Category: Daily Operations
Irritating Your Guests
As western cultures adopt more chemicals into society in the way of air fresheners, fire retardants, finishes for construction and furnishings, herbicides and pesticides, and cleaning products (for both buildings and people), humans are suffering the consequences. The biggest consequence is increased allergies and sensitivities to the chemicals around them. Those are irritating consequences.
The best way to quit irritating your guests is to remove as many chemicals as possible from your hospitality operations. Get rid of sodium lauryl sulfate, fabric softeners and air fresheners, and finishes with VOCs (volatile organic compounds). There are great alternatives available to you, so use them and have happier guests.
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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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Guestroom Glass Grossness
Back in February 2005 I reported on a Fort Worth hotel that didn't clean glasses properly by running them through a dishwasher or other health department approved sanitation system. The glasses were "sanitized" in the room, leaving cleaning gel and towel lint in the glasses. Gross!
We've all seen it without knowing that's what we are seeing -- dirty drinking glasses in our hotel rooms. An investigative for Fox News Atlanta taped housekeepers washing wine glasses, drinking glasses and coffee mugs in the bathroom sink, not in the kitchen dishwasher.
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To Line or Not To Line
Garbage bags are an environmental nightmare. What can you do to minimize your contribution to this horror? Recycling is one great way. Contact your local recycling centers to see what kind of recycling activities you can do. Use durable wastebaskets without liners. Subscribe to the Reduce-Reuse-Recycle approach to your operation to cut down on garbage generation. When you have to use trash or garbage bags, use a recyclable plastic.
I had the pleasure at staying at a green hotel in Austin, Texas, recently. I'd long been impressed with the lengths management went to for running an environmentally friendly hotel. Solar panels, salt purification of the pool and spa, organic and edible gardens rather than grass, bulk shampoo and conditioner, and recycling being among the green actions Habitat Suites takes. And when I met Natalie Marquis at a green hotel conference in February 2006 I was wowed by her energy and enthusiasm. She's a ball of energy and a force to be reckoned with, as the city of Austin has learned during their various joint environmental projects.
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Fragrance Free Hospitality
Masking an odor with a fragrance doesn't fix the problem, it makes it worse, from a health perspective. Many of the fragrances strive to mimic natural fragrance oils, but they miss the mark. The problem is there are so many sources of fragrance -- fragrance lamps, men's and women's fragrances, and cheap fragrance fillers in cleaning materials -- that people with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) are suffering everywhere they go. People without a history of allergies, asthma or MCS are starting to experience problems. This problem is contributing the sick building syndrome that was recognized years ago.
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StainSolver For Your Cleaning Needs
Cleaning requirements are diverse in hotels, restaurants and any hospitality property. You can have one product for each type of cleaning project you have, or you can have one product that will take care of most of your needs and is safe for your employees, your guests and the environment. Saving money and storage space is great too.
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Carbon Dioxide and Carbon Offsets
Carbon dioxide is a major component of the greenhouse effect and contributor to global warming. The effects of carbon dioxide are subtle and highly disputed among scientists, but they are impacting the environment in a variety of ways. Carbon offsetting, or Green Tags, is one way to become carbon neutral. Supporting "green" energy sources, the alternative power sources like solar, wind, or small hydro installations through Green Tag -- or Carbon Offsetting -- programs will help balance the effects of carbon emissions.
I see myself as an environmentalist who walks her talk daily. I conserve water and fuels. I recycle as much as I can in my rural area. We built an energy efficient home and have installed a photo-voltaic system that produces more than half of our electric needs. And I drive a fuel efficient car, conserving on my trips as much as possible. Last, I'm a consultant who helps hospitality businesses reduce their impact on the environment, emphasizing ways they can do so at low or no cost -- or even actually make money by being "green". I thought I was doing lots to save the environment.
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Environmental Issues Ignored
Wasteful business practices not only harm the company, but often can also harm the environment. Water conservation, environmentally friendly cleaning products, recycling, energy conservation -- they are all actions that can save money and the environment. These actions help define your public relations, and anyone can use good PR over bad PR. Greening of the hospitality industry is a growing movement, hotels and restaurants that adopt environmental actions are ahead of the game in both attracting and retaining guests, and saving money as well as the environment.
I travel a bit in my line of work. I tend to witness some awareness of environmental issues by every hotel and many restaurants. Until this weekend. I stayed in a hotel that didn't even pretend to care about the environment!
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Bamboo Sheets
If you are looking for organic, natural fiber bed sheets, consider bamboo. It's durable, soft, silky, and breathes. You can buy bamboo bed sheets and sheet sets in a variety of sizes, ranging from king-size to twin, and a few muted colors. And more stores are carrying them, both online and in their stores. Bamboo sheets wash well. They feel great. And because they breathe, sleep is restful and comfortable. Treat your guests and yourself like royalty by buying 100 p.rcent bamboo fiber sheets.
