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Hospitality creates 15% of the UK’s greenhouse emissions, so hotels and B&Bs should be looking to make changes wherever possible, as the government has committed to Net Zero by 2050.
After all, leisure and business travellers prioritise sustainability: 87% of travellers want to travel sustainably, according to booking.com – and while there are some elements to travel that are bound to build a carbon footprint, small tweaks can be made in the traveller journey that can bring genuine joy.
It’s something we’ve often discussed with our hotel clients. How do hotels make simple changes that make a difference, and then communicate their sustainability initiatives? Here are a few ideas:
If your hotel isn’t using LED lighting, there is just one question. Why not? Softer ambient lighting makes a genuine difference to a customer stay and the Carbon Energy Trust says that costs can be reduced by up to 50% by installing and implementing controlled lighting.
LEDs can reduce the cost by up to 70%! Sensors are a great way to ensure lights are turned off when not used and the keycards that control lights allow customers to support with this in a natural way.
Nobody wants the big light on, anyway. Low lights are the future and guests can be encouraged to keep the lighting low with a simple message at check-in.
We work with a number of hotel chains who use our plantable Sprout pencils to communicate their sustainability commitments and steer customers away from plastic pens. Those plastic pens are often the typical gift in hotel rooms or conference settings, but by replacing them with one of our plantable pencils, clients are providing guests with a modern, original, and sustainable souvenir as well as a practical and useful alternative.
We’ve received very positive feedback. Guests remember to take them home and sometimes even send pictures of the sprouting pencils back to the hotel!
It doesn’t have to be a pencil, of course. Thoughtful gifts at events, conferences and hotels should be relevant, above all else, otherwise they could get thrown away, which is just wasteful. One of the most thoughtless promotional gifts I’ve received was a large “thank you for attending” umbrella at a trade fair in Dubai some years ago. It made little sense, as it hardly ever rains there, and the umbrella was too big for my hand luggage. It felt like a total waste of resources to see hundreds of umbrellas left at the exit, just waiting to be thrown away.
Fortunately, instead of generic gifts, companies are now experimenting with more personal or symbolic ways to show appreciation. It doesn’t have to be expensive to feel considered. Small details, like personalisation or a story behind the product, tend to matter more. We are seeing lots of our hotel clients work with other eco-friendly companies to offer smaller, well received gifts like toiletries, coffee cups and chocolate.
According to WRAP, the hospitality industry wastes the equivalent of 1.3 billion meals each year. 12% of the food is recycled, however 920,000 tonnes of food is still wasted and could have been eaten. The hotel industry is advised to always remember the three Ms by the Sustainability Hospitality Alliance (SHA) – measure, maximise and map. Using tools to measure food waste helps chefs keep on top of their waste and awareness is half the work.
Maximising as much of the food as possible is also valuable and something that is already managed throughout the industry. Mapping out the waste when planning the menu is the other recommendation: creativity and taste come top of course, but sustainability should also be in the minds of the kitchen team when first planning their meals. Sourcing food as locally as possible is also recommended.
Checking the eco-credentials of cleaning teams is vital. Non-toxic and eco-friendly cleaners should be used wherever possible. Guests can be encouraged to re-use towels and it is now standard to communicate this to guests in bathrooms by many hotel groups and owners.
Outdoor cleaning that is biodegradable and doesn’t aggressively damage stonework and decking is important too.
Having in-hotel bike share or cab share schemes is a great way to encourage your guests to get involved at the level that suits them. Internal and external displays can communicate any green credentials or achievements. A great example of this is the Scandic Sydhavnen hotel in Copenhagen. This stunning hotel wanted to help promote biodiversity in an area with heavy urban traffic. One of the most effective ways to do this is to encourage bees – a vital element of biodiversity that us currently under threat.
The hotel has therefore planted a field of bee-friendly flowers in the area outside its building – the ground is be covered with wildflowers, attracting the pollinators in what would otherwise be a challenging urban environment for them, providing an attractive landscape as well as an important role and message. That message was then carried on inside the hotel, where guests were given engraved plantable pencils that contained the same wildflower seeds for bee-friendly plants – Daisy, Eternity Flower, Thyme, Sage and Forget Me Not – to encourage the growth of the bee population.
As we all seek to include circularity and sustainability into our everyday lives, hotel businesses can ensure this is carried out while people travel.
It’s not just ethical decisions to make this eco-friendly steps and swaps: it’s also a sensible business one. According to McKinsey and Co, 64% of people are prepared to pay more for sustainable tourism options.
Everyday changes really do make a difference.
