The Many Shades of Green

Running a “green” hotel – sounds daunting, doesn't it?  As hoteliers we have enough to do.  Running multiple venues across the property, managing staff, dealing with maintenance issues plus the all-consuming, relentless struggle to keep guests happy.  Who has the time or resources to implement an environmentally responsible green program?!

Actually, it’s not as hard as one might think.  In fact, even just a few no cost/low cost changes can result in cost-savings and favorable guest reviews, which gives you an edge in a very competitive industry.

According to a recent customer survey conducted by the 2013 CONE Communications Green Gap Trend Tracker, 70% of consumers “Think Green” when purchasing; and that number is growing.  Consumer observations and interests also affect their purchasing and the survey reveals 85% want companies to educate them.  So as hoteliers how can we afford to not “green” our hotel and “green” train our staff? 

In hard financial times what can we do that is no cost or low cost but will satisfy the growing hunger of guests looking for eco-destinations?  Being inside our properties, it’s difficult to see the most obvious areas for improvements and greening.

Be smart.  Start where you will get the best returns, guest satisfaction and cost savings with the least amount of capital outlay.

#1  Develop a “Going Green” Policy
Your policy doesn't have to be lengthy or highly detailed.   It should include your intentions to protect the environment, the health and safety of your employees, and the community in which you conduct your business.  Your policy should adopt environmentally responsible business practices by conserving energy, water, and other natural resources.  It can also state you will stay committed to these goals while maintaining your standards for customer comfort and enjoyment.

#2  Select a “Green Team”

There’s no need to go it alone.  With employee team members who represent your full scope of operations (housekeeping, maintenance, food and beverage, etc.), you’ll have expert help in identifying and implementing the best practices for your property as well as monitoring your progress and cost savings.

#3  Invest in Training your “Green Team”

These are the people on your staff that need to understand your “Going Green” policy and will be your “doers.”  It is important to educate them on “Green.”  Everyone needs to understand the many shades of green and have a mapped out process for getting there.  Invest in green training for your team.  A minimal training investment will be paid back within a short period of time by authorizing your green team to adopt minor operational changes.

#4  Fix Water Leaks and Manually Adjust Thermostats

Make sure kitchen staff and housekeepers alert maintenance staff to leaks regularly.  Water leaks can be costly but the good news is they can be easily fixed.  Make sure housekeepers set back thermostats when finishing a room.  Turn off lights in areas of the hotel that are not being used, but make sure all common access areas still meet fire code standards.

#5   Set-up a Towel Reuse Policy

Every day millions of gallons of water and laundry chemicals are used to wash towels and linens that have been used only once.  Create a simple room placard that gives guests the option to hang their towels back up and pull the comforter over the bed if they would like to help protect the environment by reusing their towels and linens.

#6  RECYCLE!

Customers notice if you do not have recycling bins. At the least, set up recycling bins for your customers in common areas and near vending machines.  Paper, cardboard, plastic, metal, glass – recycle some or all.  It’s as simple as contacting your waste vendor, requesting recycling bins and placing them strategically in common areas.

In some states, you can even get bottle return money!  Make sure you don’t just collect it, but actually recycle it.

The 2013 CONE Communications Green Gap Trend Tracker survey also provided the following statistics:

•       69% say, “It’s okay if a company is not environmentally perfect as it is honest.”

•       78% say they will boycott a product/service if they discover an environmental claim to be misleading.

Congratulations!  With the above “shades of green” in place, you now are on the way to “Going Green.”

Sure there is always more you can do, but with a small cash outlay, you’re off to a very good start.

Investing in an educated Green Team who can answer guest questions, and with an adopted credible environmental policy, you can now proudly display your environmental policy on your website and on property.  Travelers searching for green practice hotels will take notice, and your business will be well on its way to becoming both economically and environmentally sustainable.

View our 2014 Green Tourism Conference at a Glance Schedule

Short on time? Us too!

View the At-a-Glance Conference Schedule below or click here to download it.

Online registration is open. Click here to register online.

Important correction to Program Ad Specs, see below.

Program Ad deadline extended to March 15

Get in the program! Advertise your business in the Green Tourism Conference program, which will be in the hands of every attendee, and in front of the eyes of anyone visiting the GTC website.

