Green Program Overview
- 95% of all light bulbs are CFL
- All meeting room lighting replaced with fluorescent fixtures
- Motion Sensors in service area control lighting
- Water saving devices on all guest room toilets
- Irrigation water is 100% recycled waste water
- Landscape waste is mulched or composted
- All cardboard and wood pallets are recycled
- Kitchen grease is recycled
- Recycling stations conveniently located throughout the hotel for both guests and employees
- Partially used guest toiletries are donated to local charity
- Hybrid vehicles are valet parked compliments of the Westin Chicago Northwest.
Results
- 4000 gallons of fresh water are saved annually by using waste water for irrigation
- Flushed water reduced 50% by installing water saving devices
- Over 140 tons of paper recycled annually
- Trash reduced from 5.30 yard dumpsters to 1.5 yard dumpsters due to recycling - 50 tons of trash saved from going to landfills
Fun Facts
- One Ton of Recycled Paper Saves
- o 17 trees from being cut down
- o 380 gallons of oil4,102 kilowatt hours of electricity
- o 3 cubic yards of landfill space
- o 7,000 gallons of water
- Recycling plastic reduces energy consumption by 85-90%
- Plastics account for 6% of municipal waste stream by weight however by volume or space used, plastics account for 18%
- Recycling one pound of aluminum (about 16 pop cans) saves 7.5 kilowatt hours of electricity
- Recycling aluminum reduces air pollution by 95% and water pollution by 97%
In one year the United States throws away enough office paper to build a wall 12 feet high and 12 feet wide to stretch from California to New York!