Fairmont Royal York Hotel
PDAC is excited to partner with the Fairmont Royal York for many of our events. The hotel continuously implements impressive sustainability measures, including:
Zero carbon building
The Fairmont Royal York has achieved the status of a Zero Carbon Building – Performance Standard certification by the Canada Green Building Council (CAGBC). In Canada and North America, the hotel is the largest heritage hotel to operate as a zero carbon building. This project reduced the building’s carbon emissions by over 7,000 tonnes every year (comparable to taking 1,558 cars off the road).
Energy management: Heating and cooling
The hotel uses Toronto’s Deep Lake Water Cooling system. In this way, cooling of the building is provided through the use of cool water from deep in Lake Ontario, replacing centrifugal chillers. Heating and hot water comes from an electric heat pump installation plant allowing the decommissioning of the legacy steam systems. Along with other innovations in energy management systems, the hotel optimizes efficiency and removes 80% of direct emissions from building operations.
Water management
The hotel uses a commercial water softener that reduces water use in the laundry to one wash and one rinse per cycle, saving 476,000 liters of water per day (which is enough water to supply 500 homes daily).
Rooftop garden
The rooftop garden delivers a pocket of lush green in the skyline. It’s a connection to the natural world in the city, and allows for many building benefits including:
Rooftop honeybees
Established in 2008, the rooftop apiary was the world’s first home for honeybees atop a city hotel. The hives contain 600,000 honeybees who are crucial pollinators for the health of crops, flowers, and biodiversity. An average of 450lbs of honey is produced in these hives every year, and is used throughout the hotel.
Herb garden
The rooftop herb garden produces 45 different varieties of herbs that are harvested by the hotel chefs for use in their kitchens and cocktails experiences.
Local and sustainable food sourcing
The Fairmont Royal York draws from local, organic farms whenever possible. They focus their sourcing on producers within 100km of the hotel. This allows for high-quality ingredients, reduced waste, and supports the health of Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe agricultural region. The seafood used at the hotel is OceanWise certified and sustainably sourced.
Food waste reduction
Food waste in travel and hospitality is a serious issue. The Fairmont Royal York have set a target of reducing food waste by 60% by 2030. Some initiatives to make this possible include:
- Using the Orbisk technology platform to sort and track food waste with AI, including image recognition cameras and advanced waste stream management
- Oscar Sort, the intelligent sorting system, leverages Intuitive AI to help the hotel team separate food waste properly and efficiently in the course of service operations
- Be One to Give captures unavoidable food waste and redistributes it to communities in need
- Civil Pours Spent Citrus repurposes used citrus peels from cocktails
- Partnerships with local farmers and producers reduce wastage from travel
Plastic waste reduction
Plastic waste is a prevalent and a growing issue for the world. The hotel is working to reduce plastic waste through these initiatives:
- The elimination of single use plastics across the guest experience
- Tracking plastic waste and managing recycling more efficiently with Oscar Sort at key touchpoints in the service cycle
- New circular systems for coffee, water bottles, and other vital material streams within the hotel