It’s been clear for some time that guests are increasingly selecting hotels with a credible green or ‘sustainability’ record over hotels who cannot demonstrate this. Of course, what constitutes ‘green’ is open to question, and the ‘greenwash’ problem has made it even more difficult for both private guests and corporate clients.
In the UK, however, membership of organisations such as the Considerate Hoteliers Association – for restaurants, the Sustainable Restaurant Association – demonstrates serious commitment to ‘green’ practices.
What about business guests?
There is increasing anecdotal evidence that corporate organisations are asking questions about environmental or sustainability policies before ‘approving’ the use of specific hotels or chains – particularly if they are under consideration for conference or event activity.
In the USA, the use of RFPs (Request for Proposal) enables corporates to include environmental questions when planning ahead, and to ask such questions as:
- Describe your carbon offset initiatives and how you communicate them to guests
- Is your organisation or building environmentally certified: BREEAM, LEED, Energy Star…
- Do you provide bike racks? Preferential parking for low or alternative energy cars?
- Use of low flow plumbing fixtures in toilets, taps, showers?
- Recycling programmes for packaging, plastics, glass, food waste, and so on
- Use of certified eco-friendly cleaning materials
- Conservation of energy: management of heating and air-conditioning, use of LEDs, and so on
- Use of locally sourced, organic or other foods and ingredients
- And more!
Make or break?
The answers to these and other questions may not yet or always result in the loss of business in the UK – that may depend on the alternative hotels in the area – but the answers are definitely becoming important to larger client organisations who will be wary of possible negative PR. Prevention, for them, is key.
What’s your experience?
H&C News believes that it’s time to learn – and share – more on this subject, which could have a serious impact on your businesses. We’d be happy to hear from you about your experiences on this or related ‘green’ issues: please email rcrowley@einsidetrack.com
