HOTEL FIRST AID KIT ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY

AND WHY YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS IT

HOTEL FIRST AID KIT

INTRODUCTION

This is intended to be used as a guide to help hotels become more eco-friendly. It is a common misconception that this move will be costly to the business with little benefit to the establishment itself, with this FIRST AID KIT, I hope to disprove

this. Ensuring the environment is used sustainably will keep the Hospitality Industry alive for many generations to come. I ask you to read this guide with an open mind so that you can draw as much from it as possible.

INDEX

WHY WOULD YOU WANT YOUR ESTABLISHMENT TO BECOME MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE? WHAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL COST NOTHING BUT WILL HAVE ONE OF THE GREATEST IMPACTS WHAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL COST VERY LITTLE BUT CAN BE IMPLEMENTED ALMOST IMMEDIATELY WHAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL COST QUITE A LOT BUT WILL NEED SERIOUS CONSIDERATION BEFORE AN INVESTMENT SHOULD BE MADE CONCLUSION IMAGE RESOURCES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The following are places where more information can be found on this topic. This document was produced while consulting some of these places along with my own opinions and ideas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_tourism

http://www.apexhotels.co.uk/environmnet

http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/challenge/learn_more/Hotel.pdf

http://www.green-business.co.uk/GreenBusiness_Introduction.asp

http://www.greenhotels.com

http://www.greenlodgingnews.com

http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2005_2nd/Jun05_EnergyCosts.html

http://www.hotel-online.com/Trends/PanAmerProceedingsMay99/EnviroManagmt.html

http://www.isr.gov.au/energybestpractice

http://www.jpmorganclimatecare.com

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0007-070X.htm

http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=218&pa=2546&pg=3466 (Here are a few relevant case studies where these (and many other) eco-friendly techniques have been used with great success in improving the hotel’s efficiency and overall effect on the environment.)

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HOTEL FIRST AID KIT

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WHY WOULD YOU WANT YOUR ESTABLISHMENT TO BECOME MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE?

Environmental Sustainability, in terms of the hospitality industry, is the ability of the industry to maintain a balance in what it takes from the environment (and gives to the environment) so that it will still be able to supply that resource to future generations.

We are not trying to change you as a business. The aim of this is to improve the services you offer through increased efficiency with focus on this efficiency’s effect on the environment!

The proposed improvements will have the following benefits on your business:

The long-term value of your business will increase since you will be making an investment that will make the whole establishment more efficient in terms of the resources it uses (electricity, water, produce, etc). This improved efficiency means that the business will pay less for these services than before. A small investment now means that the business will make an increased profit for an extensive period of time and the investment will pay for itself shortly after its introduction.

The amount of waste produced by the establishment will decrease tremendously.

Guests will return because they will feel that they are being patrons to an establishment that

fulfils their expectations of the business looking after the environment. This, in turn, improves the experience they have while at your establishment.

New customers will be drawn in as the establishment’s image improves in the public’s eye.

The over-all quality of the services you provide also increases as they all run in the most optimal

way possible.

The local community will benefit since there is a push to purchase locally produced goods in order to minimize damage to the environment through transport, packaging, etc.

Through the integration of these proposed ideas, your business will be at the forefront of

environmental sustainability in the hospitality industry. It will set a benchmark that competing establishments will have to meet in order to not lose customers to your improved services; which will be of a much higher standard than most high end establishments are currently.

The natural environment will be enhanced by your efforts and this will draw in new patrons as

well as return-patrons.

Your establishment will receive a lot of free publicity because the efforts of businesses to aid Environmental Sustainability is publicised a lot in many different forms of media. This will make people aware of your business if maybe they weren’t aware before. This will also ensure that the people who really care about global warming (and all the other related issues) will hear of your business and will quite possibly spread word about it to people abroad (if the media has not done so already).

Ultimately, any benefit your establishment makes to the environment, results in the conservation of resources.

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WHAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL COST NOTHING BUT WILL HAVE ONE OF THE GREATEST IMPACTS

The simplest things for your establishment involves a little more effort from staff but will cost you nothing!

