Empire and Edge lead the way in Hotel sustainability practices with their world class “One Planet One Chance” program
Posted on June 3rd, 2020
Rockhampton’s Empire Apartment Hotel and Edge Apartment Hotel are shaping the future with their new sustainability program, One Planet One Chance.
Launched in October 2019, the program focuses on six key areas within the Hotels that will annually save over 100,000 single-use amenity plastics from entering landfill, recycle over 120,000 plastic containers from guests, supply over 30,000 bars of recycled soap to impoverished communities, provide bottle caps that will be converted into prosthetic limbs for children and save water by encouraging guests to reuse their towel.
“People are more aware than ever on their impact to the environment which includes how they travel and where they stay. They are looking to embrace experiences that are good for the planet and want to align with businesses who share their values” says Managing Director, Grant Cassidy OAM. “We are really proud to make such a significant difference and have received an enormous amount of praise and support from our guests and staff since we launched the program and are proud to be a sustainable leader in the tourism industry!”
Below are the initial six initiatives in the One Planet One Chance program:
- Soap Aid – leftover soap is sent to Soap Aid’s ‘Hotel to Hands’ Program that cleans and reprocesses discarded hotel soap to produce fresh, hygienic bars for free distribution to communities in need around Australia. So far we have sent 123kg of used soap to Soap Aid.
- Containers for Change – containers are collected on every level of the Hotel and then deposited at the Containers for Change depot who credit 10c per container into a fund that will be used to donate to a local charity (avg $1000/month). So far we have sent over 48,000 containers to be recycled and have donated $2,000 to Central and Western Queensland farming families suffering from extreme drought with Christmas Gift Vouchers, $2,500 to the Royal Brisbane Hospital COVID-19 Clinical Trial Fund and $1,000 to the Biloela Tour De Cure Cycling Team.
- Bulk Molton Brown and Sukin Amenities – single-use bathroom amenities are replaced with Molton Brown of London at Empire and at The Edge Sukin All natural large format size to save over 100,000 individual tubes going to landfill each year
- Bottle Caps to Prosthetics – bottle caps are collected and donated to Rotary who provide them to a company that converts them into prosthetics for children
- Towel Change – guests are provided the option to reuse the same towel across multiple days to save water with reduced laundering
- Refill Water Stations – Guests can now re-fill their own water bottles from our refill stations with Australian Natural Spring Water from Aussie Gold Yeppoon
Part of the Cassidy Hospitality Group, the Empire opened its doors in December 2014 and Edge Apartment Hotel was opened in 2009 and caters for the business and leisure tourism market with 220 rooms in total. In the last 12 months, more than 85,000 guests have enjoyed the ‘Empire and Edge Experience”.
The Cassidy Hospitality Group encourages all tourism businesses to reflect on their current procedures and implement programs that are more sustainable for the environment and planet.
They will be adding more new initiatives post COVID-19 restrictions which has interrupted some of their supply chains temporarily.
