VANCOUVER, B.C.—The Best Western Plus Chateau Granville, located in downtown Vancouver’s newly revitalized Granville area, officially joined the EcoStay program. EcoStay is a national initiative that helps hotels measure their carbon footprint, identify and fund reduction strategies and balance off their greenhouse gas emissions through carbon offsetting.
“We’re very excited to be part of the EcoStay Program,” said Anastasios Theodoropoulos, general manager of Best Western Plus Chateau Granville. “It’s a meaningful and effective way of demonstrating our concern for the environment.”
Under the program Best Western Plus Chateau Granville will collect $2 per night from hotel guests. Funds will be used to purchase carbon offsets in support of emission-reducing projects across the country such as renewable energy, energy efficiency, agriculture and recycling—balancing the impact from the hotel’s operations, and making each hotel night completely “carbon neutral.”
The guest’s contribution completely offsets the impact of their stay, and more. Carbon offsets are supplied by LivClean, a top ranked retailer by the David Suzuki Pembina. All LivClean EcoStay Carbon Offset Projects are listed on the CSA Group’s GHG CleanProjects Registry ensuring ISO 14064-2 reporting and independent ISO 14064-3 verification. In addition, each offset ton is uniquely serialized by CSA Group to ensure proper retirement and avoid double counting. The use of a public registry such as GHG CleanProjects Registry is an important step for transparency and ease of access for users to review and confirm the ongoing tracking of the LivClean EcoStay Projects.
Program Supports On-site Upgrades
The program also supports on-site environmental upgrades and renovations. The hotel has already made many eco-friendly upgrades, and boasts a 4 Green key Eco-Rating. With the additional support offered through the EcoStay Program, they are planning to install lighting efficiency technologies such as dimmers and motion sensors and donate leftover amenities, all in an effort to further reduce the hotel’s impact. A typical 150 room Canadian hotel can produce three tons of greenhouses gases each day. That’s the same as driving 200 cars or heating and lighting 100 homes.
Measuring and reporting the hotel’s progress is an important step too. Best Western Plus Chateau Granville will now use Green Hotels Global, the internationally recognized online dashboard and benchmarking tool that follows the new Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI 1.0) of the World Travel & Tourism Council and the International Travel Partnership.
“EcoStay is a terrific program,” Theodoropoulos said. “We’re seeing both leisure and business travelers these days that are seriously concerned about their impact. This is our way of letting guests know that we share those concerns and we’re doing something about it.”
“We’re very proud of the EcoStay program, and the hotels that have embraced it,” said Christina deVries, director of EcoStay. “These hotels are leaders in environmental consciousness and responsibility. They aren’t just talking about reducing greenhouse gases—they’re doing it.”
Details of Best Western Plus Chateau Granville’s carbon footprint, in-house initiatives and carbon offset purchases are available at www.ecostay.ca.
