HOTEL FIRST AID KIT

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
AND WHY YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS IT
 HOTEL FIRST AID KIT

INTRODUCTION
This is intended to be used as a guide to help hotels become more eco-friendly. It is a common misconception that this move
will be costly to the business with little benefit to the establishment itself, with this FIRST AID KIT, I hope to disprove
this. Ensuring the environment is used sustainably will keep the Hospitality Industry alive for many generations to come. I
ask you to read this guide with an open mind so that you can draw as much from it as possible.

INDEX

WHY WOULD YOU WANT YOUR ESTABLISHMENT TO BECOME

MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE? 1
WHAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL COST NOTHING BUT WILL HAVE
ONE OF THE GREATEST IMPACTS 2-3
WHAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL COST VERY LITTLE BUT CAN BE
IMPLEMENTED ALMOST IMMEDIATELY 4-6
WHAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL COST QUITE A LOT BUT WILL
NEED SERIOUS CONSIDERATION BEFORE AN INVESTMENT
SHOULD BE MADE
7-8
CONCLUSION 8
IMAGE RESOURCES
9
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following are places where more information can be found on this topic. This document was produced while consulting some of
these places along with my own opinions and ideas.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_tourism
 http://www.apexhotels.co.uk/environmnet
 http://www.energystar.gov/ia/business/challenge/learn_more/Hotel.pdf
 http://www.green-business.co.uk/GreenBusiness_Introduction.asp
 http://www.greenhotels.com
 http://www.greenlodgingnews.com
 http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2005_2nd/Jun05_EnergyCosts.html
 http://www.hotel-online.com/Trends/PanAmerProceedingsMay99/EnviroManagmt.html
 http://www.isr.gov.au/energybestpractice
 http://www.jpmorganclimatecare.com
 http://www.emeraldinsight.com/0007-070X.htm
 http://www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=218&pa=2546&pg=3466 (Here are a few relevant
case studies where these (and many other) eco-friendly techniques have been used with great success in
improving the hotel’s efficiency and overall effect on the environment.)
 HOTEL FIRST AID KIT

WHY WOULD YOU WANT YOUR ESTABLISHMENT TO

BECOME MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE?

Environmental Sustainability, in terms of the hospitality industry, is the ability of the industry to maintain a balance in what it
takes from the environment (and gives to the environment) so that it will still be able to supply that resource to future generations.

We are not trying to change you as a business. The aim of this is to improve the services you
offer through increased efficiency with focus on this efficiency’s effect on the environment!

The proposed improvements will have the following benefits on your business:

The long-term value of your business will increase since you will be making an investment that
will make the whole establishment more efficient in terms of the resources it uses (electricity,
water, produce, etc). This improved efficiency means that the business will pay less for these
services than before. A small investment now means that the business will make an increased
profit for an extensive period of time and the investment will pay for itself shortly after its
introduction.

The amount of waste produced by the establishment will decrease tremendously.

Guests will return because they will feel that they are being patrons to an establishment that
fulfils their expectations of the business looking after the environment. This, in turn, improves the
experience they have while at your establishment.

New customers will be drawn in as the establishment’s image improves in the public’s eye.

The over-all quality of the services you provide also increases as they all run in the most optimal
way possible.

The local community will benefit since there is a push to purchase locally produced goods in
order to minimize damage to the environment through transport, packaging, etc.

Through the integration of these proposed ideas, your business will be at the forefront of
environmental sustainability in the hospitality industry. It will set a benchmark that competing
establishments will have to meet in order to not lose customers to your improved services; which
will be of a much higher standard than most high end establishments are currently.

The natural environment will be enhanced by your efforts and this will draw in new patrons as
well as return-patrons.

Your establishment will receive a lot of free publicity because the efforts of businesses to aid
Environmental Sustainability is publicised a lot in many different forms of media. This will make
people aware of your business if maybe they weren’t aware before. This will also ensure that the
people who really care about global warming (and all the other related issues) will hear of your
business and will quite possibly spread word about it to people abroad (if the media has not done
so already).

Ultimately, any benefit your establishment makes to the environment, results in the conservation
of resources.

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 HOTEL FIRST AID KIT

WHAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL COST NOTHING BUT

WILL HAVE ONE OF THE GREATEST IMPACTS

The simplest things for your establishment involves a little more effort from staff but will cost you nothing!

