Above: Ballygarry’s Green Team leaders.

Tralee’s Ballygarry House Hotel is among the businesses across the country and around the world taking steps to reduce the environmental damage caused by pollution. Small steps including the introduction of paperless checkouts and refillable soap dispensers have been augmented by the hotel’s dedicated Green Team overseen by Deputy General Manager Tadhg McGillicuddy.

The team comprises members from every department at the four-star, family-run hotel, each ensuring that every aspect of the business’ operations are as environmentally-friendly as possible.

“We believe in having good recycling procedures in place to minimise our carbon footprint,” said Tadhg McGillicuddy. “Ballygarry House Hotel is a very busy four-star hotel and generates a lot of waste. We noticed that by simply monitoring our waste, it enables us to see where and how we can do better. This, in turn, has allowed us to reduce waste going to landfill and the costs associated with it. Another benefit is that the project is staff led in the sense that many of the proposals for improving our systems have come from individual staff members across all departments.”

Initiatives developed so far including the collection of plastic waste by a company that recycles the materials, compacting and collecting cardboard waste for recycling, crushing sand bottles into a sand material spread and worked into the garden soil, using local produce to reduce the carbon footprint, the installation of a charging point for Tesla and other electric vehicles, and the use of fully-compostable single-use straws and takeaway beverage cups. The hotel also makes guests aware of how they can contribute by turning off lights and TVs when leaving their room, making sure taps are fully closed and asking for towels and linen to be changed only when necessary.

“We also partner with local homes and charities to recycle items of use like hotel slippers,” McGillicuddy added. “Identifying new ways to help the environment is an ongoing process under regular review and updated on a constant basis at Ballygarry.”