Environmental Awareness in City Hotel Derry

The City Hotel Derry is a four star hotel on the banks of the River Foyle in the centre of Derry-Londonderry. The hotel was built in 2002 and caters for business and leisure guests in its 158 bedrooms, as well as functions such as weddings and conferences. The site is a detached building with 8 floors and a basement garage. The building's gross floor area is approximately 14,400m².

The hotel decided that making savings in the amount of water they consumed would lead to substantial financial savings in their annual water bill, increase profits and benefit the environment.

With support from Chardon Management’s environmental management team, a review of the hotel’s energy and waste streams was initiated in late 2007. The hotel set an annual target of 3% reduction in CO₂ emissions and 10% reduction in waste. It was also recommended that the hotel carry out a review of water consumption because a large portion of its energy costs were used heating water. Now, the hotel’s ultimate long-term goal is zero carbon emissions and zero waste to landfill.

To save water and save money the City Hotel took the following actions:

• Ran an education campaign to inform staff of the benefits of saving water
• Appointed an environmental champion in the hotel and a Green Team made up of staff from each department
• Trained staff in environmental policies and what to do if they spotted a leak
• Fitted energy saving showers, restrictors to taps and hippo bags in cisterns in all the hotel bedrooms
• Fitted restrictors to the public urinals to reduce wastage of water
• Installed a new water efficient dishwasher
• Installed its own water meter in the yard and recorded daily water usage because the main meter was inaccessible
• Placed a water pyramid in every hotel bathroom giving facts on how to save water
• Promoted the ‘bag it and bin it’ campaign to highlight to guests what can and can’t be flushed down the toilets to prevent blockages and damage to the sewers
• Installed a water butt outside for washing down the yard

Since the project was implemented the hotel have noted the following benefits:

• Financial savings of over £18,000 per year off the water bill alone
• Further potential savings off its energy bills
• Reduced water consumption through increased awareness
• Shows the public the hotel is serious about helping the environment
• Early identification of leaks through regular meter readings
• Greater awareness about water efficiency motivated staff to raise £1,000 for WaterAid