The Ritz-Carlton, Powerscourt was awarded with the Green Hospitality Awards on account of the improvements made by the 5 star hotel and the Environmental Action Plan focusing on energy, waste and water management.
The Green Hospitality Awards are recognised both nationally and internationally as standards that allow members achieve good
environmental performance and allow visitors to choose “Greener” hospitality businesses knowing that defined criteria are
being implemented and monitored.
The award winners have set themselves the target to reduce their environmental footprint where possible. The winners aim to reduce carbon emissions by reducing energy consumption, preserve scarce water resources and minimise waste production.
Environmental upgrades at the The Ritz-Carlton, Powerscourt near Dublin include increasing recycling rates by more than 50% from 37% to 75%. The engineering team has focused on radically reducing energy usage through investing in the upgrading of the Building Management System. Light bulbs in guest rooms and public areas were changed to LED from incandescent making the hotel 75% LED/low energy lighting. A tree management plan was put in place to reforest the grounds to native Irish trees such as Ash and Oak and improve the biodiversity of the hotel’s grounds.
Guests are involved more when they are asked to join in the environmental pledge with towel and linen re-use programs. Business guests seeking meeting space near Dublin have the option of a Green Meetings packages. Furthermore the hotel has been successful in sustainable food sourcing by having at least 8 food items sourced locally and all of the culinary and restaurant teams are fully aware which food items these are in order to be able to communicate this to guests. Single portion packaged items have been removed from the buffet thus reducing unnecessary packaging and raw materials.