While attending a bed and breakfast conference recently, I visited Inn Style in the vendor section to investigate what they had in the way of organic cotton sheets. Instead, I found organic bamboo sheets. The sheets I found are 100 percent bamboo fiber sheets, not a bamboo/cotton blend.
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Chemical-free Cleaning
By: The Frugal Decorating Diva!
You'll be surprised how easy it is to clean without using strong chemicals or ingredients that are bad for the environment, and for your employees. These recipes were found by a woman with severe allergies. She needed to find cleaning solutions that didn't set those allergies off; these have been tried and tested by her for years. I have found the following recipes and techniques effective ways of having a clean home and controlled allergies.
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National Park Consessioner Green Certification
National Park lodging is some of the greenest in the country. The hotels in the Grand Tetons National Park are among the first in the U.S. to attain ISO 14001 certification and have an active program in place to continually improve on their green program. They recycle, conserve water and energy, buy sustainable building materials, participate in renewable energy by purchasing wind-generated energy, and sell green items in their gift shops. Enjoy the natural beauty of the Wyoming's Tetons Range and make a minimal impact on the environment by staying at the Grand Teton Lodging Company's hotels.
What do you get when you make your environmental program the foundation of your hospitality operations? You get Grand Teton Lodge Company. It is the only National Park concessioner to partner with Leave Not Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics and one of the first lodging companies in the U.S. to achieve ISO 14001 certification.
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Florida's Hotels Encouraged to Go Green
| Conservation of water and energy, as well as air quality, are some of the features of the Florida Green Lodging Program. There are a variety of environmental issues that the state of Florida is addressing through its lodging program because they recognize that if the environment, the feature that attracts so many tourists to spend lots of money, is destroyed then tourism is destroyed too. That's a reality everywhere. If tourism is a major industry in a state, that state had better start protecting the environment by implementing a green hotel program along with other green programs. |
What makes a hotel green? That was a question asked me recently by an environmental journalist who was doing an article on green hotels; specifically Florida's green hotel program.
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Corporate Social Responsibility
Environmental issues and sustainability are becoming increasingly common aspects of business. How close to "the tipping point" are we? How strong a notion is corporate social responsibility?
There are five signs, according to Green@Work Magazine, that sustainability is close to its tipping point (check out the book "Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell that explores the concept). There are indications that the corporate mind set is starting to shift. The article on the Green@Work site is written by Bob Willard, author of "Five Signs that Sustainability's Tipping Point is Close" and "The Sustainability Advantage: Seven Business Case Benefits of a Triple Bottom Line".
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Waste Reduction
Recycling in the hospitality industry is important in general, but more so because it's an inherently wasteful industry. Recycling containers placed around the property will encourage guests and staff alike to help reduce the waste stream going to landfills. That effort will lower operating costs and benefit the environment too. Recycle what you can and be surprised by how little you put in the garbage.
A writer for the "Las Vegas Advisor" contacted me about hotels that operate with the chemically sensitive guest in mind. A chemically sensitive guest is one who suffers from contact with a wide range of chemicals including laundry detergents and fabric softeners, cleaning supplies, perfumed products, off gassing of petrochemical products found in paints, carpets, and various finishes, as well as dust, mold and mildew.
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Towel/Sheet Reuse Program Savings
Saving money by instituting a hotel-wide towel and sheet reuse program is a smart business decision. It also conserves water and energy, helping environmental issues like water and energy shortages.
Most managers and consultants have never given it a thought or, if they have, don't really know the answer. And that answer is: Your lack of a towel/sheet reuse program is costing you.
I spoke to the at the annual conference of the International Hospitality of Consultants earlier this month, the topic being "A Look to the Future: Greening of the Hospitality Industry". One burning question was how much are hotels saving with a towel/sheet re-use program. The "logic" I used in generically talking about the water, energy, laundry supply, and labor savings wasn't persuasive enough for them to fully understand the real cost savings that can be realized; an average-sized hotel of 150 guestrooms can save (6,000 gallons of water monthly and 40 gallons of laundry supplies monthly). Those kinds of statistics wouldn't satisfy their curiosity because they wanted to know how much money is saved.
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Green Cleaning
Are your cleaning practices killing you, your employees, and your guests? Yes, if you are using toxic chemicals! No, if you are using non-toxic products in an environmentally friendly cleaning program.
There are cleaning products you should use that won't harm your guests or the environment. Be your project cleaning windows, carpet cleaning, laundry, or bathroom cleaning, housekeeping will do as good a job without toxic chemicals and they'll avoid chemical reactions.
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