MODERNIZATION
UPGRADE YOUR STAY, DOWNGRADE CARBON FOOTPRINTS
BANFF, ALBERTA, CANADA
A small fee added to your next hotel bill could signal significant changes ahead. In Banff, Alberta, a hotel collects a fee to fund green infrastructure for the property. The next time you book, find hotels that are openly decreasing their carbon footprints through long-term change.
What's
changing
Climate action can get complicated. Businesses all over the world want to make a difference, but do not always have the tools, knowledge or funding to make it happen. These businesses are getting help from consulting and financial organizations that simplify sustainability funding, measurement and implementation.
What's already
possible
In Banff, Pursuit used an EcoFund to invest in green infrastructure upgrades at its Elk + Avenue Hotel and Banff Gondola Attraction, reducing the carbon footprint of these operations.
Seizing
the opportunity
The EcoFund is managed and operated by GreenStep Solutions, a Canadian social enterprise that helps hotels and attractions expedite climate action. Businesses in the program add small transactional fees to customers' bills. These fees go directly into a financial account managed by GreenStep that is dedicated to sustainability and climate action projects. Businesses draw funds to make carbon-reducing upgrades and improvements to their properties. GreenStep advisors assist businesses throughout planning and construction processes to ensure that each property’s improvements are in line with current best practices for energy efficiency and decarbonization.
Standout
tactic
As the program expands to more businesses and account balances increase, EcoFunds earn interest to pay for complementary climate and sustainability projects.
How
it helps
This kind of fund helps hoteliers take the complexities out of completing major changes for sustainability. In the example from Pursuit, the organization drew from its EcoFund to implement a project that converted lighting to LED. Combined, the hotel and gondola have dropped energy consumption by 310,300 kilowatt-hours per year, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 167.5 tonnes. The lighting overhaul should save more than 55,000 thousand Canadian dollars in energy costs per year.
Diving
deeper
How do we ensure that governments and powerful organizations (like energy companies) do not use funding programs that implement sustainability initiatives at the individual business level to sidestep their own responsibilities to provide wide-scale, systemic changes?
Increasing
impact
Government grants and rebate programs from utility providers that are intended for sustainability improvements and directed at businesses participating in a fund, like GreenStep's program, would accelerate the scope and scale of projects.
Traveling
better
Travel is inherently carbon intensive. Whether you are taking a mini-break or an annual vacation, consider ways to minimize your impact by staying longer in one place, reconsidering how you travel to the destination, and supporting businesses that are working to make their community and the world a better place.