Full page ad= $125

Half page ad= $75

Quarter page ad= $40

Ad specs:

Ads will be printed in Gray Scale

Full page 5"x8”

1/2 page horizontal 5”x 3.875”

1/4 page vertical 2.375”x 3.875”

Preferred file format: .JPG

Submit your print-ready ad to go.green@hospitalitygreen.com.

2014 Green Tourism Conference - April 7-8 - Callicoon, NY

http://www.icontact-archive.com/6tXppkIHVe-jc-u6dbBXrnYJ0eBzIJ-n?w=3

Redefining Eco-Friendly to Accurately Measure

Report finds eco-friendliness not a factor in filling hotel rooms:  By Danny King http://www.travelweekly.com/Travel-News/Hotel-News/Report-finds-ecofriendliness-not-a-factor-in-filling-hotel-rooms/

There are two factors that I find significant in Danny King’s story on the report from Cornell University School of Hotel Administration issued publicly in October 2013  http://www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/reports/abstract-17463.html

(1) The data metrics that were used: Sabre's, Travelocity Green Program and the International Carbon Measurement Initiative

(2) What is "Eco-friendliness?" How does the customer perceive that concept and the value?

Let’s explore the first data metric that was used, Sabre's, Travelocity Green Program.  Sabre's Program unlike Trip Advisor's (TA's) program, was never clearly rolled out. Let's think consumer for a minute. To find a Green Hotel rated by their program on Travelocity’s public site, you would think that you would go to their main site page. http://www.travelocity.com/   But, there is no listing and no drop down for "green" on the main page.  If you care or know or have looked up, Googled, "Travelocity green hotels," you get guided to an interior page not even listed in the site navigation for "Green Hotels." http://www.travelocity.com/sitemap

The Travelocity Green page http://www.travelocity.com/c/content/site/en/TRAVELOCITY/public-relations/microsite/travel-for-good/travel-for-good.html  is a confusing site page loaded with PR jargon and the actual listings of hotels nearly impossible to find. There is no simple procedure for booking. If this is the tool that was used; number of hits, bookings from this source etc., I am surprised they got anything to measure based on the customer interface of the tool.

The article goes on to describe how many hoteliers went on to embrace measuring carbon footprints as the second metric used. Well if you look at the portfolio of Inter-Continental Hotels Group (IHG), the lead company in the article that is mentioned, you realize that this particular hotel group is heavily invested in countries that are embarking on carbon legislation that will and does impact hotel operations. For many reporting is a legislated necessity. IHG’s site provides insight into their carbon initiatives. http://www.ihgplc.com/index.asp?pageid=741 The US is also an active participant in the carbon reporting dialogue. Carbon measuring for the international hotelier is a standard practice for conducting international business.

Reviewing this concept from the consumer perspective, this is currently a pretty confusing concept. Ask anybody if they are trading or calculating their carbons and you will see a blank stare much like the deer on the side of the road. To most consumers, it does not mean a thing. Carbon trading goes far beyond and is in left field when describing to the consumer "Eco -Friendly" and potentially a reason for booking a hotel room.

So the metrics for measuring eco-friendly consumer spending behavior missed the mark. The metric failed as a measurement for consumer habits. So does that mean that the customer doesn't care or value green? I think Danny King's article would like us to believe that. "Eco-friendly is not a factor in filling hotel rooms" I question the definition, measurement and context of his statement.

It is interesting that the article completely leaves out the TA program. Understandably, the TA program was not in existence when the study was done. The author chose to use only the data from the Cornell study. The TA program is the game changer for the industry. TA reported in 9/13 that it had doubled its participation and had become in less than 9 months the largest certification program.  The first report on the Cornell Study was publicly issued one month after TA’s progress report.  And this article is published  a mere two months after the TA data. Certifications and green programs are without a doubt rattled by TA's game changer.

What is intriguing, and I believe significant about this article and gleaned from the report, is what was used to measure eco-friendly customer value engagement.  Dr Chong and Dr. Verma, authors of the study, in their executive summary succinctly state, “While this study doesn't address the situation of any individual hotel, we can conclude that going green is compatible with existing quality standards of hotel service…”

Therefore I pose the question, is eco-friendly as it was defined for the last 10 years as, the initial steps that a hotel took to “Go Green,” now viewed by the customer  as standard, norms? Are these standards of service which we initially thought of as green standards now “existing quality standards of hotel service?” A norm then becomes hard to measure as a factor to measure purchasing habits since it is assumed. I would argue that it is this metric and the definition that has changed and consequently changing the consumer’s attitude towards the value of eco-friendly.    

