Killarney Hotel Blog

Sustainability: working towards a Cleaner Environment

The Cahernane House Hotel is situated on a private estate on the edge of Killarney National Park. Protecting this wonderful natural resource is so important to us as a team and we strive to reduce our carbon footprint every day. We even have a Green Team looking for improvements and ensuring the hotel runs in the most environmentally friendly way possible, without affecting our standard of service. With staff and guests working together, we are implementing proactive measures to help protect and sustain the environment for future generations of our guests and employees.

The Green Hospitality Programme

Cahernane House Hotel is proud to be a member of The Green Hospitality Programme, the only government certification standard aimed at proactively protecting the environment, specifically designed for hotel sustainability. We are also delighted to be part of the Killarney Hotels Sustainability Group which is a group of 22 hotels that are committed to reducing the environmental impact of our services and activities, increasing the wellbeing of our employees, and promoting responsible governance in the way we run our business. We are constantly striving to improve our environmental practices in a variety of areas such as energy, single-use plastic, and water usage.

Small Changes

When it comes to sustainability, every little helps. Some of the smaller changes we have made include:

  • Reducing the use of printing and wastage of paper within the hotel and monitoring usage on an ongoing basis.
  • Our cleaning products are environmentally friendly and chemical-free.
  • Working on removing single-use items we have in the hotel. We’re changing to metal or paper straws only in both the bar and restaurant and are in the process of changing over to leather and reusable drink coasters. Linens ad table cloths are reused through our linen reuse program.
  • A reduce, reuse, recycle policy is applied throughout every department in the hotel with Green Team members responsible for monitoring the changes.
  • We have a water bottle refill station for both guests and staff to use.
  • Our team are active members of Killarney Tidy Towns, a voluntary community-based group that works to keep our town clean, tidy, and sustainable.

 

Bigger Changes

  • We have installed two rainwater tanks on the property, the collected rainwater is used to water our plants in the hotel and also the gardens.
  • Three composter bins were installed to utilise our food waste and to reduce our brown bin collections by 30%.
  • A cardboard/plastic baler has been installed to greatly reduce our bin collections, the bales are given to a local company which reuses recycled cardboard and plastic.
  • All lightbulbs in the hotel have been replaced with LED bulbs.
  • Our heating systems have been set on timers to allow for them to only be in use during peak times throughout the day.
  • We provide bike racks and 3 electric car chargers in our car park.

 

Cahernane Green Space

We have committed to supporting biodiversity by allowing an area of our grounds to become re-wilded and have selected areas where the mowing has been reduced throughout the year. This has allowed wildflowers to grow and provide important food for our insects, especially pollinators. We also have a herb garden that our kitchen team nurtures and uses regularly. Head Chef Eric Kavanagh grows a lot of his own products that he then uses in many dishes he creates for Cahernane guests. We host foraging weekends for guests, encouraging them to grow their own produce and use the best of the land.

How can guests help?

  • We encourage guests to lower carbon emissions by taking to the surrounding areas on foot or by bike. Bikes are provided for guests to use so that they can explore the nearby tourist attraction in a more environmentally friendly manner.
  • We continue to educate guests on how to recycle properly and how to use recycling bins in all guest bedrooms and public areas.
  • Signage is erected in every bathroom to encourage guests to be more environmentally friendly by reusing any towels for the duration of their stay.

 

Our Green Team Leaders are always looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint and become more environmentally friendly, we welcome any questions or suggestions you may have. Find out more about Cahernane’s sustainability programme or book a stay in the hotel on our website.

Check Your Dates
Arrival
Sat
07
Sep 2019
Departure
Sun
08
Sep 2019
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