MAINTENANCE! This is the single, most important

thing you could possibly do to make your business more
environmentally friendly while at the same time
ensuring that your business operates at maximum
efficiency. Leaking toilets and taps result in huge water
loss and therefore an increased water bill for you.
If you provide the service of placing a newspaper in the
hotel room, change this practice to one where the
patron has to request to have the newspaper. This will
save paper as only the people wanting to read the
newspaper will read it. You should also notice that
fewer newspapers will have to be purchased and this
will be a benefit to the business.
Make bulk purchases. When you purchase items for your business, it is
essential that you buy in bulk. Besides it making the product cheaper for
you and less travel is required to transport the goods (this means fewer
CO2 emissions which means you help save the planet).
When making the above mentioned bulk purchases, ask your supplier to
use the minimal amount of packaging required, this means fewer
environmentally harmful plastics are produced and less waste is
accumulated by your establishment which means you produce a reduced
amount of rubbish. Most times the reduced packaging will be of a
recyclable nature so you will be helping in this way as well.
Make a push for the chefs to use more local produce, most times the
produce will be cheaper for you and there will be less travel involved
which reduces CO2 emissions. This can be used for beverages, meat,
fruit, vegetables and even dairy products.
When you are hosting business people, your staff should make the
suggestion that they carry out conference calls as opposed to travelling
to meet with whomever. This will reduce travel and less CO2 will be
emitted, which is a harmful greenhouse gas produced by the burning of
fuel. CO2 raises global temperatures.
You should ensure that staff regularly backwash and
clean the pools and hot tubs because this will ensure
good filtration and fewer harmful and expensive
chemicals will be needed to keep these working at an
optimum level.
At night, you should make sure your staff turns off all
the TVs and gym equipment. This will ensure that less
electricity is used, which means fewer CO2 emissions
and a reduced electricity bill for your business.
Within the restaurants at your establishment you

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could make it common practice that instead of putting water jugs on all the tables, that it be put
on request by the patrons. This will reduce water wastage.

You could institute a plan,

for when the patrons checkout,
where your staff ask them if they
would like to pay a ‘Carbon Offset’.
Your staff would have to explain to
them that this is a way for them to
take responsibility to actively reduce
their carbon emissions through an
organisation called ClimateCare. If
the patron were to agree, your staff
would ask them about their travel
arrangements to and from your hotel
and input the necessary information
into a carbon calculator on their
website which would calculate the
amount of carbon emitted during
their travels and a charge of £7.50
(excluding VAT) is made for each ton
of CO2. You would add this to their bill and pay their offset for them. The offset is used to help
ClimateCare fund initiatives around the world which have to do with wind power, hydro power,
renewable biomass, human energy and efficient stoves. In this way the patron pays off their
‘carbon debt’ to the earth by avoiding the emission of green house gases in other parts of the
world. Your patron would receive a certificate for their effort.
You should fill north-facing rooms first in winter because they will be warmer and patrons will be
less likely to use the heating. In summer you should fill south-facing rooms first since they will be
cooler and the patrons are less likely to use the air-conditioning. This all saves electricity!

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 HOTEL FIRST AID KIT

WHAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL COST VERY LITTLE

AND CAN BE IMPLIMENTED ALMOST IMMEDIATELY

These improvements will have great effect, cost very little (when you look at the gains achieved) and can be applied quickly and easily!

Re-use towels – Institute a

program where there is a sign
placed in the bathroom that
says something along the lines
of, ‘If you want a fresh towel,
leave your used one on the
floor and we’ll replace it. Save
Water. Save our planet.’ This
will reduce costs in the
amount of water used in the
laundry and the purchase of
detergents to clean the towels.
This will also make the patron
feel as if they are contributing
to making your business
environmentally sustainable.
The above can also be considered for bed linen depending on your current policy.
A coin/chip system could be implemented for car parking and coat checking. This will reduce
wastage in paper and ink printout (which is a benefit to the environment as fewer trees are
wasted and less print cartridges are thrown away).
Retired sheets can be used to make cloth laundry bags therefore being recycled.
An electrician could be called in to fit electricity monitors on the main power switches for each
section of the hotel. The same could be done with the water systems so that you can monitor the
consumptions daily so that they could be reduced.
Installation of compact fluorescent lamps and LED lights that have much longer life-spans, a
much lower power consumption and which provide a much purer light in the pool, reading
lamps in the rooms and all other possible places. These draw so much LESS power and last so
much longer that they benefit the environment greatly because there will be less waste in
electricity and fewer bulbs will be thrown away.

