WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
5 JUNE 2024
World Environment Day on June 5 brings together millions of people from across the globe with the same one big goal - to care for and protect the environment.
It’s all about making positive changes to the way we live and work to help create a more sustainable world now and for generations to come.
In a hotel the size of Titanic, often at full capacity, we are very aware of the importance of minimising and responsibly controlling our impact on the environment.
One of the biggest challenges we face is the amount of waste which we create, but we are also committed to a sustainable approach in other areas those that are directly experienced by guests, and behind the scenes.
We are proud to operate a zero waste to landfill policy and have a dedicated sustainable waste management system within hotel and event spaces.
Titanic’s hotel manager Scott Davies has also created and introduced an environmental action plan, which targets reducing waste, energy and water usage.
One of our first tasks was to look at the way we operated, and how we could make changes for the better environmentally.
We have successfully cut down on our plastic usage by removing plastic straws from our bars and using cardboard packaging for in-room soaps. Waste paper has also been reduced through increasing digital working – all our hotel brochures are now digital rather than printed.
The hotel already has glass recycling and last summer we added cardboard, investing in a new baler so we are able to separate cardboard, including cups and straws from the restaurant and bar, to be compacted ready for collection and recycling. One of the main causes of waste for any hotel comes as a result of the food and drink offering so that has been a major challenge for us.
With that in mind, we have expanded our waste management programme to allow Titanic to separately recycle food waste – that totals around 45,000 tonnes generated by 153 guest rooms, our event spaces and Stanley’s Bar & Grill restaurant, and includes all the leftover used teabags and coffee pods from inroom tea and coffee making.
Sustainable working is important to us, but it isn’t something we can do alone, so Titanic partners with other companies and suppliers who share our commitment. We work with local suppliers to source as many of our ingredients and fresh food produce as possible, keeping our carbon footprint down, and we support relationships with local companies for many dayto-day hotel needs such as window cleaning, maintenance, carpet and upholstery cleaning, printing and stationary supplies.
The hotel uses a local waste management company, B&M, and alongside recycling, we are actively involved in keeping the surrounding environment clean.
One of the things guests appreciate most about Titanic is our fantastic dockside location, so we want to do everything we can to keep it at its best.
To reduce environmental impact and meet the needs of an increasing number of people who have electric vehicles, we’ve installed three electric vehicle charging points at the hotel. Partnering with Liverpool City Council and LCR, Titanic now has a station for Voi electric scooters and electric bikes in our car park. This means guests have an environmentally friendly alternative to using their own cars if they are planning a short journey into the city centre or along the waterfront.
We also hire a specially-made boat from local marine and engineering company Liverpool Water Witch to carry out weekly clean-ups in Stanley Dock. The boat, manned by our hotel manager Scott, scoops up debris on the surface and just below which is then processed and separated through the hotel’s waste disposal system.
Because our management team is always looking for ways to improve our sustainability efforts, we like to collaborate with guests too so we always welcome feedback and respond wherever we can.
An example of this came from Stanley’s restaurant, which was serving its breakfast yoghurt in a plastic pot. This was highlighted by a guest, prompting us to replace it with a washable melamine bowl.
It might only sound like a little thing, but we believe that every improvement – no matter how big or small – really matters.