Destination Earth

PRESERVING OUR ENVIRONMENT, ONE DESTINATION AT A TIME

Destination Earth is...

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.

As the fifth largest independent hospitality management company in the country, we are committed to creating a new benchmark for our hotels and resorts through a series of environmental initiatives, both on the corporate level and at each of our individual properties.

HOW ARE WE PLANNING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Corporate Practices

We are proud to have created a "Destination Earth" taskforce, comprised of leaders throughout the organization and representing hotel and resort operations, to ensure that all departments and associates of Destination Hotels & Resorts are personally involved and committed to the program. We have already put in place the following initiatives which each of our properties have made a commitment to pursuing:

• Establishment of a property specific  "green team" at each Destination property nationwide, to adopt and implement    earth-friendly practices in our businesses and to become better stewards of the natural resources we utilize. Finally,  to monitor effectiveness of these practices. 
• Sourcing environmentally sensitive products and services locally, and purchasing organic, environmentally friendly/responsible and recycled supplies, whenever possible. 
• Purchasing fresh, and sustainable foods locally grown, whenever possible.
• Creating partnerships with other organizations that have demonstrated a commitment to preserving the environment. 
• Leading our associates to apply eco-friendly practices in their daily operations. 
• Utilizing environmentally-responsible building materials and strategies for new properties and renovations to reduce environmental impact. 
• Retrofitting existing properties with energy efficient lighting, heating and cooling systems, as well as water-saving devices. 
• Implementing tools that allow us to continually measure the progress of our individual properties and support their commitment to preserving the environment through the Destination Earth program. 

Destination Hotels & Resorts recognizes that our customers, owners and associates all benefit from and desire a healthy, sustainable environment. As we continue on the journey of environmental stewardship, we are committed to maintaining the superior guest experience that our customers expect, while reducing our impact on the earth's natural resources.

Property Initiatives

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. Executive Chef Brian Wieler heads to his 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.