The Falls Hotel and Spa in Ennistymon, County Clare is giving away carpets and furniture during refurbishment to avoid waste and encourage reuse in their efforts towards becoming a carbon neutral business through sustainable practices and initiatives.
The hotel has been carbon neutral for nearly four years and generates 70-75pc of its energy from a water turbine running off the river.
The hotel plants 100 trees per year, has its own tree nursery, orchards, and plans to install a greenhouse, all contributing to their sustainable efforts.
General manager Michael McCarthy said “to remain carbon neutral we need to plant 100 trees per year, so we do that and we have our own tree nursery as well, so we grow our own trees from seeds, and we also buy some, some fruits trees, apple, pear, cherry trees. Two years ago we planted a new orchard In the hotel, last year we did another orchard. You can see the orchard now is two years old and it’s starting to bear fruit so I’d imagine that orchard in five years’ time is going to look incredible. There’s 70 fruit trees in our main orchard and 30 in the smaller one. We’re also putting our own greenhouse in the hotel this year, which is similar to what was in the hotel maybe 100 years ago, hopefully it will be completed later this year.”
