The hospitality industry should do more to promote eco-friendliness and environmental awareness. While some hotels do try to go the extra mile to meet this new reality, too many still don’t seem to see the benefit of it.
But there are many benefits to going green that shouldn’t be overlooked. Not only does it reduce your hotel’s impact on the environment, but it also enhances your brand and can attract a whole new host of clients who are environmentally conscious. Fortunately, going green doesn’t have to be difficult and affect your budget. Here are a few tips you can use to improve your hotel’s sustainability.
Get the guests into it
You could encourage your guests to participate in your efforts to go green by getting them involved. Guests have a huge impact on sustainability. Just think about the energy used in cooling and heating and simple things like using towels for instance. All these factors are controlled directly by guests, and they can play a vital role in reducing their environmental impact.
But one thing you don’t want to do is force your initiatives on your guest. Instead, try to give them simple reminders that could influence their actions. For instance, you could plant a few cards around the room educating them on the consumption of electricity and water and their effects on the environment.
For example, you can encourage them to use their towels more than once. Laundry accounts for a large part of any hotel’s energy consumption and water needs, and just doing the small bit could have a huge impact on not only your energy footprint but utility costs as well.
Replace plastic bags with other alternatives
Another way to reduce your carbon footprint is by using cloth and recyclable bags instead of plastic ones. Plastic waste can be easily reduced by using cloth laundry bags and will cost much less in the long run compared to plastic bags. Not only that, cloth laundry bags are more durable as compared to its counterpart.
If your hotel has a restaurant or shop, try buying reusable grocery bags in bulk and replace all take-out plastic bags with them. Not only are they reusable, but they can also be branded and used as a promotional item your guest will often use after their stay.
Replace showerheads and go for low flush toilets
Water consumption largely depends on the type of equipment you’re using. Showerheads are one of the biggest culprits, and doing something as simple as replacing them with low flow water heads could make a world of difference. The difference in apparent water flow is hardly noticeable. Low flush toilets are also a great way to reduce water consumption.
These methods are pretty simple to implement and great for reducing your energy consumption and impact on the environment; not to mention, the reduced energy bills.