Three decades ago, green issues were not front of mind for most people, and the hospitality industry reflected that, with hardly any ecological initiatives. This situation has changed radically and now that there is little dispute about the dramatic effects of global climate change and depletion of natural resources, sustainability is a hot topic. Early hospitality industry responses included only small steps such as not changing bathroom towels every day, but now hotels are embracing far reaching eco awareness. Sustainable hotel practices are important because:
- Guests are now far more aware of their own environmental footprint and seek to mitigate the effects of their travel and hotel use.
- Sustainable practices gain positive recognition in the hospitality market and boost the reputation of hotels which embrace green values.
- Hotel management and staff have become increasingly conscious of the negative effects of tourism on ecology, and wish to do their part to counteract this.
- The economic benefits of many green practices are now unarguable, as energy conservation and use of sustainable products is an increasing no-brainer across the hospitality industry.
- Sustainability in hotels is scalable, and can go from recycling plastics, through using energy efficient light bulbs, to major projects such as solar panel installation.
Sustainability challenges for the hotel industry
There are many sustainability challenges that hotels are facing, including:
Energy Consumption: Hotels consume significant amounts of energy for heating, cooling, lighting, and many other operations. Transitioning to renewable energy sources and improving energy efficiency can be costly and complex.
Water Usage: Large amounts of water are used in guest rooms, for laundry, pools, and landscaping. Implementing water-saving technologies and practices can be challenging and expensive.
Waste Management: Managing waste, including food waste, plastic, and other disposables, is a significant difficulty. Establishing effective recycling programmes can require new infrastructure, training, and guest cooperation.
Managing suppliers: Hotels are not standalone organisations and need many suppliers. It can be hard to ensure that the supply chain is also ecologically sound with sourced materials and products that are environmentally friendly and ethically produced.
Influencing guests: Even though there is increasing guest awareness of green issues, encouraging guests to participate in eco programmes such as reusing towels and conserving water and electricity requires effective communication.
Staff engagement: Just as not every guest will be fully onboard with green practices, not every member of staff will be engaged by new ways of working. Training and education of staff is therefore important in the greening of any hotel.
Balancing comfort with sustainability: Providing high levels of guest comfort alongside sustainable practices can be a tough challenge. Turning down heating by a few degrees is good ecological practice and saves money, but will it impact on guest comfort? Such questions need to be constantly asked.
Regulatory environment: Complex sustainability regulations must be understood and adhered to, as hotels have to stay on top of both local and international standards. Regulatory frameworks are constantly evolving and hotels cannot fall behind the curve.
The cost of greening a hotel: The biggest challenge is the cost of sustainability, where initial investment can be steep with uncertain payback. Hotels may struggle with the upfront costs as well as long Return On Investment periods for sustainability initiatives. For a given and limited budget, is roof insulation a more attractive spend than a refurbished wellness centre? Try telling that to the Sales Manager!
However willing hoteliers are to actively engage with the greening of their hotel, it’s this sort of cost dilemma that can pull them up short. Investment in sustainability is sometimes seen as optional, and when the option is costly it can seem easier to delay decisions.
Scalability
The key to success in biting the sustainability bullet is to make the greening of your hotel scalable. No hotel will ever have 100% zero-impact on the environment, so the question will always be how to mitigate adverse ecological effects. The answer is that it’s OK to start small and then scale up over time, because every little helps, and any sustainability initiative is better than none. If investors or shareholders commit to a big programme of greening a hotel, then congratulations, change will come quicker. But whatever the ambition, scaling will bring results. Do what you can, as soon as possible.
Mitigating environmental threats and costs
Mitigation is an important concept because it’s about reducing impact, rather than completely eliminating adverse effects. There are many areas where significant sustainability initiatives can be made:
Waste reduction and recycling
This is a great place to start the sustainability journey because it’s relatively cost neutral. Look at every department and activity in the hotel and ask, is waste being produced here, and if so what can we do about it?
- Best is not to produce waste at all, so for example, look at paper brochures and flyers and consider whether the information can be relayed to guests electronically using systems such as the GuestAdvisor mobile app.
- Single-use plastics can definitely be reduced, so avoid using anything that will be thrown away. Sure, if you have a pool then drinks will have to be in unbreakable glasses, but get tough, reusable containers that will last for ages. Do you wrap things in unnecessary plastic bags, just because it’s always been done that way? Check whether the impression of sanitisation is really so important.
- Food waste is a major output of all hotels, so get a grip on this and establish sustainable practices to ensure that food waste is correctly composted, or goes to animal feed. If the food is merely past perfect freshness, or is leftovers, then don’t throw it out - get in touch with local charities and re-distribute it to people in need. It’s easy to do and can add a little extra shine to your hotel’s standing in the community.
- As well as composting food waste, if you have lawns or other garden waste, ensure that this is composted. And while we’re on the subject of gardens, review your landscaping, and whether it is ecologically sound. Also check with gardening experts if you’re growing the appropriate plants. As global temperatures rise, water-hungry grass and flowers can gradually be replaced with hardier species. And while on the subject of gardening, think about starting a kitchen garden. It saves money, but also provides a big attractor to your diners if home grown food is on the menu.
Water-saving
From gardens, to guest rooms, kitchens to health facilities, hotels are massive users of water, much of which is poorly managed. So let’s see what can be done to reduce use and mitigate water wastage:
- Installing low-flow fixtures in guest rooms can have marginal impact on the guest experience and in fact may not even be noticeable to them. How will they judge that a shower flows with X% less force than last time they stayed in your hotel? And yet slightly reducing water flow can impact favourably on the bottom line for an increasingly costly utility, as well as having clear ecological benefits.
