HOTELS

Ray Burger

Keeping Your Hotel Green
August 4, 2008

Guest awareness of property-initiated green programs declined significantly in 2008, with 57% of guests stating they were aware that their hotel offered environmentally friendly conservation programs, compared with 63% in 2007, according to the recently released J.D. Power and Associates 2008 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study.

I don’t know if 6% is significant or not, but for the purposes of this discussion, let’s say that the trend is not going in a positive direction.

What could be the reasons for this decline in guest awareness of hotels’ conservation efforts?

Some of the answer(s) may be in a May 20 Deloitte survey, which finds that Business Travelers Go Green on the Road, Have Specific Expectations of Hotels. How does your hotel measure up in these areas?

The top five environmental actions business travelers expect lodging facilities to be taking are (in order):

• Recycling (77%)
• Using energy-efficient lighting (74%)
• Using energy-efficient windows (59%)
• Placing cards in rooms to let guests request that sheets/towels not be changed (52%)
• Using environmentally safe cleaning products (49%)

Each day for the next three days we’ll take a look at 3 of the top 5 (and probably the most obvious to guests) environmental actions that business travelers expect lodging facilities to be taking.

For today, let’s look at recycling.

Recycling Facts and Figures

• In 1999, recycling and composting activities prevented about 64 million tons of material from ending up in landfills and incinerators. Today, the United States recycles 32.5% of its waste, a rate that has almost doubled during the past 15 years.

• While recycling has grown in general, recycling of specific materials has grown even more drastically: 52% of all paper, 31% of all plastic soft drink bottles, 45% of all aluminum beer and soft drink cans, 63% of all steel packaging, and 67% of all major appliances are now recycled.

• 20 years ago, only one curbside recycling program existed in the United States. By 2006, about 8,660 curbside programs had sprouted up across the nation. As of 2005, about 500 materials recovery facilities had been established to process the collected materials.

Source:  United States EPA

Most of what I have read over the past several years indicates that recycling is the most widely adopted environmental initiative consumers implement in their homes. Most studies conclude that more than 50% of all U.S. consumers recycle to some degree.

Hotels can improve their recycling efforts by either implementing an effective guestroom recycling program and/or by improving communication with guests about how the recyclables are managed by the hotel.

Perhaps a YouTube-style video of the hotel's practices could be placed on the hotel Web site or as part of an environmental practices video as one of the in-house entertainment options.

Posted by Ray Burger on August 4, 2008 | Comments (1)