Green — or greenwashed? How to tell if your hotel loves the environment
Every April, my email “in” box is clogged with press releases from hotels touting their new and fabulous eco-friendly policies. This April was no exception. But unlike other columnists who press the “delete” key, I read every one. I can’t help myself. I’m both a cynic and a bit of an eco-nut.
Most resorts are guilty of greenwashing and aren’t implementing beneficial and workable policies anyway, so the press releases made me chuckle. Some hotels, however, are trying to make positive changes.
But are these practices actually helpful? And will guests buy into it? Here’s how to tell if your hotel is really green:
A little less laundry. Those little signs in hotel bathrooms encouraging you to hang up your towels if you’re willing to reuse them are nothing new. I always hear people complain that it’s just a way for hotels to save money on laundry costs. Yeah, so what? It’s also a way to save thousands of gallons of water and use a little less electricity and detergent. Nowhere is there a rule that says you must sacrifice money to be environmentally friendly. In fact, many environmentally friendly practices save money. Besides, the hotels aren’t forcing anyone to go without laundry service if they don’t choose to.
Verdict: Hotels should keep up this practice. It’s not mandatory for guests, and it does plenty of good.
Automatic shut-offs. Ever seen a little bubble on the thermostat control in your hotel room? It’s a sensor that detects motion and cuts off the air conditioning or heating when no one is moving around the room. And hotels all around the world (but rarely in the United States) use systems that only provide electricity to the room when the room key is inserted in a slot. These systems save power, but guests love to complain about them. People who don’t move much in their sleep often wake up freezing or roasting. You can’t let your laptop charge while you’re out for the day. Entering a dark hotel room is scary. And some people think it’s absolutely necessary to keep a room at 65 degrees even when no one will be in it for hours. But guests may have to suck it up, as these systems might be required in all new buildings at some point, as they are in other countries.
Verdict: The self-righteous tree hugger in me applauds these systems. The hotel manager in me fears the incessant complaining about them. I think all hotels should install these systems, but I don’t blame them if they don’t want to deal with the backlash.
Recycling bins. Hotels provide guests with extra trash bags for sorting paper, plastic or aluminum trash, and housekeepers then take the sorted trash to the appropriate on-site recycling point. Here’s my problem with recycling in guest rooms: Staff are expected to do more work. Even if it only takes an extra 30 seconds per room to sort the recycling from the trash, that time adds up, and turning over rooms quickly means everything to housekeepers. Unless those housekeepers are passionate about the benefits of recycling, they probably won’t buy into the whole program. They’ll just grab the recycling bag and throw it in with the trash. Plus, recycling rules vary from place to place, and they are often quite strict. Who’s going to be the recycling monitor, making sure that the plastic lids are removed from all the water bottles, or that glass containers are rinsed properly? Any volunteers?
Verdict: Recycling is a necessity, but it can be complicated and time-consuming. I doubt many hotels actually get this right.
Safe cleaning. Many cleaning products contain chemicals harmful to the environment and to human health. Lots of companies now sell safer cleaning products, and some hotels are starting to use them. I have mixed feelings on this one. Harvesting the natural ingredients that replace the chemicals in these products can harm the environment as much as the chemicals do. And no matter what these companies say, some of these natural products just do not clean as well as their chemical-laden counterparts. While a “little less clean” may be OK for our houses, do we really want hotels to forgo the bleach and hot water on the sheets or scouring cleansers on bathtub surfaces? That could get funky.
Verdict: Hotels should research green cleaning products well before jumping on this bandwagon. Public areas must be held to very high standards of cleanliness.
Solar panels. The Hotel Carlton in San Francisco recently became the city’s first solar-powered hotel. Guests can watch a real-time count of kilowatt energy being produced by the solar panels on a computer monitor at the front desk. The Hotel Carlton now looks cool, impresses guests and saves money all at once. But although solar panels can save a property on its electricity bill, they can be expensive to initially install. Plus, a building needs lots of direct sunlight for photovoltaic cells to work.
Verdict: If hotels have the money and the right location, there’s no excuse for them not to install solar panels.
Bulk toiletries. Can you imagine a hotel bathroom without little shampoos? Many properties are now filling bulk dispensers with shampoo, soap and lotion. This saves the hotel lots of money, and cuts down on packaging waste. The downside: Many hotels donate half-used toiletries to local shelters, so those beneficiaries may suffer.
