Archer Hotel Austin is committed to doing its part in helping create an environmental and socially responsible property.
Select from the list below to see what our other locations are doing to help the communities in which we live and serve.
Archer Hotel has partnered with One Tree Planted, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with a focus on global reforestation. Trees are essential to the health of our planet, biodiversity and reducing the harmful effects of climate change. Reforestation is consistently identified by scientists as one of the top solutions to the climate crisis, and the trees planted as part of this initiative support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
With hotels on the West Coast, Archer chose to plant trees in California’s forests, which are prone to drought, bug infestations and record-breaking wildfires. Repopulating these forests helps improve water and air cleanliness, protects natural habitats and creates beautiful scenery and recreation landscapes.
Sourced from a sustainable artesian aquifer in the tropical Fiji Islands in the South Pacific, FIJI Water is our hospitality partner of choice. As well as serving up Earth’s Finest Water®, FIJI Water also:
- Uses fully recyclable, 100% recycled plastic (recycled polyethylene terephthalate or rPET) for its 330 mL and 500 mL bottles. (projected total bottle volume per 2022 sales forecast — bottle only). This replaces nearly 65% of FIJI Water’s bottle volume in the U.S. with recycled material (projected total bottle volume per 2022 sales forecast).
- Uses fully recyclable, high-grade polyethylene terephthalate (PET) for its bigger bottles. The company has plans to continue this momentum in the coming years.
- Works to reduce its carbon footprint by investing around $2.5 million on energy efficiency initiatives on the Fiji Islands — including using microturbine energy generation and adopting the low-sulfur fuel standard for all shipping, which dramatically decreases sulfur oxide emissions.
- Focuses on sustainability and improving the lives of native Fijians via the FIJI Foundation — a charitable trust funded and supported by the owners, employees and corporate affiliates of FIJI Water. The foundation helps provide clean water access, health care services, disaster relief and educational facilities and infrastructure for the islands.
- Partners with Conservation International to preserve the purity and biological wealth of the Fijian islands via large-scale reforestation and conservation efforts, which create sustainable jobs and income sources for local communities.
Archer Hotel looked to modern apothecary Malin+Goetz, which — like Archer’s first boutique hotel — was rooted in New York City. Founders Matthew Malin and Andrew Goetz create gentle, effective products that are subtly scented, and their forward-thinking philosophy is eco-friendly, as well:
- The company continually strives toward more-sustainable formulation and packaging practices — at every Archer Hotel, the Peppermint Shampoo, Cilantro Hair Conditioner and Rum Body Wash are now provided in large, recyclable pump bottles secured to the shower walls, which reduces the burden on landfills and lightens the workload for our room attendants.
- Products are never tested on animals — the company is certified cruelty-free by Peta’s Beauty Without Bunnies program, and their logo is on every Malin+Goetz product.
- Malin + Goetz is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified, and our website’s shippers are Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI)-certified, using 67% recycled paper.
Archer Hotel has partnered with KultureCity to provide employee training to better serve our guests who have sensory needs. Each hotel offers Sensory Bags which are are designed to help sensory needs in both adults and children. Filled with items that can help lessen sensory overload and also engage, the bag items are also easily cleaned and sterilized for multiple uses.
Since 1991, Austin Energy Green Building (AEGB) has cultivated innovation in building for the enrichment of the community’s environmental, economic and human well-being.
Archer Hotel Austin sought an AEGB rating in order to build a durable, safe, healthy and resource-efficient building that is comfortable for guests and employees, cost-efficient to operate and educational to the public. Along the way, other areas of the organization were inspired to adopt more sustainable day-to-day strategies.
Archer Hotel Austin has achieved a 2-star Commercial Rating.
- Met all current codes and amendments.
- Installed low-flow plumbing fixtures that use 20% less water than the baseline.
- Ensured building energy use efficiency:
- Utilized Energy Star certified appliances and equipment.
- Improved building performance and lighting — more than 7.5% improvement in the energy performance compared with the baseline of the Austin Energy Code.
- Employed cooling systems designed to surpass Austin Energy Code requirements.
- Used an energy modeling design tool, which shows a 16.6% energy savings over electric and natural gas baselines.
- Offered individual controllability of HVAC systems — all guest room systems are controlled by the room occupants utilizing an InnComm Energy Management system for the VRF systems in the guest rooms.
- Supported building water use reduction — low-flow plumbing fixtures reduce the load and demand on water supply and treatment facilities.
- Applied low-VOC interior paints and coatings that do not exceed the VOC limits of the Green Seal Environmental and SCAQMD standards and rules.
