News
Canada’s First Carbon Neutral Company!
Ottawa, November 24, 2004 – The Monterey Inn
Resort, an 88 room Ottawa hotel and conference facility, nestled in
a natural setting on the banks of the Rideau River has been certified
as Canada's first Carbon
Neutral Company by the Tree Canada Foundation under its Grow
Clean Air Program .
“This is a milestone for our Foundation, for the business world and
for all public agencies who are looking for corporate leadership in carbon
neutrality” said Jeff Monty, President of the Tree Canada Foundation. “The
Monterey Inn is to be congratulated for its farsightedness in its commitment
to the environment”, he said.
As part of an overall program of energy efficiency, the hotel calculated
its total energy usage for 2003 including heating, electricity and the
commuting of its 50 employees. Using established values, this energy usage
converts to 584 tonnes of carbon dioxide, one of the greenhouse gases
responsible for poor air quality and climate change.
The Tree Canada Foundation calculated that to offset this carbon dioxide,
the Monterey Inn had to plant 1,000 trees, which at age 80 would fully
absorb the 584 tonnes. In the spring of 2004, the Monterey Inn exceeded
their obligations and had 5,500 trees planted upstream in the watershed
by the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority, thus potentially offsetting
their 2003 carbon emissions in 15 years instead of 80.
Poor air quality and climate change fuelled by greenhouse gas emissions
is the biggest environmental challenge of the 21st century. By
encouraging companies, events, organizations and people to become "carbon neutral",
the Tree Canada Foundation is encouraging the planting of trees to “Grow
Clean Air” and slow the rate of climate change.
Tree planting, intensive recycling, energy management and innovative
client information systems are not the only environmental activities that
the Monterey Inn is engaged in. Under the leadership of its Manager, Jason
Kelly, the hotel has also implemented a serious shoreline naturalization
program along the Rideau River on which the hotel is located. Staff are
also encouraged to volunteer as stewards of the river under the City Stream
Watch program. Serious steps to stabilize erosive slopes on the property
and innovative snow removal and disposal techniques have also been implemented
to minimize the environmental disturbance to the property. The hotel is
also a member of the Green Hotel Association and enrolled in the Audobon's
Green Leaf Program.
His basic premise is that the Rideau River gives a lot of value to his
clients and adds to their satisfaction. This is his way of returning a
little of that value and protecting the Rideau over the long term. Indeed
he has future plans to allow clients of the hotel the option of offsetting
their carbon output through treeplanting projects.
“I am proud that the Monterey Inn is doing its part to ensure that a
cleaner environment is being left for our children”, said Jason Kelly,
Manager of the Monterey Inn. “We see a cleaner, well treed and managed
environment as being not only good for the Rideau River and the planet,
but it is also good for the growing of our business as well – a win-win
scenario”.
The Tree Canada Foundation is a charitable organization established
to encourage Canadians to plant and care for trees in urban and rural
environments. Since 1992, the Foundation has engaged Canadian companies,
public agencies, individuals and volunteers in the planting of more than
75 million trees, the greening of more than 300 schoolyards, six national
urban forestry conferences, 14 carbon neutral conferences and other efforts
to sensitize Canadians to the benefits of planting and maintaining trees.
More information about the Tree Canada Foundation is available at www.tcf-fca.ca .
For more information about the Monterey Inn project please contact:
Jason Kelly, Monterey Inn, www.montereyinn.com (613)
288-3510
Michael Rosen, Tree Canada Foundation (613) 567-5545
Charles Billington,
Rideau Valley Conservation Authority,
(613) 692-3571 ext. 1116
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