Sustainability

“WE ARE THE FIRST GENERATION TO FEEL THE EFFECT OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND WE ARE THE LAST GENERATION WHO CAN DO ANYTHING ABOUT IT” – BARACK OBAMA

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY

The Ross is located in one of the most beautiful areas in the world.  Protecting this amazing landscape and environment is extremely important to us at both The Killarney Park and The Ross Hotel.

In line with this we continually strive to improve our environment practices in a range of areas including energy, single use plastic and water usage.  We also continue to develop a number of ecotourism experiences for our customers to enjoy.

We are members of The Green Hospitality Programme which is the only Irish environmental certification standard for the hospitality sector.  The GreenHospitality.ie Eco-label and Awards are recognised both nationally and internationally as standards that allow members achieve good environmental performance and allow visitors to choose “Greener” hospitality businesses knowing that defined criteria are being implemented and monitored.

We are founding members of The Killarney Hotels Sustainability Group which is a group of hotels totalling more than 3,000 bedrooms that take protecting our landscape and environment at the forefront of what we do.

THE FOLLOWING ARE ACTIONS ALREADY TAKEN BY US AND WE CONTINUE TO WORK TO MINIMIZE OUR FOOTPRING ON THE ENVIRONMENT

• Single use plastic is a disaster for our environment and we are actively eliminating it from our hotel. In the last 12 months we have found replacements for the following items of single-use plastic.
• Miniature toiletry bottles have been replaced with larger luxury refillable dispensers. This action alone reduced our single use plastic by a whooping 100,000 bottles per annum.
• Take away coffee cups and lids are now compostable.
• Plastic drinking straws and cocktail stirrers are now made of paper.
• Plastic water bottles for guests have been replaced by glass water bottles.
• Guest amenities such as toothbrushes, earbuds, shower hats, vanity kits are now either made with bamboo or a biodegradable material.
• Bedroom plastic – we no longer use plastic pedal bin liners and have introduced a recycling bin to all guest rooms.
• We are partnered with Clean The World which assist us in recycling any toiletry waste and used bars of soap.
• We use Green Energy – 100% Green Electricity and BioLPG as our primary fuel source.
• Our hot water and heating system is powered by The EscoPod – a prefabricated thermal energy centre that delivers hot water with massive energy and CO2 savings.
• Our cleaning products are supplied by Green Clean which means they are allergen free and chemical free cleaning products.
• We have two Porsche designed electric car charging points for our guest use at our sister hotel The Killarney Park.
• All of the hotel is operating on LED lighting which saves many tonnes of CO2 energy.
• Cardboard packaging, glass, cans, used light bulbs and batteries are all returned or collected for recycling. We are committed to further reducing waste to landfill.
• Paper usage within the hotel is continually monitored in our efforts to reduce and reuse.
• We are proud members of Repak which is a not-for-profit packaging recycling scheme funded by contributors from over 3,000 member companies nationwide.
• Our team are active members of Killarney Tidy Towns, a voluntary community based group that works to keep our town clean, tidy and sustainable.
• As much as possible our culinary team source our food from local producers thereby reducing food miles (the distance that food must travel to get from farm to fork). Products such as meat, fresh fish, smoked fish, salads, eggs and cheeses are mostly from the locality.  We also endeavour to purchase and support small artisan producers.

The Green Sustainability Team at our hotel are always looking for ways to help reduce our carbon footprint and welcome any questions or suggestions you may have.  Please do not hesitate to contact hello@theross.ie