Get Green at HI-Banff

We realize that we've been given a precious opportunity to live in one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Banff National Park is breathtaking all year round; the mountains hug your senses, the air is so clean, crisp and pure and the water tastes like it's directly from the heavens. We can't help but recognize the awesome responsibility we have to keep these majestic mountains clean and do our best to give thanks to Mother Nature for providing us this experience.

We fundamentally believe that it is our duty to reduce and recycle as much of the waste made by both our guests and staff as is humanly possible. For a few years, we've been working hard to reduce much of our recycled waste by purchasing separating bins for the hostel and hiring a 3rd party operator to collect and ship those recyclables to the appropriate recycling depots. We have seen excellent results, removing many tons of glass, metal and paper from the waste stream. We strive to continue this success and have set a goal to further reduce our overall waste by 20% (volume) by the end of February 2012.

The following is how we plan on making this goal a reality:

• Making further changes to our existing garbage and recycling stations in the hostel to facilitate better separation of wastes
• Purchase of additional commercial separation bins. Introduce separation of compostable wastes in our commercial and guest kitchens
• Change our housekeeping practices to manually sort all recyclable materials
• Post additional signage and information to involve guests in being part of the solution.

The success of our goal hinges on the support and participation of our guests. We hope that we can count on everyone who stays here to participate in the program by familiarizing themselves with the location and types of each collection station and by separating their recycling, compostable material and wastes into the appropriate bin. This shouldn't require much additional effort on the part of our guests, however, the impact of 200 people a day helping us a little will cumulatively help us a lot!

We have many thousands of dollars invested in the hardware for this program, as well as the ongoing costs of additional housekeeping staff efforts and third party operators, at a time when the economic realities are such that there isn't a lot of extra money to spare. Should guests be interested in making a financial contribution towards sustaining the program and future environmental initiatives, we are introducing an optional donation collection to our online booking engine. All donations collected will be kept separate from general revenues and will be directed towards specific environmental initiatives.

Whether you've stayed here before or are new to the hostel, once you get here you'll realize that it is extremely important that we all work together to help reduce our ecological footprint. We love Banff and you will too, so don't forget to brag to your family and friends about your efforts in helping SAVE THE WORLD!