Hôtel du Vieux-Quebec is an officially recognized and award winning leader in the environmental movement. Committed to reducing its impact on our natural environment, this Quebec City hotel has launched a series of initiatives to lighten its ecological footprint. The hotel also has several larger-scale projects in the planning phase.
Hôtel du Vieux-Québec is a carbon neutral operation. We purchase Gold Standard carbon offsets from ‘Planetair’ to compensate for all of our operations green house gas emissions. Gold Standard offsets adhere to the most widely accepted quality seal for voluntary offsets currently available. Through Planetair we only support renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. All projects must produce demonstrable contributions to the sustainable development of their host communities.
The only hotel in Canada to use 100% 'green' natural biogas for the entire hotel. We say no fracking!
HVQ proud to choose 100% biogas with Bullfrog Power. We are the first and only hotel in Canada to do this for the entire hotel.
Biogas can be produced from raw materials such as agricultural waste, manure, municipal waste, plant material, sewage, green waste or food waste. Biogas is a climate-friendly alternative which is sourced from a methane-capture project situated on one of Canada’s landfill sites. Through innovative technology, biogas is captured, cleaned up, and injected onto the national natural gas pipeline, displacing fossil fuel-based gas and reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.
Bullfrog ensures the natural gas going into the pipeline on our behalf is from renewable sources instead of from natural gas sources that require fracking.
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves drilling a hole in the surface of the earth, injecting toxic chemicals into that hole at a high pressure and then injecting the wastewater deep underground. This unlocks methane gas trapped therein. This process causes a lot of nasty side effects such as:
2020- The Hôtel du Vieux-Québec was one of the finalists in the Environementaly Fiendly Company category at the Fideides 2020, presented by the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Québec
2020- Our gardens have received the Biodiversity and Edible certicifations from the Espace pour la Vie association.
2013 – Hôtel du Vieux-Québec was awarded the ‘Green Leadership Award’ by Hotelier Magazine. This annual award recognizes environmental excellence and innovative practices within Canada’s hospitality industry.
2010 – Hôtel du Vieux-Québec won the ‘Award of Excellence for Energy and Environment’ from the Hotel Association of Canada. This was the first time the award went to a Hotel in the province of Quebec.
Since 2009, Hôtel du Vieux-Québec has been awarded 5/5 Green Keys from the Hotel Association of Canada’s Green Leaf Eco-Rating Program.
Travel can be environmentally taxing, ensure that your stay is the greenest it can be!
The hotel maintains 5 beehives as part of the Miel Urban or ‘Urban Honey’ project. There are several objectives to this project:
-The promotion of beehives in areas that are free of insecticides, GMOs and mono cropping
– Public education on the importance of bees and the urgent need to protect them (bees pollinate 70% of the food we consume)
– Increased pollinating of urban gardens (25-30% increase in fruit and vegetable production when a beehive is present)
-The production of local honey. The restaurant Tournebroche uses our honey in their desserts and drinks.
Hôtel du Vieux Québec has installed three green roofs. Our rooftop gardens grow an assortment of organic vegetables, flowers, herbs and other plants. This helps to keep part of the hotel cool in the summer thereby lowering our energy consumption, sequesters carbon and captures runoff rainwater. This also enables us to provide fresh organic produce for staff and clients. We also insure that our gardens have plants that help revive the health of bees, butterflies, birds, bats, and other pollinators in our area.
Hôtel du Vieux Québec has been awarded 5 Green Keys from the Hotel Association of Canada’s Green Leaf Eco-Rating Program. This is the highest rating given. The rating description by the Hotel Association of Canada for 5 Green Keys is: A hotel that exemplifies the highest standards of environmental and social responsibility throughout all areas of operations. The hotel employs cutting edge technologies, policies, and programs that set the international standard for sustainable hotel operations.
Water efficient toilets have been installed in all renovated guest rooms. All pre-renovation toilets have been installed with toilet tank fill diverters. All faucets in bathrooms are low flow or have had water saving 1.5 or 0.5 G.P.M. aerators installed and 75% of shower heads are high powered but low flow. Installation of a filtered water dispenser in the hotel lounge.Guests are encouraged to refill their portable water bottles at the water dispenser, to reduce guest bottled water consumption.
We have converted more than 95% of the hotel lighting to energy efficient lighting. Including: conversion to low mercury compact fluorescent light bulbs wherever possible and the installation of LED lighting systems in our guest rooms, meeting room, hallways and other facility rooms in the hotel. This saves us an average of 66,580 KWH yearly. We insure the conscientious disposal of used bulbs.
Another project that has been generated from the research and observations of our hotel’s environmental team is our filtered water bottle project (inaugurated 2012). With increased public awareness of the unsustainability of bottled water consumption, and after observing the waste of large quantities of used water bottles left in the rooms from guests, HVQ decided to embark upon a re-usable filtered water bottle project that serves to reduce guests consumption of plastic bottled water. Each of our hotel’s guestrooms are supplied with two decorative glass-water bottles that have been sterilized, filled with filtered tap water and sealed, ready for consumption. The project is a great success; guests appreciate having quality filtered water available to them during their stay, and our environmental team is thrilled to note a marked depreciation by 70% of guest bottled-water consumption.
H.V.Q. has installed photovoltaic panels that are converting sunlight into electricity. We use this solar energy to help power our top floor and exterior L.E.D. lights. Placed beside our rooftop garden, the panels are also conveniently providing shelter for one of our beehives.
All new furniture is custom made by local Quebecois craftsmen using materials that are consistent with the highest standards of LEED building.
We also exclusively use Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood in all renovation and capital projects.
Responsible Dining
The bistro restaurant hortus, which is attached to the hotel, follows our philosophy of being ecologically responsible. It features fresh locally grown organic food. The restaurant uses the vegetables, fruits and herbs grown in the summer on our rooftop gardens and uses the honey from our beehives in its desserts, cocktails and gourmet specialties.
Drain Water Heat Recuperation
We use a heat exchanger to capture and reuse heat from drain water to pre-heat incoming water. This technology reduces our primary energy consumption for water heating.
Our environmental commitment also involves raising awareness and involving our employees.
So we organized a friendly contest encouraging them to reduce their waste and to compost their organic waste.
This contest has allowed them to realize that by introducing new habits in our daily lives, we can easily reduce our ecological impact and contribute to a better health of our planet.
All the employees who participated were therefore winners because they learned to better manage their waste, but we highlight the exceptional efforts of Nathan, who has clearly distinguished himself in his involvement. Well done Nathan!
