Energy and Environment

Thousands of dollars were spent to switch to energy-efficient lighting on all of the exterior and throughout most of the interior of the hotel.

In designing the addition of the hotel’s tower, there was a choice between spending less money and placing individual heating/air conditioning units in the rooms or paying $500,000 more and installing the more energy-efficient central four pipe system. The decision was to pay a half a million dollars extra and get the energy-efficient central option, even though it’s approximately 7 year payback period was more than most business people would consider. Leadership in planning long-range is common place at the Best Western Inn-Kelowna.

Blue boxes were placed in all the hotel’s guest rooms in 1990 before it was popular to do so. All of the hotel’s office paper is also recycled. When a new innovation was presented

the hotel was eager to experiment and placed a silver reflective film on the windows to reduce sunlight coming in during summer while preventing the indoor heat from escaping in the winter. 

Instead of using chemical fertilizers, the Best Western Inn-Kelowna has the grounds crew rake Nature’s Gold into the lawns. This natural product gives at least two environmental benefits – it replaces products that pollute the underground water table and it saves water as Nature’s Gold retains moisture in the soil.

The 90,000 indoor pool is sanitized with mineral salt and not man made chlorine. This is a value added guest experience as there is no chemical odor and gentle on the swimming suit fabric.

Appliance and products purchasing choices also favour the environment. In late 2002, the hotel needed two large washing machines and a dryer for the laundry room. The appliances chosen use minimal water in the wash cycle and then spin at 230 “G” force to extract more water and therefore save drying time. Air pollution is reduced further. Those shorter drying cycles lessen the creation of greenhouse gases that would otherwise have resulted from the dryer’s consumption of energy. The new dryer’s also have a Residual Moisture Control sensor, so fabrics are dried only to the point where 6 % moisture remains, instead of baking the linens bone dry and producing lint. This creates a further cost savings as well by lessening the dryer’s run times and producing longer lasting linens.

Additional water is saved in low-flow shower heads and sink aerators on water taps throughout the hotel.

Food & Beverage Services at the hotel continue to strive for maximum contribution to the cause. Continuing to address solid/hazardous waste management, energy conservation, purchasing policies and water conservation will allow us to remain clear on our vision and how it relates to this department. For example, the coffee grounds are taken home for composting instead of ending up in the land fill.

The practices instituted at the hotel extends into communication and education from the hotel guest to the valuable employees. For the guests: cards are placed in guest rooms to inform guests that they could choose an environmentally-friendly practice and prevent copious amounts of hot water being used and prevent waste chemicals from going into the waste stream by choosing to reuse their towels and linens. They are instructed where to leave the items should they choose to have new towels and linens replaced daily. As this simple practice is instituted at an increasing number of other hotels, it has and will continue to save a significant amount of hot water and cleaning chemicals from being used.

For the staff, The Best Western Inn- Kelowna has an Environmental Policy that is part of a “New –Hire” orientation package requesting their participation in the hotel’s overall commitment to doing everything economically feasible to keep our air, water and earth safe and clean for future generations.