Today & Beyond
Sustainability in the hospitality industry is addressing your needs today, without negatively impacting your needs for tomorrow.
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Kimpton EarthCare
Every hotel tells a story.
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Kimpton is eager to share our very new story, EarthCare, which is about our commitment to environmental responsibility. Now please relax and enjoy.
Kimpton EarthCare
Kimpton’s unique boutique properties inspire, pamper, rejuvenate, excite – each in its very own way. When you travel, indulge yourself in the one-of-a-kind hotel that reflects your individual sensibilities and style. You will have a personalized experience at a Kimpton Hotel.
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Kimpton EarthCare
Support a sustainable world by using non-intrusive, high quality, eco-friendly products and services at all Kimpton hotels.
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Kimpton EarthCare
Dear Valued Customer It is our pleasure to welcome you to the Kimpton Hotels & Restaurant. Whether you are traveling for business or pleasure, we know you have a variety of hotels to choose from, and we are honored that you have selected our hotels. Our professional and friendly staff is committed to ensuring that your stay is both enjoyable and comfortable. With the announcement of our national EarthCare program at the Hotel Triton in San Francisco on April 7, 2005, Kimpton Hotels furthered our reputation as an industry leader in eco-friendly practices and standards. Kimpton’s philosophy on environmental responsibility is about more than contributing financially; it’s about embracing behavioral change. This small book will take you through the journey of how Kimpon’s put our philosophy on environmental responsibility into the practices. Again, thank you for choosing our hotels where our promise to you is a sensational visit. We look forward to serving you now and on future trips. Sensationally yours, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants
The Navigator // Floor Plan
Hotel Building 12 Certifications 14 Information 51 Guest Room 30 Amenities 38 Products 44
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16 Education 20 Hotel Lobby 24 Organic Food 46 Services 48 Sample Products
Lets you bring home sustainability practices, modeled on your hotel experience, providing them with sample products and information about sustainable practices in hotel industry while you are staying in Kimpton Hotels.
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Today & Beyond Today, Kimpton’s mission is to lead the hospitality industry Kimpton Earthcare’s commitment to the environment extends beyond what guests experience on the surface and takes a decisive steps towards social responsibility on all levels. Eco-practices are carried out in even the smallest details including coat hangers recycled to dry cleaner partners, furniture delivered in blankets rather than bubble wrap packaging and paperless check-in at many Kimpton Hotels.
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Kimpton Hotels were also designed to be the hotels with a conscience. Our eco-friendly décor features reclaimed and recycled construction materials. Moreover, we have many other innovative ideas aimed to promote a sustainable lifestyle, such as light fixtures made from water bottles and vending machines filled with such products as wallets made from FedEx envelopes. These practices truly reflect the philosophy of Kimpton Earthcare: environmental responsibility is about embracing behavioral change more than about contributing financially. We also encourage our employees to get on board with living environmentally conscious lives. Our staff continues to provide us with recommendations and innovative ideas for recycling; many mirror activities these employees already do at home. We believe this practice is an advantage for being creative in sustainable practices. As a result, Kimpton’s Eco Council will expand its communication channel to guests and establish more innovative plans to support the growth of Kimpton Earthcare in the future.
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Happy City
Hope Point
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Innovation and Design Kimpton Hotels is certified by the Green Seal Environmental Standard for U.S. Lodging Properties for waste minimization, water and energy efficiency, hazardous substances handling, and environmentally responsible purchasing. Kimpton’s model hotel, The Hotel Triton, is certified by Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED). Kimpton Hotels uses certified wood in accordance with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) guidelines and more than 50% of the wood-based materials on the project are FSC-Certified. Energy management system: When exiting the rooms, the guest simply takes their key card, automatically turning off the entire room, with the exception of an outlet that guests can use to charge laptops, cell phones and other battery-powered devices. This system helps reduce energy use by up to 20%.
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Water use reductions include no permanent irrigation by using planter liners with built-in irrigation, sinkPositive water saving sink and changing to low-flow plumbing fixtures.
CO2 Emissions Current Carbon Dioxide Emissions
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Electricity Use Current Electricity Usage
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EarthCare Education Promoting awareness of sustainability: GreenTouchscreen速 kiosks show guests and visitors how much we are saving in water, electricity and how much CO2 we are emitting.
