Mr. Slye

Eco-Friendly Practices

Going Green? Five Effective Practices That Don’t Impede on Guest Convenience

By Jeff Slye, Senior Consultant, Five Winds International

Anyone who has been in the hospitality industry for even a short period of time knows that virtually everything we do revolves around delivering the best guest experience possible. When we approach our businesses from this perspective and are effective at executing, the business is successful. This is no different when considering ‘green’ or eco related initiatives. Although there are some that still believe that ‘greenies’ will sacrifice comfort and convenience to stay in a ‘green’ hotel, the reality is that this is an extremely niche group. Most customers appreciate ‘green,’ but expect the same service and experience they’ve always received. As an illustration, a February 2010 survey by Whirlpool Corporation found the majority of consumers (68 percent) want to live "green" but only if it is convenient to their current lifestyle.

This sentiment of going green without sacrifice is echoed across all industries. As a result, hotel green initiatives must also find ways for supporting conservation at their properties and in a way that does not inconvenience the guest. For example, it is risky for a hotel to ask guests upon check-in if they would like to purchase a carbon off-set for their hotel stay. Although the spirit of the offer is appropriate in supporting a hotel’s sustainability goals, that offer may cater to some guests and actually turn off others who don’t want to be ‘sold to’ as they are checking in. The alternative approach would be to automatically make the guest’s stay carbon neutral and would be more akin to the Steigenberger Hotel in Berlin that decided to make all its meetings carbon neutral.

Therefore, today’s ‘greening’ efforts should be seamless or even enhance the customer experience. The good news is that today, more than ever, there are plenty of products and knowledge sharing around best practices that provide hotels with a long list of options to embrace in achieving this goal. Below are five items to consider.

1) Honor bar organic and healthy food and beverage options

Today there are many options to choose from including ‘junk food’ items that are made with organic and natural ingredients. Since ‘junk food’ is what really sells, finding alternatives is important. Steve Pinetti, SVP of Sales and Marketing from Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants and leader of their EarthCare initiative says, “Our EarthCare program from day one was designed to maintain and enhance the customer experience of our hotels. When we incorporated organic and healthy honor bar products such as Clif Bars, Organic Kettle Chips, and Dagoba chocolates, not only did it expand our own sustainability efforts, but it also deepened our connection with our guests and their sustainability values.”

2) Forming an internal green committee

Although a green committee is not a product or practice, once a strong committee is established hotels quickly find that they will uncover opportunities and generate new ideas for the hotel to have a lighter touch on the planet while maintaining the guest experience. Pat Maher, AH&LA’s Green Guru emphasizes the importance of this step, “forming an environmental committee is the most important and first step in achieving an environmentally friendly hotel.”

3) LED exit lights

Lighting today is getting a lot of attention and typically the conversation revolves around CFLs. However, there is another area of lighting that is on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week that may be less interesting, but yet is still important to address. These are the exit lights that you see in hallways, doorways, and other public areas. Converting these lights to LED has no impact on the guest and can have a greater than 60% reduction in energy use for these lights and save hotels hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars within the first year.

4) Composting Made Easy

One of the typical arguments against composting is “We don’t have composting here.” Of course, this is an area never seen by a guest, but can have a huge impact on the hotel’s green credentials as food waste can make up more than 40% of a hotel’s waste stream, especially those with food and conference services. Today there are several on-site composting machines and organic matter processing machines that can solve this problem, translating into bottom line savings by reducing the waste stream. As an example The Inverness Hotel in Colorado, as part of Destination Hotels and Resorts’ Destination Earth program, is working with A1 Organics to try out a ‘To-Go’ composting service. The hotel currently has 15 composting bins throughout the kitchen that staff can toss in any food waste product (meats, bones) or paper-based trash (egg cartons, milk cartons, paper plates) and A1 Organics will handle the composting.

5) Automate linen reuse program

Linen reuse programs have been around since the 70s and everyone knows they originated as a way to save money, but if the end result is using less resources and happy customers does it really matter? However, these programs can be an annoyance to guests, but there are opportunities to take this program to the next level and completely take the guest out of the equation. As an example, many W hotels don’t even present a linen reuse option. They just automatically check if they are dirty or will automatically change them every third day.

The above provide some easy and simple ways to take action in furthering a hotel’s green efforts without any impact to the guest experience. In fact, in many cases they provide added convenience to the guest, which is yet another way to enhance the hotels service offering. Of course, there are more actions that can be taken, such as green cleaning chemicals, implementing in-room recycling, and installing occupancy sensors. There is also more to do in fundamentally reducing the ecological impact of hotels. However, the sustainable path cannot be done at once and every step helps, especially those that guests may never hear or see.

Jeff Slye is a Senior Consultant with Five Winds International and has fifteen years of consulting and software solutions expertise and has led and created sustainability initiatives for organizations across the United States and Canada. Mr. Slye is a specialist within the hospitality industry and has worked with over 100 hotels and restaurants, including Kimpton Hotels and Restaurants and Destination Hotels and Resorts and is currently a member of the American Hotel and Lodging Association's Sustainability Task Force. Mr. Slye was formerly CEO of Business Evolution Consulting, a sustainability consulting firm. Mr. Slye can be contacted at 415-871-1932 or j.slye@fivewinds.com Extended Bio...

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