DALLAS—For the second year in a row, The Fairmont Dallas was recognized by the Hotel Association of North Texas, (HANTX) at the 2010 HOSPY awards as the Green Hotel of the Year for its persistent efforts to operate the luxury property with minimal impact on the environment. Surrounded by the city’s industry leaders on Friday, October 22 at the Renaissance Dallas Hotel, Jeff Floyd, director of engineering at The Fairmont Dallas, accepted the award. Fittingly, Floyd leads the hotel’s green efforts and has been the catalyst for several of the property’s most recent eco-friendly projects, including one that pipes the water used to cool the hotel’s ice compressors back into the condensing water system, saving the hotel an estimated 4.6 million gallons of water a year.
“It takes a collective effort from the entire staff to create a real focus on both enduring and day-to-day environmental issues,” Floyd said. “This award is representative of the long-term value we are providing the city, our guests and of course the planet.”
The hotel’s commitment to sustainability is apparent in daily operations with an emphasis on water conservation, energy management and local food sourcing. Earlier this year, the engineering department took on the task of retrofitting all lights in the back-of-house areas and in the hotel’s grand ballrooms with more energy efficient bulbs. The project was expected to take a couple of months, but with grand effort from the entire team, the task was completed in just two short weeks spurring a 56 percent reduction in energy. This helped to position the hotel as the third lowest carbon footprint emitter at a Fairmont Hotels & Resorts property.
In addition to its continued recognition by HANTX, The Fairmont Dallas was the first hotel in Texas to receive Green Key certification, garnering four keys out of five for demonstrating dedication to environmental stewardship through projects such as property-wide single-stream recycling, the use of solid chemicals, eliminating the need for barrel and plastic containers and the addition of two beehives to the 3,000-square-foot organic herb and vegetable garden on the hotel’s terrace level.
Go to The Fairmont Dallas.
