Environmental Accommodation Providers of Auckland (EAPA)

Environmental purchasing

Case Studies

1. Brian Boru Hotel, Thames: bulk purchasing
2. Sheraton Auckland Hotel & Towers: reusable products & minimising hazardous products
3. First Imperial Hotel: refillable containers & reusable crates

Brian Boru Hotel
Initiatives: purchasing in bulk and avoiding over-packaged products

The hotel
The Brian Boru Hotel is an historic 40-bedroom hotel established in Thames in 1868. Located at the entrance to the Coromandel Peninsula, it hosts many visitors who come to the area specifically to enjoy the outstanding natural scenery. The hotel promotes its location as "bush and beach at it's best"

Bulk purchasing
The Brian Boru hotel identified that the majority of waste generated each day resulted from single-serve products used in the guestrooms, restaurants and bathrooms.

• These products contribute to a considerable amount of waste
• The packaging could not be recycled
• Cost the hotel in repurchasing costs as more is paid for single serve product packaging than the contents.
• The inconvenience to guests associated with using single serve packaged products was also a major incentive for change.

New Policy
The hotel adopted a policy of purchasing only in bulk and avoiding single-serve packaging within the hotel.

Time taken
It has taken seven years to achieve this policy summarised below.

1.Food products

1. Butter jams marmalade tomato sauce and mayonnaise are all purchased in bulk and served directly to guests in individual portions.
2. The quantities are judged accurately to meet the need and result in very little wastage.

Guests appreciate having their condiments served in bowls and plates rather than struggling to open individual sachets. The additional time taken to serve condiments and preserves and clean used plates is easily handled using existing staff resources.

Savings

• Estimated no. of 14gram marmalade sachets consumed per year 10,000
• Purchasing Cost 10,000 @15c each sachet for one year $1,500
• Cost of bulk purchasing 156 kilograms per year $524.52
• Savings gained by purchasing marmalade in bulk $975.48 per year.

2. Dispensers used for bathroom amenity products
Each bathroom has dispensers for liquid soap and shampoo and rooms with baths have a bubble bath dispenser. This enables the bulk purchase of these products.

Savings

• Estimated number of tea tree soaps consumed per year 10,000
• Cost of purchasing 10,000 soaps per year $1,500 @ 15c each
• Cost of bulk purchasing 1,120 litres of liquid tea tree soap per year $402.00
• Savings gained by purchasing liquid soap in bulk $1,098 per year.

Benefits
The benefits of bulk purchasing and avoiding over packaged products include:

• Reduced purchasing costs
• Reduced waste disposal costs
• Reduced pollution associated with the manufacture of packaging
• Less waste to landfill
• Support for the local tea tree farms.

Sheraton Auckland Hotel & Towers
Initiative: purchasing reusable products & minimising use of harmful substances.

The hotel
The Sheraton Auckland Hotel and Towers has 408 rooms. Added to the large number of guests staying at the hotel is the large number of additional visitors who use the many facilities in the hotel including restaurants, cafes, bars conference rooms, and gymnasium. It is important that all public areas of the hotel are kept fresh and clean.

Traditional cleaning has generated large quantities of waste within the hotel. To reduce the waste associated with cleaning the Sheraton has implemented a number of simple environmental purchasing projects to minimise cleaning waste.

New policy
In 1992 the Sheraton replaced the propellant air freshener cans used in the hotel with small bags of zeolite rocks. These are naturally bacteria negative and able to absorb odour. The bags are hung of deposited in ducting or behind curtains where they are not visible to guests yet are functioning constantly. Every twelve months the rock sachets need to be placed in direct sunlight to revitalise their odour absorbing qualities. In three years that the Sheraton has been using the zeolite bags the have not had to replace any sachets nor have the caused any problems.

Disposable aerosol cans were replaced with a refillable hand pumped bottle system
To protect worker health and minimise chemical use, the hotel uses an automatic bottle mixing and filling system. This ensures the correct quantity of chemical and water is added to the bottle. Through this initiative all spray cans have been eliminated.

Through this initiative air freshener spray cans have been eliminated.

Benefits

• Reduced operational casts though lower purchasing and disposal costs.
• Reduced pollution as less waste is being disposed to landfill.
• Enhanced hotel environment for guests as the percentage of chemicals in the atmosphere is reduced.
• Improved safety for staff though reduced contact with chemicals.
• Savings in time as staff are not required to specifically deodorise rooms.

Savings
The hotel has not yet quantified the savings gained from this change. However, the same initiative has been undertaken by the Forte Hotel Group and has lead to savings of over $650,000 in the United Kingdom.

First Imperial Hotel
Initiatives: refillable containers and re-usable crates.

The hotel
The first Imperial Hotel is a medium sized hotel in Auckland, with 61 rooms. The hotel has been running at a high level of occupancy over the last year which has meant increased consumption of food, beverage and cleaning products by the hotel.
The hotel manager has always been committed to responsible environmental initiatives -- in particular waste minimisation by using resources as efficiently as possible. They have found that one of the easiest ways to conserve resources is though effective relationships with suppliers.

Use of reusable plastic crates
Fruit vegetables and some dairy products are delivered in reusable plastic crates. The empty crates are collected by the suppliers at the time the new goods are delivered. The plastic crates are stackable and can therefore be stored in the minimum of space before collection. Through this initiative the hotel has "closed the loop" and has significantly reduced the amount of packaging waste created on the site.

1. Refilling containers
All chemicals are purchased in bulk, using the largest size practical for their needs.
This reduces the amount of packaging waste generated on site.

2. Further waste packaging reductions

• Recovery of 20 litre containers
  The hotel approached their supplier ecolab who agreed to recover empty 20 litre containers for refilling and re-use. This has reduced disposal costs for the hotel and the pollution associated with container disposal.
• Refilling 100 litre drums
  100-litre drum is used for laundry detergent. A similar system is being used for the laundry detergent and the drums are recovered by Ecolab for refilling and reuse.

Benefits:

• Reduced waste disposal costs for the hotel
• Reduced waste to landfill
• Reduced manufacturing of packaging using less resources.