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Fairmont Royal York completes largest heritage hotel retrofit in North America
Fairmont Royal York’s sustainable hospitality program—with its continuation of its green initiative series—is a shining example of how hotels can, and must, contribute to a healthier climate through very real changes.
At the Fairmont Royal York, Georgy Pyle, sustainability manager shares her journey, focusing on impactful efforts to tackle food waste and support the community.
The landmark hotel is in the midst of a stunning transformation for the zero carbon century ahead. Its historic heritage decarbonization project is now complete. The hotel is also tackling food waste with AI, striking a better balance with the natural world, measurably reducing plastic and supporting the social fabric of the hotels’ surrounding community.
Zero carbon future
In pursuit of zero carbon future, Fairmont Royal York has just completed the largest heritage hotel retrofit in North America — achieving a Zero Carbon Building – Performance Standard certification by the Canada Green Building Council. This transformative project aims to reduce the hotel building’s carbon emissions by over 7,000 tonnes every year, the equivalent of taking 1,558 cars off the road.
Verdant rooftop garden
The rooftop garden delivers a pocket of lush green, high up in the skyline. It’s a connection to the natural world, and a moment of natural calm in the booming centre of the city.
Rooftop honeybees
Established in 2008, the rooftop apiary was the world’s first home for honeybees atop a city hotel. These hives teem with 600,000 honeybees — a supportive home for the pollinators crucial for the health of crops, flowers, and biodiversity. The results are sweet for its guests — as an average of 450 lbs of honey is produced in these hives every year. A golden hyper-local addition to afternoon tea, cocktails, and culinary creations.
Herb garden
The rooftop herb garden produces 45 different varieties of herbs—fresh flavours ready to be harvested by its chefs for kitchens and cocktails experiences in the hotel.
“This past month, I had the opportunity to share the importance of connection to our local community as a central focus in our approach to food waste reduction and sustainability at Fairmont Royal York. In addition to implementing incredible technological solutions to help us track and measure food waste across all operations, our partnership with certified B Corporation, Be One to Give, has allowed us to provide more than 9,000 meals to those in need around the city of Toronto in 2024 year to date,” says Pyle.