When Kimpton Meets ReadyMade & JDV
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Kimpton EarthCare
From the case study of Good Hotel, located in San Francisco’s young and stylish SOMA neighborhood, Kimpton’s creative director believed that environmentally responsible hotel management was the right direction to go. The definition of “good” include a positive attitude, environmental sensitivity and philanthropy. In the modern interior fashion style, the designers selected ReadyMade magazine, which focuses on design reusing everyday objects. For the Good Hotel lobby, the designers enlisted the help of local artists: a recent graduate from the California College of the Arts designed a bench made from felt moving blankets; furniture maker Thomas Wold built a computer station from old cabinets and constructed a coffee table with furniture parts including a skateboard; and product designer David Pierce created the check-in desk with reclaimed wood from Sacramento. “From a designer’s point of view, we had to be as creative as we can be, without spending a lot of money,” says Laurino, who was JDV’s art director before branching out on his own 10 years ago. And for a bit of whimsy, they added a few playful touches — four colorful cuckoo clocks are set to the times of cities throughout the world whose names incorporate the idea of good (Hope Point, Greenland; Happy City Hotel, Cairo, Egypt), a ReadyMade-sponsored vending machine is filled with recycled items, and guests are encouraged to use the photobooth and post their photos on cork walls enclosing the elevator.
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Besides these physical assets, there’s also a philanthropy concierge phone in the lobby that connects guests to local volunteering matchmaking service One Brick; local artwork throughout the hotel and on key cards is courtesy of Creativity Explored, a San Francisco based non-profit that works with artists with developmental disabilities; and the hotel offers a carbon offset program for guests. “We wanted to create a community, instead of a destination,” Harvey says, adding that he hopes to bring the concept to other cities.
hip humble happy inventive conscious
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Kimpton EarthCare
Food & Shopping All complimentary lobby coffee is organic, shade grown and/ or fair trade. Kimpton not only runs our kitchen in an environmentally-savvy way, we also educates guests on how to select Earth-friendly foods to create their own delicious meals at home. Moreover, hotel staff will supply guests with canvas bags for their shopping trips (filled with green goodies to start!), direct guests to the lesser-know green spaces in the urban jungle including shops and restaurants, and recommend environmentally-savvy activities.
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Kimpton EarthCare
Complimenting the hotel’s eco-friendly amenities and services, we offers eco-responsible advice on how can offset their travel related carbon emissions. Even staff ’s email inspires people to be environmentally-conscious in all aspects of their lives, as it reads: “Please consider the impact on the environment before printing this e-mail.”
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HELLO my name is
Feel the difference in your every step.
Carpet with recycled content. Our carpets contain post consumer recycled material in the backing, fiber and pad.
Water Saving Implementation and auditing of low flow systems for faucets, toilets, and showers.
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Kimpton EarthCare
The project achieved a water use reduction of about 40%. withDDLow flush toilets. All toilets produce 1 gpf (gallon per flush). Standard toilets produce 1.6 gallons per flush. All of our guestrooms are equipped with low flow showerheads. The koi pond uses recycled water from the site, which is then filtered and cleaned prior to entering the pond.
Energy Conservation Back of house lighting retrofitted and audited to ensure energy efficient bulbs are in place. Hotel card key Energy Management Systems allow guests to control and save the energy in their room. All windows used are efficient, low energy transmittable and reduce glare. Solatube tubular skylights are used throughout the hotel including our conference rooms, lobby and the hallways. These skylights magnify the sun’s rays to deliver abundant light into the property interior spaces during the day. We save electricity by using these skylights. Solar panel provides 10% of our electricity. Cool reflective roofs reflect heat, therefore saving money in cooling costs.
Here’s a company that really keeps the balance between environmental responsibilities and customers’ needs.
All lumber used for the hotel is FSC. The Forest Stewardship Council is an international network to promote responsible management of the world’s forests.
SinkPositive Benefits 1. Maximize water use Using SinkPositive eliminates the need for additional water use at the bathroom sink, and therefore, reduces the amount of waste water going down the drain. And, most importantly, the sink can help in the early detection of a water-guzzling, costly leak in the toilet’s plumbing. 2. Increased hand-washing frequency reduces hand-transmitted diseases The immediate flow and convenient placement of a running faucet encourages all persons to obtain a fresh water hand wash or rinse which has been proven to break the chain of many hand transmitted diseases.