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Aerators could be installed on all taps; this ensures minimal

water is wasted when taps are used. In public bathrooms
infrared taps could be installed to ensure no one leaves a tap
running and this has many hygiene benefits as germ transfer in
minimised.
Shower roses could be replaced with low-flow shower heads
so as to reduce water wastage in the shower.
Dual flush toilet units could be installed as they use half the
amount of water as regular old toilets.
Dimmers could also be installed where possible to save
electricity. They also help set the mood in the rooms and will
add an extra touch of class to your establishment.
In the gym, for hikes, walks, (etc) you could provide the
guest with a plastic, reusable bottle which they can refill so
as to reduce the amount of water bottles they will throw
away.
Toilet tank fill diverters could be installed in older toilets as
they save about 3 litres per flush and cost about R10 each.
That is a huge saving for a simple installation.
An electrician could fit a switch on all sliding doors so that
when the sliding door is open, the air-conditioning cuts out
so that electricity is not wasted in this way.
The person who manages the web site of the hotel could be
asked to make the backgrounds on all of the pages black. This
greatly reduces the amount of electricity used when someone is
viewing your website. This could be explained on the site,
along with all the other improvements you will make, to make
your hotel more environmentally sustainable.
You could invest in hot tub and pool covers for night time so
as to reduce water loss and to maintain a high water
temperature. This means you will not have to fill the pools and
hot tubs up as often, and you may not have to invest in a pool
heating system (or would be able to make the pool heating
system run for a shorter time to save electricity).
As an added aid to save water, flow restrictors could be placed
in the taps and showerheads in conjunction with the aerators;
this will ensure that a comfortable amount of water is used while
making a maximum saving.
In the hotel rooms separate bins can be placed for organic
rubbish, paper rubbish, plastic rubbish, (etc) so that they can
be collected separately and sent off to the correct recycling
plants.
Obsolete I.T. equipment can be donated to poor schools
instead of being thrown away, this means landfills won’t be so
heavily packed with old equipment and by recycling them, you
are also helping a community.
If there is a spa at your hotel, investing in 100% natural
products will be a much added benefit because people don’t

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mind paying a bit extra for a product that helps the environment.
If there is enough space on the property,
allowing the chef to have an organic
vegetable garden is a huge aid to the
environment as no packaging and transport is
needed. Customers will love the fact that the
fresh produce is grown at the hotel and it will
cost you much less to produce those
vegetables than buying them.
A person could be hired with the express job
of separating trash. They would have to go
through the rubbish from all the parts of the
hotel. It will be surprising for you when you
see the amount of hotel property that will be
recovered. Often towels, eating utensils,
napkins, (etc) are accidentally thrown away.
This person would save the business
thousands of rands every month. At the same
time, the environment will be saved by the
separated trashing actually being recycled.
Consult your supplier that gets you all your
cleaning products about purchasing
environmentally friendly cleaning products –
they might be a bit more expensive but with
all the savings you would be making in other
areas, the small price increase will be worth it
because you won’t be causing any harm to
the environment by using them.

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 HOTEL FIRST AID KIT

WHAT YOU CAN DO THAT WILL COST QUITE A LOT

AND WILL NEED SERIOUS CONSIDERATION BEFORE
AN INVESTMENT SHOULD BE MADE

These improvements will cost the most. You will need to take into account the funds available to you and how this will ultimately
benefit both you (the business) and the environment.