- Applied low-VOC exterior paints, coatings, adhesives and sealants that do not exceed the VOC limits of the Green Seal Environmental standard.
- Used low-emitting materials — sealants and adhesives, carpets and pads, hard flooring, engineered wood flooring, concrete, tile and adhesives, and insulation.
- Prevented moisture:
- Ensured that vinyl wall coverings and FRP were not installed on the interior of exterior walls.
- Included drainage planes as part of the exterior finish systems.
- Pressurized building to a positive state.
- Monitored indoor air quality using a permanent carbon dioxide monitoring system to control ventilation.
- Isolated and ventilated chemical storage areas.
- Limited outdoor pollutants:
- Designated nonsmoking areas away from entrances and fresh-air intakes.
- Installed non-operable windows.
- Designed acoustics to limit sound transmission, reverberation and excessive vibration from mechanical equipment.
- Implemented a storage and collection of recyclables program.
- Utilized a construction waste management program — recycled at least 75% by weight of nonhazardous construction and demolition materials.
- Incorporated a minimum of 20% of construction materials with recycled content to reduce the extraction of new materials.
- Used a minimum of 30% of Texas-sourced construction materials to minimize the effects of transportation and to support the Texas economy.
- Protected indoor air quality during construction with an air quality plan, materials protection and HVAC equipment filtration.
- Selected the site location:
- Not in a Greenfield or drinking water protected zone.
- Diverse, walkable communities — connected to neighborhoods with pedestrian- and bicycle-only paths, as well as access to basic services.
- Brownfield Redevelopment — hotel is on a site on which all potential contaminants were remediated.
- Transportation alternatives — within a quarter-mile of bus stops.
- Electric vehicle charging stations — provided under the hotel porte-cochere.
- Ensured access to local and regional produce via the Archer Sustainable Food Guidelines.
- Reduced heat islands via a covered parking garage.
- Routed all stormwater drainage through dedicated drainage systems to the Domain retention pond that uses specific plantings, microbes and soils to remove pollutants from stormwater before it is discharged into the city stormwater system.
- Utilized glazing system designs that allow a minimum of 75% of occupied spaces a view of the outdoors.
- Integrated a pest management program with an environmentally sound method for long-term prevention of pests using a least-toxic approach.
- Provided educational outreach via giving tours of our facilities and AEGB practices.
- Offers protected bicycle storage under the hotel porte-cochere.
- Includes eco-friendly best practices, such as using stickers instead of toilet paper wraps in housekeeping.
- Furthers low-water consumption measures:
- Dye tests toilets annually for leaks past the flapper valves.
- Trains employees on reporting water leaks, drips and running toilets.
- Recycles and reuses:
- Paper (e.g., newspapers, office paper, envelopes, computer paper, shredded paper, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, phone books), cardboard, aluminum cans and other metals, batteries, electronics, computers, appliances, dry-cleaning hangers, printer ink and toner cartridges, phones, plastics, guest laundry bags, glass and other items where municipal support exists.
- Keeps guests comfortable in “green” bedding and pillows of down-feather fill combination and cotton.
- Encourages in-room reuse of linens and towels.
- Offers a 20% parking fee discount for energy-efficient vehicles with a green score rating of 40 or higher. For details on Green Score methodology and list of eligible vehicles, refer to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Green Book.
- Utilizes an eco-friendly (PERC) dry-cleaning service.
- Provides eco-friendly soaps and products in public, back-of-house and guest room spaces.
- Provides 40%+ recycled material hand towels in public space restrooms.
- Offers reusable break room and in-room coffee cups and mugs.
- Meets or exceeds EPA paper standards for in-room and billing documents.
- Offers paper telephone books upon request only.
- Cleans carpets and spots with nontoxic and low-VOC products.
- Offers napkins for team use made of recycled and/or unbleached material.
- Partners with Cintas for uniforms and uniform care. Cintas uses recycled polyester made completely of post-consumer waste.
- Maintains LEED standards at the home office.
- Provides HR information and benefits plans online.
- Recycles documents, paper, glass, metal, electronics and appliances.
- Uses C-fold hand towels, toilet paper and paper towels made of recycled material.
- Recycles printer toner and ink cartridges.
- Utilizes utility monitoring: We currently employ the Burton Energy Group to monitor and report on utility usage at our hotels. They review monthly usage reports benchmarked against reports from year to year. The intent is to look for spikes in usage that would reveal leaking water, gas and irrigation piping, exterior lighting that cycles on for excessive lengths of time and kitchen equipment left on when not in use.