Hospitality creates 15% of the UK’s greenhouse emissions, so hotels and B&Bs should be looking to make changes wherever possible, as the government has committed to Net Zero by 2050.
After all, leisure and business travellers prioritise sustainability: 87% of travellers want to travel sustainably, according to booking.com – and while there are some elements to travel that are bound to build a carbon footprint, small tweaks can be made in the traveller journey that can bring genuine joy.
It’s something we’ve often discussed with our hotel clients. How do hotels make simple changes that make a difference, and then communicate their sustainability initiatives? Here are a few ideas:
If your hotel isn’t using LED lighting, there is just one question. Why not? Softer ambient lighting makes a genuine difference to a customer stay and the Carbon Energy Trust says that costs can be reduced by up to 50% by installing and implementing controlled lighting.
LEDs can reduce the cost by up to 70%! Sensors are a great way to ensure lights are turned off when not used and the keycards that control lights allow customers to support with this in a natural way.
Nobody wants the big light on, anyway. Low lights are the future and guests can be encouraged to keep the lighting low with a simple message at check-in.
We work with a number of hotel chains who use our plantable Sprout pencils to communicate their sustainability commitments and steer customers away from plastic pens. Those plastic pens are often the typical gift in hotel rooms or conference settings, but by replacing them with one of our plantable pencils, clients are providing guests with a modern, original, and sustainable souvenir as well as a practical and useful alternative.
We’ve received very positive feedback. Guests remember to take them home and sometimes even send pictures of the sprouting pencils back to the hotel!
It doesn’t have to be a pencil, of course. Thoughtful gifts at events, conferences and hotels should be relevant, above all else, otherwise they could get thrown away, which is just wasteful. One of the most thoughtless promotional gifts I’ve received was a large “thank you for attending” umbrella at a trade fair in Dubai some years ago. It made little sense, as it hardly ever rains there, and the umbrella was too big for my hand luggage. It felt like a total waste of resources to see hundreds of umbrellas left at the exit, just waiting to be thrown away.
Fortunately, instead of generic gifts, companies are now experimenting with more personal or symbolic ways to show appreciation. It doesn’t have to be expensive to feel considered. Small details, like personalisation or a story behind the product, tend to matter more. We are seeing lots of our hotel clients work with other eco-friendly companies to offer smaller, well received gifts like toiletries, coffee cups and chocolate.
According to WRAP, the hospitality industry wastes the equivalent of 1.3 billion meals each year. 12% of the food is recycled, however 920,000 tonnes of food is still wasted and could have been eaten. The hotel industry is advised to always remember the three Ms by the Sustainability Hospitality Alliance (SHA) – measure, maximise and map. Using tools to measure food waste helps chefs keep on top of their waste and awareness is half the work.
Maximising as much of the food as possible is also valuable and something that is already managed throughout the industry. Mapping out the waste when planning the menu is the other recommendation: creativity and taste come top of course, but sustainability should also be in the minds of the kitchen team when first planning their meals. Sourcing food as locally as possible is also recommended.
Checking the eco-credentials of cleaning teams is vital. Non-toxic and eco-friendly cleaners should be used wherever possible. Guests can be encouraged to re-use towels and it is now standard to communicate this to guests in bathrooms by many hotel groups and owners.
Outdoor cleaning that is biodegradable and doesn’t aggressively damage stonework and decking is important too.
Having in-hotel bike share or cab share schemes is a great way to encourage your guests to get involved at the level that suits them. Internal and external displays can communicate any green credentials or achievements. A great example of this is the Scandic Sydhavnen hotel in Copenhagen. This stunning hotel wanted to help promote biodiversity in an area with heavy urban traffic. One of the most effective ways to do this is to encourage bees – a vital element of biodiversity that us currently under threat.
The hotel has therefore planted a field of bee-friendly flowers in the area outside its building – the ground is be covered with wildflowers, attracting the pollinators in what would otherwise be a challenging urban environment for them, providing an attractive landscape as well as an important role and message. That message was then carried on inside the hotel, where guests were given engraved plantable pencils that contained the same wildflower seeds for bee-friendly plants – Daisy, Eternity Flower, Thyme, Sage and Forget Me Not – to encourage the growth of the bee population.
As we all seek to include circularity and sustainability into our everyday lives, hotel businesses can ensure this is carried out while people travel.
It’s not just ethical decisions to make this eco-friendly steps and swaps: it’s also a sensible business one. According to McKinsey and Co, 64% of people are prepared to pay more for sustainable tourism options.
Everyday changes really do make a difference.
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It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making
The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using ‘Content here, content here’, making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for ‘lorem ipsum’ will uncover many web sites still in their infancy.
It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution
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