The 5-year PARTNER MEMBER Hyatt Regency Sacramento has 503-rooms, 15-floors and a 1,200-seat ballroom which they love filling. Charlie Bane, Director of Engineering, sees that this Hyatt is exceptionally green. A few months ago, the Catering Department was approached by clients asking what they would do with the pitchers of ice water left on the tables after large dinners and events.

First, Charlie had to discover how many gallons of water and ice that might be—and found that it would be approximately 400 gallons a week. This is how the problem was solved, and an idea which any other hotel with a restaurant, meeting and/or ballrooms can mimic. Charlie bought four 33-gallon rain barrels and put them on big-wheeled casters so they could easily be moved. Staff was notified that after a dinner the pitchers of water along with all glasses of clean, unused water on the tables are to be poured into the rain barrels. The rain barrels are wheeled outside to water the lawn and gardens or the barrels are wheeled to the back of the property where the water is pumped into the cooling tower. The cooling tower loses thousands of gallons of water a day via evaporation, so it can always use additional water. Their front lawn, gardens and interior plants can almost always use additional water as well.

The best news is the fallout of this new measure, which is that Charlie says all the staff has become very enthusiastic about the challenge—
especially so since they’re in California. He says the rain barrels are now permanently placed outside the restaurants and ballroom, and they are filled almost every other day. Just as regularly as the rain barrels are filled with unused table water, they are emptied on the lawn and gardens or into the cooling tower. Terrific solution!

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