GOING GREEN
Here at The Great Western, we truly believe in raising efforts to become a “greener” business. By making small changes to our daily procedures and thinking long term, we have been able to come up with a list of achievements and goals to reduce our environmental footprint. Being more sustainable and environmentally aware starts with educating our staff and then putting that education into practice. We’re not perfect, but every day we are making small steps that make a significant impact on our environment. As they say “From little things, big things grow!” If you have any ideas or suggestions on how we can go greener in an efficient, cost effective and reliable way, we’d love to hear it! Just send us an email with the subject line “GOING GREEN”
BAR & DINING
• By getting rid of plastic straws and moving our biodegradable paper straws to behind the bar, we have drastically decreased the amount of straws used on a daily basis. The decrease of straws depends mainly on you, so next time you’re at the bar, ask yourself "Do I really need a straw?"
• Our serviettes, paper towels, toilet paper and all other paper products are made from recycled paper and come in recyclable / biodegradable packaging
• All our glass, plastic and paper waste is sorted separately and recycled.
KITCHEN
• Our menu is created using local, in-season ingredients & produce from organic produce growers and independent businesses to minimise our environmental footprint by reducing freight. All our meals are made in-house from scratch with minimal preservatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• We do our best to source our meat, chicken and fish from sustainable local suppliers. Our Fish products also come in reusable containers which are collected by our fish provider, washed, sanitised and reused.
• Food waste is a huge problem worldwide. All our food waste is donated to a local farm who feed it to their animals and stock. We have also rethought our ordering and stock procedures to ensure food does not spoil.
• All oil waste from our kitchen is collected and gets up-cycled into biodiesel manufacturing.
• When available, we us compostable versions of sponges and dish cloths in our kitchen.
ACCOMMODATION
• We will encourage all our guests to make a greener choice by re-using their towels and only replacing bed sheets when needed.
• Our housekeeping team will use only natural and organic products with biodegradable packaging to clean and sanitise the suites. This leads to not only a healthier indoor environment but also less water pollution.
• We will implement procedures to improve our laundry stock control so that we can minimise our environmental footprint.
• We will donate or recycle all mattresses, throws, cushions, pillows and bedding that we replace in the accommodation.
• You would be surprised at the amount of lost property that never gets claimed! After waiting a reasonable amount of time, we will donate all unclaimed items to local charity shops so that others in need can utilise them.
RECEPTION, OFFICE & STAFF
• By educating our team on sustainable practices and converting all of our procedures, contracts and stock lists to digital we have reduced paper usage by 40%.
• Every year, hundreds of thousands of festive and seasonal posters and decorations go to landfill. By storing and reusing these items for the following year, we significantly reduce the amount of seasonal items taking decades to breakdown in landfill.
• All our lightbulbs site-wide have been updated and are LEDs. LEDs have a low energy consumption and ultimately put less strain on natural resources.
• Our team have access to lightbulb and electrical recycling boxes and are educated on how to implement Reduce, Reuse & Recycle habits.
• Solar panels will be installed to help power our site and eliminate energy from non-renewable sources.