Press Release

Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth: An Eco-Friendly Hotel

MONTREAL, QC, July 2006 - At Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth everyone is doing their part when it comes to keeping green.  Beginning with a brand-wide initiative for green partnerships and branching out to each property's green teams, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts is a leader in the hospitality industry, having won the 2006 Global Tourism Business Award.

Some of Fairmont's brand programs include:         

  • The Green Partnership Guide:  Fairmont Hotels & Resorts wrote the book, literally, on the greening of hotels.  The second edition of Fairmont's Green Partnership Guide is considered a comprehensive handbook for Fairmont colleagues and is the definitive guide for the hotel industry and students studying hospitality management.  Now it is available for purchase by all those who wish to make an environmental difference.

  • Eco-Meet:  Fairmont Hotels & Resorts have long been where the world meets. In line with their award-winning ''Green Partnership Program'' Fairmont has pioneered an exceptional meeting option that has meeting planners talking. An industry leading, environmentally-friendly conferencing program, Eco-Meet was developed to assist meeting organizers execute reduced-waste conferences, by providing a comprehensive environmentally sensitive approach.

  • Wind Power from Pembina:  Guests arriving at the brand's destinations across North America will soon be welcomed at check-in by agents using front desk computers powered by the wind.  Fairmont's recent purchase of Eco-Logo certified wind power for 249 check-in computers will result in a greenhouse gas reduction of almost 100 tonnes over the next year.  Fairmont made the decision to purchase their wind power through the Pembina Institute, a non-profit environmental organization whose mandate is encouraging sustainable energy solutions''. Fairmont has agreed to purchase the equivalent to 116 MwH of wind power, for an initial term of one year.

Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth is the largest hotel in Eastern Canada with 1,039 rooms and a meeting room capacity of 46,500 sq. ft. More than 600 employees participate in the environmental program in one way or another.  Each department has a large green bin for recycling paper and cardboard.  Each room attendant cart is equipped with three bags for sorting recyclable materials.  Blue boxes are also available in all meeting rooms.  Internal correspondence and reports are distributed via Intranet or accessible on a shared server, thus saving enormous amounts of paper, and employees are encouraged to make double-sided copies.

Their suppliers are also encouraged to use packaging that respects the environment.  Printer cartridges are recycled, most cleaning agents have been replaced with non-aerosol biodegradable products, and phosphates have been eliminated in the Laundry and Housekeeping departments as well as in the kitchens. The Laundry department is currently evaluating a new more environmentally-friendly bleaching product which would help to save energy by reducing water temperature used for washing sheets from 160º F to 140º F while increasing linen life by up to 50%. 

New employees are introduced to our Green program during orientation and we have an active Green Committee.  Its members, with representatives from each major department in the hotel, are constantly searching for new ways to improve the environment, at work and at home.         
During its five-year renovation program, which was completed in 2003, Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth recycled everything: all discarded, reusable items were donated to shelters, schools, or sold and remaining used furniture and carpets was resold and purchased by an outside company.

Even the kitchen is participating in the efforts. Since 1999, every day of the week, the hotel donates food and leftovers to two charities: The Salvation Army and The Old Brewery Mission. They pick up untouched food, leftovers, bread, muffins and croissants placed in a designated refrigerator. Quantities vary from day to day, depending on special events and occupancy. After one event in 2004, there was enough pizza left that the Salvation Army could feed their users for a month! The hotel's Executive Chef Alain Pignard is also a strong supporter of small and environmentally friendly local producers, encouraging Quebec economy and limiting pollution by avoiding the need for long-distance ground or air transportation.     

The various departments at the hotel have brainstormed many clever ways to actively reuse, reduce, and recycle across the board.  The housekeeping department reuses old and worn guest towels and bathrobes for cleaning rags and dusters.  Also, the housemen recycle all old newspapers from rooms and collect garbage from the recycling units in each room.
The technical department has invested in several computers that monitor temperature levels in all the renovated rooms and meeting facilities. From their offices in the hotel, the shift engineers can control and supervise the levels within each room from one computer system.  The computers help reduce energy costs in various ways, including:

  • The new centralized air system is viewed on the computer.  Each room shows the guests' desired temperature and the actual temperature of the room. Following a research process, they instigated a program to maximize guest comfort while saving energy. Thus, if the room is unoccupied, the temperature is maintained at 20º C in the winter and 22º C in the summer, therefore saving energy from using unnecessary heating or cooling for unoccupied rooms.  

  • In the various meeting facilities throughout the hotel, the department controls the HVAC systems while monitoring the CO2 levels in the rooms, always following the minimum guidelines as per ASHRAE.  The hotel triggers an intake of fresh outside air into the meeting rooms as needed.  In winter, free cooling is used to save energy by allowing outside air to reduce the temperature in several areas.   

  • They use a heat exchanger recovery system that captures condensate from the steam used to heat the hotel, then use it to preheat incoming city water, therefore reducing cost and saving energy.   

  • Continuously on the lookout for new technology and improved supplies, they have proceeded recently to another extensive lighting retrofit program that will result in savings of $13,605.21 CDN (approximately $12,000 USD) per year.

All together, they have proudly achieved a reduction of 60 percent in solid wastes and 30 percent in paper products.  For example, Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth recuperated approximately 148 metric tons of recyclable materials in the year 2000, including 90 metric tons of paper and cardboard, which is the equivalent of 1,884 trees saved annually.

Since 1997, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts (then Canadian Pacific) has led the green revolution throughout the hospitality industry.  Some of the accomplishments include:

  • Extensive recycling programs for many items including  

  • 90 percent of all used soaps are made available to local charities and the developing world (at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth, unused bath products are reused for cleaning products)  

  • More than 80 percent of properties have succeeded in reducing paper consumption by 20 percent  

  • Use of water conserving appliances, such as showerheads, toilet dams and tap aerators.

For more information, Please contact:
Joanne Papineau
Director of Public Relations
Public Relations
Tel: (514) 954-2208
Fax: (514) 954-2248
Email: [email protected]