Energy Conservation, water savers, sheet and towel programs and recycling are all now just considered a part of normal quality standards of hotel service. I draw the analogy of the customer who asks the front desk for a toothbrush that he/she forgot to pack. Would the front desk employee even think to say, “Oh we don't have a toothbrush, we don't do that?”  Well, that's where we are with Eco-Friendly.  

Consequently how the customer views eco-green/eco-friendliness has changed.  How the customer rates the hotel for green has changed.  If you take a moment to study how TA has listed Green Practices, Energy etc. under its Green Certification lexicon, you will see how those attitudes have changed. To enter into the program as a Green Partner (Base 1 Level), it's not enough to have energy efficient bulbs, that's a given. What you need to do in order to enter as a Green Partner is track energy use for a minimum of one year. The language for the consumer in TA's public green face is much more evolved than the standard of 5 years ago. The customer is smarter, knows more, expects more and gets it. If they choose to engage, they can respond based on the customer experience and a metric which rates a hotel on basic green standards and their practices that are above and beyond the norm. And hopefully an employee, having been required to take Green Team Training can engage in dialogue with the curious customer about the hotel's practices. 

So as a customer, we no longer look at or reward a hotel for doing the basics, the givens. On the other hand, do we really decide if we are going to stay at your hotel if you measure your carbons?  The question remains. Will hoteliers read this article, go about business as usual and not really look below the title as to the true significance of the article? The executive summary of the research paper states, “…advertising green status doesn’t hurt a hotel’s revenues. Earning a green certification does not automatically result in a large revenue bump nor a revenue fall. In short, green is not a “silver bullet” strategy. “

The game changer is to actively engage the consumer in the process.  And without a doubt in marketing we know that when you engage people in authentic stories and link their actions to responsible tourism, the consumer finds it more appealing and fulfilling, the sweet spot of added value.

Linking authenticity and responsibility are powerful marketing tools. Linking your green practices to your regional stewardship of the environment brings a whole other dimension to the green / eco-friendly commitment both for the consumer and the hotelier. Our drums need to march in the same parade. It's not about just a towel or a bulb, it's also about how our actions and spending habits impact where we live and play. Our job is to create those linkages. Our definitions and understanding of eco-friendly are changing and in a sustainable direction for all.  It just requires defining and measuring accurately in order to tell the story with authenticity.

Congratulations to the Green Concierge Participants

Left to Right / Top to Bottom
10,000 Waves, La Fonda, Hotel Santa Fe, The Sage Inn
The Inn of the Governors, La Posada de Santa Fe, Casa Cuma B&B,
Old Santa Fe Inn, The Eldorado Hotel & Spa, Inn at Santa Fe
Inn on the Alameda, Inn of the Five Graces, Silver Saddle Motel

On October 15th, thirteen properties of Santa Fe received notification from HospitalityGreen (HG) that they had passed the requirements of Phase 1 of the Green Concierge Certification® program. In early October a site audit was conducted at each of the properties.

Each property met the initial requirements of the Phase 1. For completing Phase One, the property was issued by HG a report card on the status of their certification, a Green Page stating their commitments and validation of their green initiatives and permission to use the HG icon. The Green Page along with the HG icon can be placed on their websites and available for customers and employees to read.

In order to meet the first tier, the bronze level, of the Green Concierge Certification® each property must undergo the site audit, meet multiple standards and provide resource usage for a minimum of six months. Each property will need to meet the bronze requirements on or before January 31, 2014 in order to be certified by HG this year.

  

Evadne Giannini, founder of HospitalityGreen spoke at the Green Lodging Initiatives Working Group local partners meeting. She said, “Each of these properties is totally unique. Many are privately owned and have been established for generations in Santa Fe. Their understanding and appreciation for both the culture and the environment is revealed throughout.

It is most rewarding to be working with some of the oldest hotels in the country and to see that, yes, from Route 66 original motels to historic luxury properties green practices can be implemented and achieve extraordinary results.

