In recognition of the need to preserve the world in which we operate and serve our guests, Destination Hotels & Resorts is dedicated to practices and programs that pay respect to, and lessen our footprint on, our changing environment. All properties in the Destination Hotels & Resorts collection have implemented over 100 environmental initiatives since the inception of the Destination Earth program in January 2008. The eco-friendly program elements include decreasing energy and water usage, reducing waste, increasing recycling and composting, and purchasing local and organic food and beverages when possible.
Additionally, a Green Meetings program was launched throughout all properties in late 2009 in an effort to maximize waste diversion from meetings and conferences and to increase overall environmental awareness among hotel guests.
Property Initiatives
Tarrytown House Estate has received a Silver Tier Green Star certification from the International Association of Conference Centers for adherence to the IACC Code of Sustainability.
The rigorous IACC Code of Sustainability includes 59 tenets in the following areas:
- Education, Awareness and Public Declaration
- Waste Management
- Recycling
- Reuse
- Water Conservation
- Purchasing
- Energy Management
- Air Quality
- Food & Beverage
Printed Materials
In an effort to reduce printed materials, our sales kits are now predominantly sent electronically (via PDF) At times, printed copies are still requested, so these are now being printed a high quality variable digital process, thus only printing as many as we need, rather than the thousands that are printed via traditional off set methods.
Tarrytown House has committed to printing any sales kits, or folders needed on New Leaf Paper© Reincarnation Matte (100% Recycled, 50% Post-Consumer Waste, processed chlorine-free, manufactured with electricity that is offset with Green-e® certified renewable energy certificates, and is "Ancient Forest Friendly").
Landscaping
We dug a well on property, allowing us to water our 26 lush acres without draining the reservoirs saving thousands of gallons of reservoir water every summer.
Energy
We've installed energy efficient thermostats in most of our guest rooms, central in this project is a motion sensitive unit that automatically resets the room to use less energy (heating or cooling) when the guest is out of the room in their meetings all day, and quickly returns the room to the guests' desired temperature upon their return thus saving energy.
We've replaced over 5,000 light bulbs with long life energy efficient compact fluorescents. Every compact florescent saves approximately 450 pounds of CO2 emissions from a power plant over its lifetime. They also live up to 10x longer than old fashioned bulbs, so that's a whole lot less burnt out light bulbs in the garbage!
Recycling
Our meeting rooms create a lot of empty water bottles. So we separate them out for recycling. We've added water coolers outside most of our meeting rooms to give the choice of refilling your water bottle rather than taking bottled water.
We shred and recycle all waste paper left behind from meetings.
We found that people weren't using all of the pages in the pads in the meeting room so we have reduced the number of sheets per pad. More pads are always available in the room.
Culinary
Tarrytown House proudly serves guests the blends of Allegro Coffee, a company that partners with coffee growers who share the values for environmentally friendly practices. These farmers use traditional and sustainable growing, harvesting and processing practices, including the use of shade trees, manual weeding, water conservation and organic farming methods.
The culinary team at Tarrytown House is working at constantly getting more and more of its food from throughout the Hudson Valley to reduce the carbon footprint of bringing in food from around the world. The Hudson Valley is quickly becoming a regional leader in natural and organic produce, as well as high quality artisan meats, poultry, breads and cheeses.
During the spring and summer months, local gets no closer than our own herb garden. In season, Executive Chef Chris Hettinger and his culinary team head to the herb garden each day to add the perfect touch to each days dishes.
Tarrytown House works with a local co-op which converts our waste cooking oil to bio-diesel for community use.
Audio/Visual
Guests of the estate generally use only two-thirds of the paper provided, and to ensure our quality of service standards batteries are replaced at one-third their original power level (leaving hours of use still available). In an effort to conserve our natural resources the Audio Visuals department donates unused flipchart paper and batteries to local non-profit organizations, community organizations and employees.
Transportation
Tarrytown's preferred limo and ground transportation company (MTC) shares our commitment to making a difference. MTC Limousine is offsetting 100% of vehicle emissions from its business operations and is an EPA Climate Leader Partner.