MAINTENANCE! This is the single, most important thing you could possibly do to make your business more environmentally friendly while at the same time ensuring that your business operates at maximum efficiency. Leaking toilets and taps result in huge water loss and therefore an increased water bill for you.

If you provide the service of placing a newspaper in the hotel room, change this practice to one where the patron has to request to have the newspaper. This will save paper as only the people wanting to read the newspaper will read it. You should also notice that fewer newspapers will have to be purchased and this will be a benefit to the business.

Make bulk purchases. When you purchase items for your business, it is essential that you buy in bulk. Besides it making the product cheaper for you and less travel is required to transport the goods (this means fewer CO2 emissions which means you help save the planet).

When making the above mentioned bulk purchases, ask your supplier to use the minimal amount of packaging required, this means fewer environmentally harmful plastics are produced and less waste is accumulated by your establishment which means you produce a reduced amount of rubbish. Most times the reduced packaging will be of a recyclable nature so you will be helping in this way as well.

Make a push for the chefs to use more local produce, most times the produce will be cheaper for you and there will be less travel involved which reduces CO2 emissions. This can be used for beverages, meat, fruit, vegetables and even dairy products.

When you are hosting business people, your staff should make the suggestion that they carry out conference calls as opposed to travelling to meet with whomever. This will reduce travel and less CO2 will be emitted, which is a harmful greenhouse gas produced by the burning of fuel. CO2 raises global temperatures.

You should ensure that staff regularly backwash and clean the pools and hot tubs because this will ensure good filtration and fewer harmful and expensive chemicals will be needed to keep these working at an optimum level.

At night, you should make sure your staff turns off all the TVs and gym equipment. This will ensure that less electricity is used, which means fewer CO2 emissions and a reduced electricity bill for your business.

Within the restaurants at your establishment you

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could make it common practice that instead of putting water jugs on all the tables, that it be put on request by the patrons. This will reduce water wastage.

You could institute a plan, for when the patrons checkout, where your staff ask them if they would like to pay a ‘Carbon Offset’. Your staff would have to explain to them that this is a way for them to take responsibility to actively reduce their carbon emissions through an organisation called ClimateCare. If the patron were to agree, your staff would ask them about their travel arrangements to and from your hotel and input the necessary information into a carbon calculator on their website which would calculate the amount of carbon emitted during their travels and a charge of £7.50

(excluding VAT) is made for each ton of CO2. You would add this to their bill and pay their offset for them. The offset is used to help ClimateCare fund initiatives around the world which have to do with wind power, hydro power, renewable biomass, human energy and efficient stoves. In this way the patron pays off their ‘carbon debt’ to the earth by avoiding the emission of green house gases in other parts of the world. Your patron would receive a certificate for their effort.

You should fill north-facing rooms first in winter because they will be warmer and patrons will be less likely to use the heating. In summer you should fill south-facing rooms first since they will be cooler and the patrons are less likely to use the air-conditioning. This all saves electricity!

HOTEL FIRST AID KIT

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WHAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL COST VERY LITTLE AND CAN BE IMPLIMENTED ALMOST IMMEDIATELY

These improvements will have great effect, cost very little (when you look at the gains achieved) and can be applied quickly and easily!

Re-use towels – Institute a program where there is a sign placed in the bathroom that says something along the lines of, ‘If you want a fresh towel, leave your used one on the floor and we’ll replace it. Save Water. Save our planet.’ This will reduce costs in the amount of water used in the laundry and the purchase of detergents to clean the towels. This will also make the patron feel as if they are contributing to making your business environmentally sustainable.

The above can also be considered for bed linen depending on your current policy.

A coin/chip system could be implemented for car parking and coat checking. This will reduce wastage in paper and ink printout (which is a benefit to the environment as fewer trees are wasted and less print cartridges are thrown away).

Retired sheets can be used to make cloth laundry bags therefore being recycled.

An electrician could be called in to fit electricity monitors on the main power switches for each section of the hotel. The same could be done with the water systems so that you can monitor the consumptions daily so that they could be reduced.

