Galway’s Connacht Hotel is leading the way in making the hospitality industry as green and sustainable as modern tourists demand.
For 50 years the Connacht Hotel has been on the cutting edge of the tourism industry in Galway, adapting to customer needs and the changing face of business.
Doing what we can on every level to make our society and industry more sustainable has become a hot topic, and the Connacht is doing its part by adopting an aggressive green strategy.
This has already paid of in terms of waste produced and electricity usage, with recycling rates up 56% year on year and electricity usage down by a fifth.
Paper use has also declined by 19% at the hotel, and the number of disposable cups filling up the bins has dropped through the floor by a staggering 75% in a short space of time.
This has not gone unrecognised, as in February the Connacht Hotel achieved a Green Hospitality eco label and plan to move this to a Silver accreditation by the end of 2019.
Recently the Connacht Hotel played host to a meeting organised by the Galway Convention Bureau with leading representatives of the hospitality industry in Galway.
The Convention Bureau had a panel of expert speakers in the area of sustainability, as well as workshops which highlighted that green activities don’t just have a positive impact on the environment, they can deliver huge savings for businesses.
During this conference the Connacht was held up as an example of best practice in the area of sustainability for its peers in the hospitality industry.
“We have a lot of work done but we still need to do more,” said Rose Finn, Galway Convention Bureau Manager, on the work of the bureau, the city and its members in the area of sustainability.
She elaborated that the Convention Bureau has a number of enquiries for conferences in the pipeline that are tackling issues related to sustainability.
These often demand that the host venue display their green credentials before choosing a place to hold their conference.
“However its not only these type of conferences,” Rose Finn adds, “others are now looking to reduce their carbon impact on the environment by choosing a sustainable destination to host there business event”.
This opens up many opportunities for businesses in Galway, but the Convention Bureau also warned if our business tourism suppliers are not eco certified and moving in the direction of sustainability we could lose potential business events.
In an application led by Galway Convention Bureau and supported by Failte Ireland. Galway was ranked as one of the top cities on the latest Global Destination Sustainability (GDS) Index in 2018, a rating system designed to recognise responsible practices in the business tourism and events industry.
Galway was the only Irish destination to crack the top 20 spots on the list, while Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Kerry received lesser recognition for their green credentials.
The team at the Connacht Hotel said that they will strive to live up to their environmental commitment, while making sure guests have the best possible experience away from home.
sponsored by the Connacht Hospitality Group
