Hotels Are Falling in Line With the Environmental Trend
The world is going green and there is nothing that we can do about it. Companies that are refusing to get with the times risk losing a lot of business and proof positive of this is the environmental trend that many of the large hotel companies are starting to follow. An industry that was one epitomized by waste is quickly becoming a leader in how to create a better environment in the business world.
While there was a time when recycling and other safe environment practices cost companies more than they had the chance of saving, those days have long since passed. Recycling and renewable energy is now more cost efficient than ever and big business is realizing that it is not only good for the environment, but it good for the bottom line as well.
In regards to the travel niche, the hotel industry was the biggest pig of them all. Housekeepers would sweep through rooms and put every towel, sheet and blanket in the laundry basket and replace everything regardless if it was used or not. Rooms had lamps everywhere you looked that were always on and always sucking up a ton of energy. Well all of that has changed.
One of the first things that the hotel industry did to show that their environment trend was changing was to rethink how they did the sheet and towel changing policy. Now, instead of everything being automatically replaced, they leave it up to the guest to ask for things to be changed and for towels to be replaced. If just 20% of the guests do this, the water and energy saving are monumental.
Energy savings have also started to increase in the hotel industry. Hotels used to have every bulb in the house burning to show that they were open. As a matter of fact, one hotel company used “We’ll leave the light on” as their slogan. Today, old light bulbs have been replaced with energy saving bulbs and room lights are kept off. Again, this affects their bottom line and saves vast amounts of energy.
Recycling is something else that has been introduced to the hotel industry in a wide range scale. 10 years ago you could pull into any hotel back lot and see nothing but trash dumpsters that were packed with everything imaginable. Today, there are dumpsters for cardboard, bottles, plastics and of course, the regular trash. The difference is that they are now separating things on property and the rather large amounts of trash that they used to generate has been lessened because of concentrated effort to recycle.
Outside lighting is another facet of a hotel that is a must, but that generated a lot of energy waste. Current hotels are making use of solar technology and lighting their pools and parking lots with solar power. While it may cost a little more to install, they will end up paying for themselves in a very short period of time and then the hotel in not burning energy to light up their perimeter.
In order for the new environmental trend to be successful, Corporate America is going to have to play a large part in it. It is a very positive sign to see the hotel industry make such a huge step to make this successful. Energy saving programs, recycled programs and using recycled products will go a long way in making the environment safer and in setting a fine example for other industries to follow.