Installation of compact fluorescent lamps and LED lights that have much longer life-spans, a much lower power consumption and which provide a much purer light in the pool, reading lamps in the rooms and all other possible places. These draw so much LESS power and last so much longer that they benefit the environment greatly because there will be less waste in electricity and fewer bulbs will be thrown away.

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Aerators could be installed on all taps; this ensures minimal water is wasted when taps are used. In public bathrooms infrared taps could be installed to ensure no one leaves a tap running and this has many hygiene benefits as germ transfer in minimised.

Shower roses could be replaced with low-flow shower heads so as to reduce water wastage in the shower.

Dual flush toilet units could be installed as they use half the amount of water as regular old toilets.

Dimmers could also be installed where possible to save electricity. They also help set the mood in the rooms and will add an extra touch of class to your establishment.

In the gym, for hikes, walks, (etc) you could provide the guest with a plastic, reusable bottle which they can refill so as to reduce the amount of water bottles they will throw away.

Toilet tank fill diverters could be installed in older toilets as they save about 3 litres per flush and cost about R10 each. That is a huge saving for a simple installation.

An electrician could fit a switch on all sliding doors so that when the sliding door is open, the air-conditioning cuts out so that electricity is not wasted in this way.

The person who manages the web site of the hotel could be asked to make the backgrounds on all of the pages black. This greatly reduces the amount of electricity used when someone is viewing your website. This could be explained on the site, along with all the other improvements you will make, to make your hotel more environmentally sustainable.

You could invest in hot tub and pool covers for night time so as to reduce water loss and to maintain a high water temperature. This means you will not have to fill the pools and hot tubs up as often, and you may not have to invest in a pool heating system (or would be able to make the pool heating system run for a shorter time to save electricity).

As an added aid to save water, flow restrictors could be placed in the taps and showerheads in conjunction with the aerators; this will ensure that a comfortable amount of water is used while making a maximum saving.

In the hotel rooms separate bins can be placed for organic rubbish, paper rubbish, plastic rubbish, (etc) so that they can be collected separately and sent off to the correct recycling plants.

Obsolete I.T. equipment can be donated to poor schools instead of being thrown away, this means landfills won’t be so heavily packed with old equipment and by recycling them, you are also helping a community.

If there is a spa at your hotel, investing in 100% natural products will be a much added benefit because people don’t

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mind paying a bit extra for a product that helps the environment.

If there is enough space on the property, allowing the chef to have an organic vegetable garden is a huge aid to the environment as no packaging and transport is needed. Customers will love the fact that the fresh produce is grown at the hotel and it will cost you much less to produce those vegetables than buying them.

A person could be hired with the express job of separating trash. They would have to go through the rubbish from all the parts of the hotel. It will be surprising for you when you see the amount of hotel property that will be recovered. Often towels, eating utensils, napkins, (etc) are accidentally thrown away. This person would save the business thousands of rands every month. At the same time, the environment will be saved by the separated trashing actually being recycled.

Consult your supplier that gets you all your cleaning products about purchasing environmentally friendly cleaning products – they might be a bit more expensive but with all the savings you would be making in other areas, the small price increase will be worth it because you won’t be causing any harm to the environment by using them.

HOTEL FIRST AID KIT

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WHAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL COST QUITE A LOT AND WILL NEED SERIOUS CONSIDERATION BEFORE

AN INVESTMENT SHOULD BE MADE

These improvements will cost the most. You will need to take into account the funds available to you and how this will ultimately benefit both you (the business) and the environment.

Ultraviolet lights could be installed in/by the pools and hot tubs to run for a few hours at night. This will greatly reduce the need for chemicals and will result in a much clearer pool which guests will love to swim in. The fewer chemicals you use, the better for the environment.

In the units of your hotel that don’t already have walk-in showers, it would be advised that you get built-in showers installed as it will encourage people to take showers, rather than baths (which save a lot of water). This is also something to consider when extending your buildings.