Verdict: Those little packages are wasteful in lots of ways, so keep getting rid of them!
Educational programs. Resorts located in beautiful natural environments like to offer eco-tours, encounters with wildlife or lectures about the area’s natural history. Some hotels place literature in guest rooms about ways to go green. A Sofitel hotel in Chicago even displayed a hybrid car out front during Earth Week “to encourage environmental transportation.” (“Environmental transportation?” Huh?) Give me a break. We’re getting educated ad nauseum about environmental issues these days. Only people living under a rock don’t know a little something about taking care of the environment, and they get a pass, because they’re living off the grid anyway.
Verdict: Quit talking and start doing. We don’t need no education.
Sustainable design for new hotels. Companies building new hotels love to brag about all the environmentally-friendly features they’re including in the design and construction process. They’re showing their love for the planet while tearing down trees, adding to traffic congestion, increasing demand for electricity and water, etc. Oh, the irony.
Verdict: Stop building new hotels just because you think you can squeeze a little more money out of a market. If you must expand, there are always old buildings that can be renovated.
My cynical self doesn’t expect major pro-environmental changes in the hotel industry any time soon. Although recent polls suggest that guests want to stay at hotels with green policies, I think that’s all talk. I don’t think the majority of consumers are ready yet to pay some of the increased costs of going green, and I don’t think they’re ready to suffer the perceived inconveniences that come along with changing ingrained habits.
And guests make it repeatedly clear that they want bend-over-backwards customer service and amenities – they want what they want, when they want it. So will they accept service with a lecture, rather than a smile? I doubt it. Sorry, but if Al Gore were hired as a hotel general manager, it would be a different type of property, and most travelers wouldn’t like it.
And hotels will keep issuing press releases about how environmentally friendly they are, but that’s lots of talk, too. As long as the driving motivation for corporations is making money for CEOs and shareholders, I doubt major hotel companies will be too interested in being good stewards of the environment. They’re interested in profits, so maybe when the day comes that environmentally-friendly properties are making big bucks, these companies may take real action.
And that day will come – I’m hopeful! We’re already seeing the auto industry move away from production of big gas-guzzlers and toward the production of smaller, more fuel-efficient cars, so other industries may not be far behind.
Going green is like getting healthy – it’s a lifestyle change. Simply washing fewer towels will help save the planet about as much as simply switching to diet soda will make an obese person slim and trim. And just like when we’re starting a diet or exercise program, we tend to get sick and tired of hearing lectures about what we’re still doing wrong when we’re trying to take baby steps toward taking care of our planet. But the good news is, just like when we’re trying to lose weight and get healthy, making little, positive changes here and there can really make a difference in the health of our planet.
Are we travelers, like couch potatoes, willing to start making changes and taking responsibility for our actions? If so, do we really want our hotels – the places where we pay people to take good care of us – to be our personal trainers?
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4 Responses to “Green — or greenwashed? How to tell if your hotel loves the environment”
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With the part about recycling, it’s quite common in Scandinavia. I was there recently & in most hotels I stayed at there were 4 trash cans (one for garbage, the rest divided for glass/paper/plastic) and I thought that was a great idea.
I REALLY hate when I’ve hung my towel in the designated spot to indicate I’ll re-use it, and the housekeeper takes it away anyway! This happens to me 90% of the time I stay in a hotel with those little laundry signs.
On the subject of recycling, I understand your point about not having bins in each room, but I don’t see why there can’t be a recycle bin on each floor. I’d use them as would anyone else who feels strongly about recycling. I have been known to carry one or two empties around with me until I find a bin on the street or at another business, or until I get home.
Automatic shut-offs would be more valuable if there were more balance in how they worked. For example, I can imagine the misery walking into a Miami hotel room that had been un-air-conditioned all day. But if the bubble sensor would trigger a thermostat change ONLY, and not cut off the whole room’s power, that would result in much fewer complaints while still meeting a major green goal.
I am all for sensors on the lights and HVAC, but I would hate to wake up to a cell phone or laptop that I thought was recharging but was actually shut off after a half-hour by the sensor while I was sleeping.
I hate walking into a room where the A/C has been set to 65 degrees. It’s such a waste of energy. I always crank it up into the mid 70’s.
Usually there is a slot and in order to activate the lights, you need to insert your key card. Once inserted the switches and lamps will all operate fine. You can turn off the lights and switches manually and allow your laptops to recharge.