Ultraviolet lights could be installed in/by the pools and hot

tubs to run for a few hours at night. This will greatly reduce
the need for chemicals and will result in a much clearer pool
which guests will love to swim in. The fewer chemicals you
use, the better for the environment.
In the units of your hotel that don’t already have walk-in
showers, it would be advised that you get built-in showers
installed as it will encourage people to take showers, rather
than baths (which save a lot of water). This is also something
to consider when extending your buildings.
One option, if you have the funds and the space to set it up,
is solar panels. They will supplement your electricity and
Eskom will even give you a further discount for it. If this is
too extreme you should consider installing solar geysers; a
200 litre one would cost about R13 000 and you will get a
similar discount from Eskom for your efforts. Any form of
solar power is very good for the environment because less
electricity is needed from power stations that burn coal
which releases carbon dioxide and other green house gases
and pollutants.
If you were able to buy a ‘waste compactor’, you would be
able to compact your rubbish so that it takes up less space
and would therefore need less transportation to get it to
processing. This means fewer emissions from trucks which is
better for the environment.
A key card system could be introduced where the electricity of
the room is connected to a card reader. The guest has to put
their card into the reader if they want electricity – this is
excellent for saving energy because absolutely no power is
used when there is no one occupying the room. When people
occupying the room leave to do something, they are required
to take the card with them because it will be attached to the
room’s key – this saves a lot of electricity because people can
no longer leave their air-conditioning and lights on when they
aren’t in the room.
Energy efficient windows are able to keep the temperature
higher in winter and lower in summer. This is done through
glazing of the windows and is something to consider when
doing additional building and possibly for your colder, south-
facing rooms.

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 HOTEL FIRST AID KIT

Any signage for your hotel could be rigged up to solar panels and batteries so that during the day
they charge up their batteries which would be used to power the signs at night.
If you have lifts in your hotel, you should consider replacing them with energy efficient ones
since these are often used and require a lot of power.
The installation of a building management system that keeps the temperature within the hotel
constant would be a benefit because you would see what is the most comfortable and energy
efficient temperature that people would be able to deal with. This is one of the most expensive
ideas.
It is always wise to use natural light for as long as possible. When considering new building
prospects, a design that incorporates larger windows will achieve this effect, thus allowing the
patrons to use natural light during the day rather than artificial light. Any time you use less
electricity it is a benefit for the environment!

CONCLUSION

CONGRATULATIONS!
YOU’RE ON YOUR WAY TO BECOMING AN

HOTEL

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 HOTEL FIRST AID KIT

IMAGE RESOURCES

These are the links where all the images used in this document can be found. They are listed in order of appearance starting with the
cover page.

 http://www.eqgroup.com/images/green_globe.jpg

 http://www.heartlandsteamcleaning.com/HLSC/images_HLSC/recycle.jpg

 http://woodsplumbinganddrainage.com.au/uploads/images/man-fix-toilet.jpg

 http://www.southafricanfoodwholesaledistributors.com/sathumbs2w.gif

 http://www.gardenandhousehold.co.uk/userimages/Pool_cleaning.JPG

 http://www.jpmorganclimatecare.com/

 http://www.countryinns.com/chi/images/hotels/TNHOLLOW/couple%20at%20desk%20(450%20x%20300).jpg

 http://www.mwdh2o.com/mwdh2o/pages/publications/brochures/brochure_thumbnails/lg_photos/tent_card.jpg

 http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/09/29/b_d_power.jpeg

 http://www.duluthtrading.com/services/image.aspx?path=/media/images/products/42140/42140.jpg&width=250&height=250

 http://kitchensync.typepad.com/.a/6a00e54f087cd78834010536c32d5b970b-800wi

 http://www.luxuryhousingtrends.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/brondell-perfect-flush-dual-flush-toilet.jpg

 http://www.greennio.com/images/pro_water_2.jpg

 http://www.nuprana.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/fill%20cycle%20diverter%20picture.jpg

 http://www.poolcenter.com/in_ground_pool_covers.jpg

 http://www.recyclingbins.co.nz/images/bin_hotel.jpg

 http://pro.corbis.com/images/UG002391.jpg?size=67&uid={F3F53D92-96A9-4BBD-A272-933D2B605AE4}

 http://dieline.typepad.com/blog/images/2007/11/18/getclean1.jpg

 http://halmapr.com/news/hanovia/files/2007/04/uv-chamber-pool-water-blog.jpg

 http://www.naturalvisions.co.za/Pictures/Geyser.jpg

 http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1032/853926573_47b796ca7e.jpg

 http://images.frontdoor.com/FDOOR/articles/Architecture-Images/Contemporary.jpg

 http://www.monumentvalleyview.com/images/Eco-friendlyGreen.jpg