efforts and become more environmentally aware. Going forward our hotels plan to keep reducing any negative effects that their day-to-day practices may bring and keep working hard to maximise the positive effects that support a greener environment.