The Fairmont Does Good

I recently visited the Fairmont Kea Lani (on Maui), where I took the photo at right. When I asked their director of public relations, she looked for a moment as though she was afraid she was going to offend me and said, "We don't really -- we try to keep things green. We don't print them out." Naturally, she was talking to the right girl. I was already excited to hear about The Fairmont's green initiatives.

The Canadian Fairmont Hotels began their Green Partnership Program, which "strives to minimize our properties’ operational impact on the environment through resource conservation and best practices," long before most other luxury hotel brands. Now, that may sound a little non-specific, but this program has been in action since 1990, and they have pioneered their way to some pretty impressive progress. To read more about The Fairmont Hotels & Resorts' company-wide policies, click here. I'm going to focus on the gorgeous Kea Lani property.

One program they have is called Recycling Cents. You know those people who push carts of bottles and cans around New York City? This is like that, but classier. They allow local charities to pick up (and redeem for cash) all the hotel's recyclables -- and 6+ charities have happily claimed over $20,000 in proceeds so far.

Next, they have an incredible air conditioning system which scans the room whenever a door shuts -- if you're not in there, the temperature adjusts to an eco-friendly five degrees higher. The same thing happens when you check out; the a/c is wired to the computers at the front desk.

Lastly, they offer sustainable cuisine at all four of their restaurants, they use rock salt instead of chlorine to treat their swimming pool (I didn't even know that was possible), and they have these awesome turtle tags to indicate their gift shop's eco-friendly merchandise -- and if you plant the turtle, it sprouts forget-me-nots. I mean ... seriously.