Sustainability

The sustainability theme runs deep in Fairmont Banff Springs’ culinary tradition. Executive Chef Atticus Garant works diligently with local purveyors to bring in the highest quality ingredients and sources more than 75% of our products from Alberta and other Canadian provinces. Pastries, cured meats and preserves are made onsite, with an in-house butcher shop providing fine cut, locally-sourced meat for the entire hotel. To further reduce our carbon footprint, we grow microgreens in our urban cultivators at STOCK Food & Drink as well as house-grown herbs, greens and small vegetables in our greenhouse. The Castle is committed to purchasing local, organic, Fair Trade and sustainable food products wherever possible.

In partnership with Sun Country Highway Ltd., we have installed an electric vehicle charging station in the parkade. The hotel also has six Tesla charging stations.

Accor’s Net-Zero Carbon Calculator helps Meeting & Event clients to calculate their carbon footprint and offset emissions by purchasing carbon credits to balance the remaining emissions. The solution is provided in collaboration with myclimate, a Swiss non-profit organization and global leader in carbon accounting and climate protection.

To conserve energy and cut greenhouse gas emissions, Fairmont Banff Springs has introduced LED light bulbs throughout the hotel. Since 2015, electricity use has decreased by 8% thanks to the LED installations.

The Fairmont Banff Springs Golf Course has taken large steps to cease irrigating non-maintained areas of the golf course and to extend the naturalized area of the course. Additionally, switching to an “as needed” versus a preventative system has saved near 1.5 million gallons of water annually. Further to this, low-flow plumbing fixtures have been installed in guest rooms to reduce water consumption and preserve precious glacier water.

Fairmont Banff Springs recycles all refundable beverages, glass, cardboard, paper, tin, plastic, metal, electronics, shipping pallets, tires, propane cylinders, mattresses, cooking oil and Nespresso pods. The hotel also has a robust composting program. Fairmont Banff Springs participates in Soap for Hope, where unused bathroom amenities are donated and repurposed for those in need. The hotel actively purchases environmentally friendly to-go cups, containers and utensils for our dining venues. We have proudly eliminated the use of plastic water bottles in all guest rooms and have installed water bottle fill-stations throughout the hotel to encourage guests to enjoy our clean, delicious tap water instead of single-use plastic water bottles.

In 2009, Accor launched the “Plant for the Planet” program, which encourages guests to reuse their towels for more than one night, and invests half of the laundry savings into the funding of reforestation projects worldwide.

Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel is proud to have some the cleanest drinking water in the entire world. The hotel’s water is sourced from a glacier-fed ground well in the national park, treated to the highest standards by the Town of Banff, and pumped to the property for guests and colleagues to enjoy. The hotel encourages guests to fill their reusable bottles with this pristine water at bottle refill stations or even straight from the tap in their room.

Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel performs an annual cleanup of the property and surrounding community to ensure it is sparkling like mother nature intended.

All new colleagues of Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel learn about current sustainability initiatives, the importance of environmental stewardship within the national parks, and how to contribute to their hotel’s sustainability goals.

Additionally, Fairmont Banff Springs has a dedicated Sustainability Committee chaired by a sustainability champion who leads the implementation of the various initiatives across the property. The sustainability committees identify areas of improvement, discuss strategies to solve issues, and engages the hotel in sustainability through innovative events and programming.