Fairmont Mountainside Vacation Villas

Located in Fairmont Hot Springs, British Columbia, Fairmont Mountainside Vacation Villas is an exclusive golf course development comprising 116 fully furnished one and two bedroom villas. The company uses the GobiSOFT carbon management software to track and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

David DuPont, General Manager of Fairmont Villa Management, provides his perspective on why the company is measuring and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions.

Why has Fairmont Mountainside Vacation Villas decided to track and reduce its greenhouse gas emissions?

Fairmont Mountainside Villas decided, about 4 years ago, to do our part in tracking and reducing our GHG emissions where we could. With all the press on GHGs it is only responsible that companies and individuals get on board to “save the planet” for future generations. With our operation of 116 Villas and a large recreation centre it became apparent that we could do a great deal to reduce GHGs if we put our resources to work in that area.

What specific actions has your business taken or planned to reduce its emissions to date?

Fairmont Mountainside Villas has implemented and is planning a number of actions, including:

• Use of compact fluorescent bulbs instead of incandescent bulbs. LED bulbs will be used as soon as they become economical.
• Installation of Energy Star hot water tanks and appliances when replacing old units.
• Use of energy efficient baseboard electric heaters when units are being refurbished.
• Use of water saver shower heads and faucet aerators.
• Laundry washers have been upgraded to ones that have a higher G-force spin cycle to reduce drying time. Dryers, when replaced will be electric instead of propane.
• Use of electronic ballasts and energy efficient fluorescent bulbs in offices and racquet courts.
• All gasoline powered vehicles are turned off when not in use. The use of electric vehicles will be looked at. Installation of air heat pumps for both heating and air conditioning will be done with renovations.
• Recycling paper, electronics, oil, batteries.
• Composting wood waste and grass trimmings and use of the compost for fertilizer.
• Thermostats in crawl spaces are set at 15 degrees Celsius. The villas are also set at 15 degrees when not in use.

What benefits do you see from tracking and reducing greenhouse gases?

We have seen a reduction in our operating costs to some degree. It seems when we reduce usage, the cost per unit goes up from our suppliers so it is difficult to track up to now. We just started using Gobi the first part of June 2010 because our past measurement techniques were not very reliable.

Why did your business choose the Gobi tool for managing its emissions?

We chose Gobi because we need to go the next step and have a reliable source for our tracking and reducing. We looked at various methods and other software but found that Gobi had a simple, affordable, reliable, solution. Another factor for us is that Gobi is a BC based company as well as Canadian.