It is much easier to implement sustainable initiatives on newer properties. It takes creativity, resourcefulness and a dedication to achieve this level of results on older properties.  These properties should be recognized as leaders in the industry. Over the next few months, we look forward to publishing more information on each of them.”  

Felicity Broennan, Executive Director of the Santa Fe Watershed Association said, “It is our intention that the guests of Santa Fe will recognize our individual lodger’s commitments to sustainability and participate in the conservation of the precious resources available to us here in Santa Fe.”  

The Santa Fe Green Lodging Initiative is a public-private sector collaboration spearheaded by the SFWA and funded by a $49,700 grant awarded to the Watershed Association by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The SFWA contracted HospitalityGreenLLC to provide training, one-on-one technical assistance, and to implement the Green Concierge Certification® to the lodging providers of Santa Fe.  It is the intention of the program to work with the Santa Fe partners to help brand Santa Fe as an eco-tourist destination.

For more information on the Santa Fe Green Lodging Initiative: 

Contact

Adrianne Picciano, Project Coordinator

HospitalityGreen

Tel: (845)-436-6173

Email: a.picciano@hospitalitygreen.com

www.hospitalitygreen.com

Group finds cutting waste yields savings

Program targets resorts' use

Evadne Giannini’s company, Hospitality Green, helps businesses save money by being environmentally friendly, such as going through the recyclables at the Villa Roma Resort to help the hotel reduce its waste.DOMINICK FIORILLE/ Times Herald-Record

By Leonard Sparks

Times Herald-Record

Published: 2:00 AM - 08/31/13

MOUNTAINDALE — Villa Roma maintenance Manager Bill Andrews parked a passenger van in the resort's Dumpster yard and Evadne Giannini got out and began inspecting clear bags filled with money.

Inside were bottles and cans collected as part of a recycling program expected to save Villa Roma more than $100,000 this year. Giannini was checking the purity of the program, which was launched with the aid of Mountaindale-based business Hospitality Green. She peered into bags to ensure they were free of other waste.

"This is money for them," said Giannini, the company's principal.

Reducing waste to yield savings for hotel and other clients, and showing how "green" products can protect employees and guests, is a growth industry for Hospitality Green as businesses pursue savings and travelers prioritize hotels using sustainable practices.

Giannini and her contract employees can be found looking through Dumpsters and trash bags, following trash haulers around and checking supply closets to see where clients can reduce waste and replace hazardous chemicals.

"We have to get under the hood," Giannini said.

Zero waste is the goal for Hospitality Green, whose local clients includes SUNY Sullivan and The Sullivan hotel.

To achieve that, the company recruits all levels of a business' operations, from maintenance and cleaning staff to supply purchasers and food service workers.

The benefit of junking incandescent bulbs in favor of longer-lasting CFLs and LEDs, thereby saving on replacement costs, is part of the mix.

So are composting and recycling, which can save on Dumpster and landfill costs, and green cleaning products, which can reduce worker health costs and appeal to guests sensitive to the odor of some chemicals.

Convincing all employees to buy in to sustainable practices is the key, Giannini said.

"Our job is to figure out a way to bring this rather complicated information to people where they can understand they can make a difference," she said.

One client, Dover Downs, saved about $250,000 on its landfill bill by diverting recyclables from its trash stream, Giannini said. Villa Roma expects to save significant amounts on the single-stream recycling program launched in June.

"A lot of people have the belief that going green is a lot of money," said Bill Andrews, the resort's maintenance manager. "But the overall savings, there's no comparison."

Villa Roma eliminated three Dumpsters and cut back on the frequency of pickups, which cost $150 per pickup plus $70 for each ton of trash.

Andrews predicts the savings may double next year.

"Not only is it great for the hotel, it's great for the environment," he said.

lsparks@th-record.com 

The Weight of Water Part 2: Desert Droughts & Deluges

Storm Descending

Turn on almost any faucet in Santa Fe and clear, clean free-flowing water will come out. This is a miracle. Where I live, just 20 miles south, water doesn’t come as easily. My house has no water source – no water lines, no well – other than rainwater from the sky.  It rains less than a foot a year in this part of New Mexico, most of it in the summer months, and on more than one occasion, I have turned on the tap and had nothing come out.