One option, if you have the funds and the space to set it up, is solar panels. They will supplement your electricity and Eskom will even give you a further discount for it. If this is too extreme you should consider installing solar geysers; a 200 litre one would cost about R13 000 and you will get a similar discount from Eskom for your efforts. Any form of solar power is very good for the environment because less electricity is needed from power stations that burn coal which releases carbon dioxide and other green house gases and pollutants.

If you were able to buy a ‘waste compactor’, you would be able to compact your rubbish so that it takes up less space and would therefore need less transportation to get it to processing. This means fewer emissions from trucks which is better for the environment.

A key card system could be introduced where the electricity of the room is connected to a card reader. The guest has to put their card into the reader if they want electricity – this is excellent for saving energy because absolutely no power is used when there is no one occupying the room. When people occupying the room leave to do something, they are required to take the card with them because it will be attached to the room’s key – this saves a lot of electricity because people can no longer leave their air-conditioning and lights on when they aren’t in the room.

Energy efficient windows are able to keep the temperature higher in winter and lower in summer. This is done through glazing of the windows and is something to consider when doing additional building and possibly for your colder, south-facing rooms.

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Any signage for your hotel could be rigged up to solar panels and batteries so that during the day they charge up their batteries which would be used to power the signs at night.

If you have lifts in your hotel, you should consider replacing them with energy efficient ones since these are often used and require a lot of power.

The installation of a building management system that keeps the temperature within the hotel constant would be a benefit because you would see what is the most comfortable and energy efficient temperature that people would be able to deal with. This is one of the most expensive ideas.

It is always wise to use natural light for as long as possible. When considering new building prospects, a design that incorporates larger windows will achieve this effect, thus allowing the patrons to use natural light during the day rather than artificial light. Any time you use less electricity it is a benefit for the environment!

CONCLUSION

CONGRATULATIONS!

YOU’RE ON YOUR WAY TO BECOMING AN

HOTEL

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IMAGE RESOURCES

These are the links where all the images used in this document can be found. They are listed in order of appearance starting with the cover page.

http://www.eqgroup.com/images/green_globe.jpg

http://www.heartlandsteamcleaning.com/HLSC/images_HLSC/recycle.jpg

http://woodsplumbinganddrainage.com.au/uploads/images/man-fix-toilet.jpg

http://www.southafricanfoodwholesaledistributors.com/sathumbs2w.gif

http://www.gardenandhousehold.co.uk/userimages/Pool_cleaning.JPG

http://www.jpmorganclimatecare.com/

http://www.countryinns.com/chi/images/hotels/TNHOLLOW/couple%20at%20desk%20(450%20x%20300).jpg

http://www.mwdh2o.com/mwdh2o/pages/publications/brochures/brochure_thumbnails/lg_photos/tent_card.jpg

http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/09/29/b_d_power.jpeg

http://www.duluthtrading.com/services/image.aspx?path=/media/images/products/42140/42140.jpg&width=250&height=250

http://kitchensync.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54f087cd78834010536c32d5b970b-800wi

http://www.luxuryhousingtrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/brondell-perfect-flush-dual-flush-toilet.jpg

http://www.greennio.com/images/pro_water_2.jpg

http://www.nuprana.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/fill%20cycle%20diverter%20picture.jpg

http://www.poolcenter.com/in_ground_pool_covers.jpg

http://www.recyclingbins.co.nz/images/bin_hotel.jpg

http://pro.corbis.com/images/UG002391.jpg?size=67&uid={F3F53D92-96A9-4BBD-A272-933D2B605AE4}

http://dieline.typepad.com/blog/images/2007/11/18/getclean1.jpg

http://halmapr.com/news/hanovia/files/2007/04/uv-chamber-pool-water-blog.jpg

http://www.naturalvisions.co.za/Pictures/Geyser.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1032/853926573_47b796ca7e.jpg

http://images.frontdoor.com/FDOOR/articles/Architecture-Images/Contemporary.jpg

http://www.monumentvalleyview.com/images/Eco-friendlyGreen.jpg