Environmental Innovations vs the Space Program Innovations
The environment is a hot topic these days. My focus is on green hospitality -- hotels, restaurants, cruise ships, golf courses, and spas being examples. Through innovation, environmental problems can be resolved, money saved and jobs created. Environmental innovation leads to jobs of all kinds, even environmental jobs. Environmentally friendly hotels can lead the way in greening of the hospitality industry.
Recently I had dinner with several NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) engineers. The conversation bounced among topics like politics, space, sports, the environment, weather, and the internet. It was an invigorating conversation, or set of conversations.
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Green Hotels Branch Out Again
The Prince Albert II Of Monaco Foundation and The Fairmont Hotels have joined forces to take their respective sustainable plans further into Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. Both organizations have strong environmental commitments and this alliance will strengthen both of their goals.
Environmentally friendly hotels have taken a huge step forward recently. When the Fairmont Hotels teamed up with the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation to take sustainable measures further into Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Green hotels and eco travelers can further this effort by doing more and asking more of others. Energy and water conservation, climate change and biodiversity are important issues we all need to face and work together on to make the world a better place.
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AHLA Surveying Hotels for Green Actions
I've heard that AHLA (American Hotel and Lodging Association) is working on a green hotel certification program. It seems to be making progress because I just read about their information gathering efforts. Not only are they surveying their 9,500-ish members, but also they are donating money to a green cause in exchange for the returned surveys. Their adopted green cause is the National Arbor Day Foundation, a worthy organization.
AH&LA is taking yet another step towards finalizing their environmentally friendly hotel certification program. Responding to their member survey not only earns money for the National Arbor Day Foundation but also provides valuable information for AHLA's green hotels program and gives the responding member hotel a marketing opportunity. That's turning green to gold!
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Balancing Choices in Your Life
I just returned from a ten-day car trip. We drove my hybrid SUV -- a Mercury Mariner -- to San Antonio and back to western Colorado. What a comfortable car it was to for drive such a long distance; it was much more comfortable than my Forester had been (and I loved that car). Since this Mariner is a relatively new car to me I enjoyed learning about its various features, but mostly the balance between good gas mileage and speed.
Environmentally friendly hotels, restaurants and other hospitality venues have tough choices to make in greening their operations. My hybrid SUV taught me more about that than I had been aware before. It's your turn to learn how to think about the best way to help green the hospitality industry.
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Debating the Value of Green Hotels
My friend Glenn Hassek, publisher of Green Lodging News, a weekly ezine about the green hotel industry, sent me the link to an article about green travel and greenwashing in the hospitality industry. The title of the article was "Does Green Travel Offset Emissions.... or Just Your Guilt?" and had some interesting points to make. However, I also felt the author was jabbing at green efforts, starting with my green hotels website, without reading about the purpose of the site or talking to me.
Are green hotels making a difference and are they really green? This running discussion ties in nicely with my article on greenwashing in the hospitality industry published here in early April, 2008. Greenwashing can be an effort to obfuscate one's lack of green action, or it can be to promote some hidden agenda. Either way, when your environmental actions aren't above board, they do an injustice to those who are serious about making an environmental difference.
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Green To Gold, for the Hospitality Industry
I could say it all began in 1992 with the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit, but that'd be like saying Al Gore invented the internet. But, as Al helped focus and forward the nascent internet so the Earth Summit helped focus on environmental issues and forward their cause. Daniel Esty and Andrew S Winston review in Green to Gold what works, show environmental issues are real and pressing, and illustrate that the potential rewards are great as they blaze a trail for managers and executives toward a healthier planet and stronger businesses in their book. This article summarizes their work with the hospitality industry in mind.
The hospitality industry is behind the Green Wave; it's not doing enough to develop a sustainable or environmentally sound business approach. In Green to Gold, by Daniel W Esty and Andrew S Winston, you can discover what your business can do to develop an environmental culture and green program. Become a WaveRider in the hospitality industry.
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Are You Green Washing?
As a hospitality venue are your communications to your staff and the public fact or fiction? Are you "green marketing" or "green washing"?
Being a green hotel or restaurant isn't just a marketing ploy -- not in the long run. Hospitality venues need to avoid green washing to preserve their reputation. If you say you are green, you better be or the traveling public will avoid doing business with you, the opposite of what you are striving for when you announce your green actions.
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