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3. Eliminates touching faucet handles The sink automatically runs with the toilet’s fresh water refill cycle after each flush meaning there are no knobs or handles to touch after hand washing reducing hand-transmitted diseases. Also, the elimination of faucet handles gives a welcome relief for persons with arthritis.
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Kimpton EarthCare
Towel & Linen Reuse Kimpton Hotel is committed to doing our share to protect the environment and conserve our natural resources. Using bed sheets and towels more than once during a multiple night stay saves hundreds of pounds of detergent and thousand of gallons of water each year. From our report, the reuse program can effectively reduce laundry detergent and water use by 25%. Please join us to conserve water and save the environment.
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Recycle Plans Recycling bins in rooms and around property. Newspapers are not delivered to each occupied room. Newspapers are located in the lobby available for guests who actually read them. Bulk soap and shower dispensers are used in all guest rooms. This helps to eliminate hundreds of pounds of plastic containers and packaging daily from mini shower bottles and soap. Only recycled paper products are used at the hotel.
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Kimpton EarthCare
Thousands of tons of slightly-used bar soap is discarded each day by hotels around the world. A usable product is being wasted and filling our already burdened landfills. Kimpton Hotel suggests that hotel guests take the partially used soap home to use it themselves. You can find a sign saying “Save the Wrapper” on the soap package and the words “Take me home” on the soap bars. Consider this a part of your sample kit and take it home with you.
Please Make Up the Room
Keep Towel
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Team Ambassadors for Sustainability Enhancing the Guest Experience Housekeeping is an important part of the guest experience. Other features such as security are important, but what guests really want is to feel at home, to feel comfortable. Housekeeping must remain at the heart of service delivery in a hotel. Kimpton believes there is more we can offer than just cleaning guests’ rooms and public areas. The cleanliness of the rooms is definitely crucial to guest satisfaction. However, communication between hotel staff and customers is essential as well.
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As a result, we have transformed our housekeeping department into Team Ambassadors for Sustainability. Their duties no longer include only cleaning guest rooms and hotel property. Guests can speak directly to our housekeeping team about the practice of sustainability in Kimpton Hotels and ask for eco cleaning product samples.
Kimpton On-The-Go
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Kimpton EarthCare
Kimpton Hotels will provide samples of environmentally friendly cleaning products to customers on request. The product set includes shampoo, shower gel, conditioner, and lotion. All the product brands can be found easily in local retail stores. The packaging bag is made from recycled towels, and is reusable and washable. The products are contained in recyclable glass, plastic jars or bottles. The sample package is designed as a travel set and we encourage guests to reuse and refill container the next time they travel.
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Kimpton EarthCare
Certification & Environmental Standards The U.S. Green Building Council is a non-profit community of leaders working to make green buildings available to everyone within a generation. A U.S. government program designed to help consumers make energy-efficient and cost-effective decisions since 1992. Energy Star endorses hundreds of products through its distinctive blue logo, from refrigerators and DVDs to vending machines and exit signs. A nonprofit formed in 1989 and the largest eco-labeling organization in the United States. A member of the Global Ecolabeling Network (GEN), Green Seal is a multi-attribute program. It looks at the entire lifecycle of a product, from the raw materials used, to whether it is eventually recyclable or disposable.
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FSC is an independent, non-governmental, not for profit organization established to promote the responsible management of the world’s forests. Products carrying the FSC label are independently certified to assure consumers that they come from forests that are managed to meet the social, economic and ecological needs of present and future generations.
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Kimpton EarthCare
What’s your Kimpton Story?
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Kimpton EarthCare
For further information visit www.kimptonhotels.com/earthcare Publish by Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants Š 2009 Kimpton EarthCare. All rights reserved under universal copyright convention. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of copyright holder. Design, Text, Production and Printing Hsuan Yang Photography Hsuan Yang & Flickr.com Typeset in Avenir, Minion and Univers Paper Cover: Red River 50ib Premium Matt Inside: Epson Premium Matt Double-sided