In a conscious effort to minimize our carbon footprint and live in harmony with our precious and beautiful environment, the Drolets and staff at the Innsbruck Inn at Stowe are proud to announce that the inn has completed an initiative which has resulted in the certification of the inn as one of the “Green Hotels in the Green Mountain State”. This certification is administered and awarded by the Vermont Small Business Development Center in partnership with the Department of Environmental Conservation, Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, and the Vermont Department of Tourism.
Innsbruck Inn at Stowe’s commitment statement to the environment
The Innsbruck Inn at Stowe is committed to protecting the environment, the health and safety of our employees, and the community in which we conduct our business. It is our policy to seek improvements throughout our business operations to lessen our impact on the local and global environment by conserving energy, water, and other natural resources; reducing waste generation; recycling and purchasing recycled products; and reducing our use of toxic materials. We are committed to pollution prevention, continual improvement and meeting or exceeding all environmental regulatory requirements.
What we are doing to help our environment, and how our guests can help!
Below are examples of what we are now doing in the course of our daily operations to make our inn a "Green Hotel".
Recycling
All guest rooms, public areas, and our main kitchen are now equipped with recycling bins for the collection of recyclable paper, cardboard, and plastic bottles & containers that are in turn delivered to the Stowe Transfer Station which collects all recycling for the Town of Stowe. The Stowe Transfer Station is administered by the Lamoille Regional Solid Waste Management District (LRSWMD).
Energy Efficient Lighting
All guest rooms, public areas, outside entrances, and most exterior lighting at the inn, are now lit with energy saving fluorescent bulbs and fixtures. We are also installing eco-plaques over light switches asking guests to turn off lights when leaving rooms.
Energy Saving Timers
We have installed timers on our vending machines, exercise machines, and our dining room coffee machine , in order to take advantage of non-use hours to save precious electric energy.
Other Energy Saving Initiatives
Insulating cover on our outside heated pool; providing a standardized policy for our housekeeping staff on temperature settings for guest rooms when rooms are not occupied for a 24+ hour period; Educating employess on energy saving practices.
Solid Waste Reduction
Our complimentary bathroom amenities including shampoo and body wash use european styled dispensers, eliminating the use of all those messy and wasteful little plastic bottles.
Waste Water Reduction
It is communicated to our customers, if they choose, they can contribute to saving energy and reduce waste water by simply hanging up their towels to dry after use, in their bathrooms for reuse, if they feel a fresh towel is not neccessary.
Voluntary reuse of towels/linens during the guests stay protects the environment from damage caused by harsh chemical detergents and contributes to a substantial reduction of unnecessary water waste.
Composting
We compost all vegetable & fruit scraps that are produced in our main kitchen. Scraps are collected in the kitchen in temporary filter-fitted containers, which are in turn put in our outside compost container. A few months later we’ll have converted solid waste, that would have cost precious natural resources to process, into wonderful composting material for our flower beds here at the inn.
Post Consumer Recycled Products
We have committed to using Post Consumer recycled content products for our copy paper, trash bags, toilet paper, paper towels, napkins, stationary & marketing materials whenever possible.
Green Cleaners
Where and whenever possible we are now using cleaners identified by the Green Seal, which are primarily citrus based cleaners, which unlike their toxic cleaning cousins, are much better for the environment and are also better for the health of our wonderful guests and staff.
Environmentally Preferable Products Purchasing Policy
Preference shall be given to suppliers whose products have environmentally friendly attributes that maximize Post Consumer Recycled content, minimize toxicity and packaging, or have any other environmentally preferable attributes, with minimal sacrifice to price, quality, and delivery requirements.
We are also currently considering other green initiatives including… the use of alternate methods (geo-thermal or solar) of heating our outdoor pool as well as our domestic hot water for our customers. We are also currently looking at improving the efficiency of our oil-fired hot water central heating system.
So that’s what we’re doing to reduce our carbon foot print and contribute to creating a greener, more environmentally friendly world for our customers, their children, and their grandchildren to live and play in.
If you have any ideas on how to help us become even greener, please reach out with your suggestions. We’d love to here from you!
