As a hotel, in a world of increasing climate upheavel, you have the opportunity and responsibility to your guests to provide a sustainable eco-tourism experience. Eco-friendly solutions being implemented in your hotel or tourism business can help you do your part to reduce your carbon footprint and your operational expenditure. There are many easy ways to make your hotel more sustainable, and we’ve compiled a list of some of the best tips to get you started.
1. Replace Standard lights with LED Lighting
Use LED Lighting: One of the quickest and easiest ways to make your hotel more eco-friendly is to switch to LED lighting. LED lights use less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs, which means they’ll save you money on your energy bill while also reducing your carbon footprint. You can switch out all the light bulbs in your hotel, or just use LED bulbs in common areas like hallways and lobbies. Furthermore, incorporating motion sensors into your lighting means lights are only activated when needed, and this can significantly reduce your electricity costs.
2. Implement a Recycling Program
Many hotels don’t have recycling programs, but it’s something guest are beginning to expect. You can make it easy for guests by having bins in each room and common areas for paper, plastic, and glass. On the operational side, you can also recycle items like toner cartridges, batteries, and lightbulbs.
3. Use Green Cleaning Products
Another way to be more sustainable is to use cleaning products that are good for the environment. There are many eco-friendly cleaning products on the market that are just as effective as traditional chemicals but don’t harm the environment. We suggest doing some research and switching to green cleaning products throughout your hotel.
4. Become Environmentally Aware
Educate Your Staff and Guests: One of the most important things you can do is educate your staff and guests about sustainability efforts at your hotel. Let them know what you’re doing to be more eco-friendly and how they can help by conserving resources like water and electricity. You can post signs in common areas or include information in your welcome packet.
5. Be Persistent and Consistent
Track Your Progress: Once you start implementing eco-friendly solutions, it’s important to track your progress so you can see what’s working and where you can improve. There are many ways to track your progress, but we recommend setting up a system to track, for example, how much electricity, water, and gas you’re using on a monthly basis. This will help you gauge your progress and see where you need to make changes.
Hotels and other hospitality establishments will need to make significant changes in order to be successful in the future. These changes include becoming more sustainable and eco-friendly. This means making changes in the way they operate, from the way they source their materials to how they dispose of waste. There are a number of ways hotels can make these changes, and many of them are cost-effective and can even save the business money in the long run. Many of these changes also have the added benefit of making the hotel more comfortable for guests, such as using natural light and ventilation instead of artificial lights and air conditioning. Making these changes may seem daunting at first, but with a little planning and effort, any hotel can become more sustainable and eco-friendly.
It will also make your hotel an easier first choice to the ever growing number of discerning travellers.
