Sustainability Policy
At O’Callaghan Collection
Our environmental objectives are to:
- Reduce our energy consumption and carbon footprint
- Adopt best practices in waste management and to reduce, reuse, and recycle as much as possible
- Encourage our customers to help us achieve our environmental goal
- Get involved with local environmental initiatives
- Work with suppliers that have sensible environmental policies, in order to reduce packaging waste and improve the environmental impact of all products purchased
- Provide a healthy working environment that will enhance the well-being of our employees, guests, and the natural environment
Sustainable Policies and Practices:
In order to minimise energy use, we aim to maintain high levels of energy efficiency awareness among our staff through training and energy conservation initiatives.
This includes:
- Managing IT and associated energy usage strategically and sensibly
- Closely monitoring the energy usage of each hotel
- Exploring and using alternative energy sources where possible
Some of our initiatives to date:
We were the first hotel group to install Combined Heat & Power (CHP) units in the estate making us less reliant on the electricity grid by generating our own electricity from a gas generator.
In our hotels, all light have been upgraded to LED bulbs and we incorporated sensor control into common areas so that the lights only operate upon person detection. We also have installed a Building Management system (BMS) that allows us to set time schedules on plant and equipment to ensure that they are only used at times of demand rather than needlessly running 24/7.
In the bedrooms, we use energy efficient air conditioning (a/c) which is an alternative to a central heating water – in addition to saving energy, if a temperature adjustment is required the effect is almost instantaneous. The bedrooms are also equipped with window sensors that disable the air conditioning if the window is open which saves energy as a/c is not effective in an open to elements room. We also switch off the a/c every 2 hours between 10am and 6pm to ensure that a/c is not left continuously on during the day when a room is vacant. Finally, we have Vincard room controllers which mean the lights and sockets will only work when the guest card is inserted in the controller.
Our next project: the SEAI EXEED program
We are currently going through the SEAI EXEED program – which is the Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland (SEAI) award for Excellence in Energy Efficiency Design (EXEED). The SEAI enables organisations to establish a systematic approach to design, construction, and commissioning processes for new investments and upgrades to existing assets. The EXEED Certified program aims to influence and deliver new best practices in energy efficient design management. EXEED designs, verifies, and manages optimum energy performance and management at the earliest stages of the lifecycle.
We are very excited about this program as we have previously won an SEAI award for efficiency in 2007.
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