- Greywater systems are another way to reduce water bills in a sustainable manner, by reusing water from showers, laundry and the kitchen. Instead of routing this massive output via drains back to a high cost water company, waste water is filtered locally at the hotel and then re-used for garden irrigation or other activities such as vehicle-cleaning. With water costs rising steadily, chances are that a greywater system supplier can demonstrate a rapid ROI.
Electricity costs have also gone through the roof in recent years and saving electricity is now a must do for all hotels. Fortunately there are a number of simple actions to reduce electricity use, which also have the benefit of scalability:
- Most hotels are now aware of the electricity-saving benefits of using low energy lighting, and this is an example of a step-by-step approach. You don’t have to change every tungsten light bulb in the hotel in one day, but have a rolling programme of replacement.
- Smart plugs and sockets are an excellent way of reducing power use, especially for devices which are often left on, or in standby mode. This applies especially in guest rooms, which might not be occupied for a large part of the day, but where electricity is still being steadily consumed.
- Motion sensors installed in areas with intermittent use, like hallways, conference rooms, and toilets can greatly cut down on electricity costs. Yes, these areas must always be ready to be lit, but only when people are present.
- Upgrading systems comes at higher capital cost, but is well worth investigating, especially for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning units. In recent years HVAC has become far more energy efficient, coupled with remote smart control of settings to optimise heating and cooling based on occupancy and time of day.
In kitchens and other high electricity using areas, upgrade to more energy-efficient refrigerators, dishwashers and laundry washing machines. More cost-effective water heaters can also be installed. - Do everything smarter by examining every point at which more energy efficient and sustainable practices can be applied. This can be very effective in the supply chain where - for example - multiple deliveries are currently made when one ‘pooled’ delivery each week would be enough. Encouraging suppliers to look at their own eco practices helps create a virtuous circle where everyone benefits. Also broach green issues with staff and ask for their suggestions and interactions. In addition, move the administration of sustainability online, so that all the interconnected issues are found in the same place, and can be controlled from a central point. Find out how things interact, and how effects can be mitigated. For example, when are peak electrical demands, and why? (Does the laundry have to be started at the same time as the cooking of lunch, or can it be done off peak? That’s a rhetorical question by the way.)
- Go large! Really serious greening of a hotel requires a carefully thought out strategy, a lot of expert input, and some big investment. Solar panels, wind energy, and other renewable sources are within reach of some hotels, even more so if partners are found to support and develop initiatives. Local council and national government grants are increasingly available to undertake many large-scale ecological actions, including structural changes such as improved wall and ceiling insulation, and the replacement of old windows and doors. Tech suppliers are also worth talking to as they need hotels to demonstrate proof-of-concepts and may be willing to do partnering deals. Larger initiatives can also bring official certifications and recognition, which add credibility to any hotel marketing its green standards.
Talk the walk
Sustainability is a huge topic, and it’s massively important in the hospitality industry. It’s a big enough job to walk the sustainability road, but it’s essential that hoteliers bring their staff, suppliers and - most importantly - their guests along with them. This means a commitment to talking with every stakeholder, and listening to their feedback. Guests in particular need to be told why initiatives are taking place, and what the benefits are. If you’re pursuing a rewilding policy for instance, then guests will most likely understand if you explain the reasons for your perfect lawn no longer looking quite so trim. Guest buy-in to water and electricity saving will come relatively easy if you can talk about your hotel’s commitment to the mitigation of adverse ecological effects. Recycling is now a very widely accepted concept, so tell your stakeholders about how you’re doing this, and ask for their help. And if there are major initiatives planned, then for sure reach out to everyone about what you are doing, and talk about it on your own website and across social media.
How SabeeApp help you walk the green path
Our Sabeeapp Property Management System and associated Smart Solutions makes the management of all hotel organisation more integrated and effective:
- Almost all hotel-guest communications and administration are automated and take place ‘in the cloud’, radically cutting down on paperwork and printing costs.
- A smoothly running PMS enables contactless check in and check out, further reducing paperwork (and making the experience a lot easier for guests and staff alike).
- Energy management can be centrally integrated using smart thermostats for automated temperature control based on occupancy, reducing energy consumption. Lighting can also be under the control of the system, based on room occupancy, or even ambient light conditions.
- Tracking resources and the supply chain becomes easier and more effective with a Property Management System where mining the data on every aspect of operations clearly shows trends and areas where leaner and greener practices can be developed. The more energy efficient equipment and initiatives are introduced in a hotel, the more a PMS can be used to monitor these and create automated performance reports. So whether it’s how well your hotel is composting, or what energy savings are being made, the data can all be available, at any time.
- A modern PMS also helps organise departmental activities, especially in housekeeping and maintenance, so that the most energy efficient and effective work is done through smart scheduling.
- Engaging with guests is always important, and in the area of ‘talking the walk’ about sustainability issues, there’s a great opportunity to tell guests what you are doing, and why. Guest engagement over green issues is a steadily rising trend, and good communication will help ride the wave. Tell your sustainability story and promote and track guest participation in green programmes, such as carbon offset initiatives or donation schemes for local environmental causes. Dialogue is always great, and green dialogue is very ‘now’.
Sustainable hotel practices can be achieved at many different levels, and by committing to a green programme and leveraging ecologically friendly initiatives, hoteliers can enhance their hotel’s reputation, improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and appeal to environmentally conscious travellers. Yes, there are many challenges around the greening of hotels, and sustainability requires a holistic approach, combining technological innovation, strategic investment, staff engagement, and guest participation. Please do get in touch so we can show you the features, benefits and sustainability features of SabeeApp.