It’s true what they say: there is no shortage of water in the desert, but exactly the right amount. Living off rainwater in the desert takes vision: you have to be able to see past dryness to the deluge so when rain does come, often in the form of a sudden, biblical downpour, you are ready to collect as much rainwater as possible.

Floods are as much a part of this place as drought. As dry as the desert appears much of the year, its shape is dominated by the running of water. Since it’s dry most of the time, the soil doesn't seem to know what to do with water when it does come and storm scars cut deep and last for years.

Horses crossing an arroyo

Arroyos are the great gutters of this desert: rivulets lead to small gullies and then larger ones, which empty into the deep arroyos that, a few times a year, I’m told, flow in white caps down to the Galisteo River. Knowing the arroyos as deep, dry scars, I found it hard to fathom them full of water, until I witnessed an August flash flood.

One minute it was sunny, then it was a bit overcast, then rain was coming down in buckets. Rain is rare enough here to warrant stopping what you're doing to go watch it from the porch. But this time my porch was already soaked. This storm was something different. The rain was falling sideways and upside down, the wind-driven drops pelting so hard that when they hit they bounced back up towards the sky.

Squinting through the downpour, I saw a rushing, chocolate brown river raging across my driveway. This was the storm I had been waiting to see! I pulled on my water shoes and grabbed my camera and ran out into the rain. The driveway river was running fast and high enough that I would not attempt to drive across it. I turned upstream and plunged into the knee-deep fast running water without bothering to roll up my pant legs. Pants be damned; I had a waterfall to see!

I sloshed upstream, towards the spot I'd always planned on heading in the event of a storm like this: a spillway of red sandstone evidently sculpted by past floods less than a quarter mile from my house. The violent current was knee deep and frothy brown, like a melted chocolate shake – the good kind, thick with cream – and nearly as cold. 

Following the roaring, sloshing river between the high arroyo banks, water borne debris – sticks and rocks and I hoped not rattlesnakes– pelted my submerged feet and wrapped around my legs and I was glad for the long pants, though they were soaked and filthy. I rounded a few bends in the river and arrived to an incredible scene: raging water had transformed the usually dusty dry place and save for the familiar rocks crowning the falls, I hardly recognized it.

Rain was pouring, thunder was rumbling, lightning was clapping and the waterfall was glorious, falling like rushing chocolate and churning madly at my feet. A flood in the desert! I had to see it to believe it.

 In a one-inch rainstorm, a thousand square foot roof will catch 650 gallons of water. In that one spectacular summer storm – which loosed more rain than in the previous nine months combined – my roof collected enough water to last me through most of the winter. And that’s not even as wet as it gets out here. Heading west from my house across BLM land, I can hike to the Galisteo Dam, a massive flood control dam built in 1965 to hold back 100-year floods. As far as I know, they've never come, but there’s still time.

Standing at the top, on the edge of the dam, among bright red and pure white sandstone slabs – the red dotted with chartreuse lichen, the white decorated with delicate fossils of frozen grass – I finally saw the need for the dam: the land below is rippled by giant flood waves.

Only from this vantage, high above the desert, could I begin to grasp the vast expanse of time preserved here. Millions of years ago, this landscape was underwater, drowned beneath an inland shallow sea. Much later the Cerrillos Hills and Ortiz Mountains littered the ground with glittering shards of volcanic rock.

Cerrillos Hills Summit

 This desert is made up of millions of years of these layers, layers of Earth, layers of life. Studying these layers from the top of the dam, our own layer of Earth, the uppermost crust we live upon, love upon, ransack and pollute upon, becomes ever so humbly thin.

The rains will always come again, but there’s no telling when. In our lifetimes the deserts are desertifying: trending drier and drier, with longer and longer waits between deluges. How dry is too dry? How long is too long? Better to learn the weight of water, before those miraculously free flowing taps run dry.

About The Author

Mary Caperton Morton is a freelance writer, photographer and professional housesitter who makes her home on the back roads of rural North America, living and working out of a solar-powered Teardrop camper. When she’s not at the wheel or the keyboard, she can be found outside, hiking, climbing mountains and taking photographs. Follow her travels at www.theblondecoyote.com