Sustainability in hotel design, construction, and operations is more important now than at any point in history. However, while the need for greener inputs and outcomes is known to both consumers and businesses, there has been a stunning lack of progress and innovation in how hotels seek to become more sustainable. While some brands and business areas have put in more effort or seen more results than others, the industry still has a long way to go in its fight against climate change.
The good news for small and medium size businesses is that some of the most substantial actions they can take to become more sustainable are both better for the bottom line and in line with consumer desires. TripAdvisor found in a survey of travelers back in 2012 that over 60% opted for more environmentally friendly travel options, and that share has only grown with time. Ascension Associates can guide brands on how to make the most from their sustainability initiatives, while avoiding the pitfalls.
Straws Aren’t Cutting it Anymore
It started with a video of a turtle. The 2015 viral video of a sea turtle having a plastic straw removed from its nose generated a tremendous amount of blowback to single use plastic use in commercial businesses. And rightfully so, as single-use plastic products are extremely damaging to the environment, being incapable of biodegrading and doing damage to animals and ecosystems in the form of microplastics.
Hotels and other businesses, feeling the social pressure from this viral video, “banned” or removed straws from their operations, which for most brands meant only offering straws by request. While this move really amounted to very little societal change in the way straws are consumed, it illustrates the larger problem with hotel brands’ approach to sustainability: it’s all about what looks good and what is easiest to implement across the entire company. The goal isn’t systemic change or progression toward agreed upon climate change prevention goals.
Take Marriott’s single use shower toiletries change. The company began the transition away from these products in 2018, switching to bulk shower amenities in thousands of its hotels. The company claims this change has prevented 1.7 million pounds of plastic from ending up in landfills, a 30% reduction in amenity plastic usage. While working in one of the hotels that made this transition, I witnessed first hand what this actually meant. The bulk amenities were used up over the span of several months, and then once empty, they were tossed into the trash. While this might have prevented guests from adding plastic to landfills, the hotels themselves were still contributing their own plastic to landfills, albeit more slowly.
Actions like these, which lead to small declines in emissions or waste, really aren’t cutting it in an age where time is of the essence. Hotels should look for bolder solutions to these problems, and by doing so, they could further bolster the bottom line.
Creative Solutions to Perpetual Problems
Let’s take a look at the shower toiletries problem once more. Plastic still made its way to a landfill, since the bulk amenity bottles were not refilled but replaced with newly purchased ones. But what if the bottles could be refilled? Could we take the amount of plastic making its way to landfills to virtually zero? With strategic partnerships and some creative thinking, this becomes a distinct possibility.
For example, refill stores are popping up all over the country. Directed primarily toward consumers, these stores allow customers to bring in their own containers to purchase products including soaps, detergents, and toothpaste from larger bulk containers (barrels in some cases) which are themselves filled directly from manufacturing or distribution locations. The larger bulk containers are reused, with the company that manufacturers the product picking up empty containers and dropping off filled ones, creating in essence a zero waste economy, where virtually zero plastic ends up in a landfill.
Hotels are perfect proving grounds for this type of sustainable operation. By implementing a zero-waste operations like the one above, hotels have the ability to not only save a significant amount of plastic from entering our ecosystems, but are able to cut costs by only paying for the materials used, and not the containers and packaging that transports them. The limiting factors in this case are the availability of such vendors around the country and the specific “needs” of the brands, including varieties of toiletries and amenities employed. These types of partnerships are certainly easier for independent or regional brands to pursue, but the point is that truly sustainable operations aren’t achieved by moving between two forms of the same idea.
Understanding Your Scope
For hotels to understand the impact of their operations, they need to be viewed through the scope emissions model. Scope emissions are at levels one, two, or three, and can either come upstream or downstream of a business’ operations. Scope one emissions are defined as the emissions coming directly from fuels burned for company operations, so think of gas in company cars or heating oil burned to power company equipment. Scope two emissions are the emissions from purchased energy like electricity or steam. Scope 3 emissions are everything else, which for most businesses including hotels will make up the bulk of emissions. Understanding both what each category of emissions entails and also what category each person in hotel operations and development is able to influence can jump start sustainability solutions.
For example, hotel developers and owners can design and build their hotels with scope one and two emissions in mind, installing solar panels to procure their own electricity or forgoing heating oil in favor of biofuels for onsite generators. Hotel general managers and other operations-minded employees will have a lot of influence over scope 3 emissions, including which vendors they buy from, how units are serviced or maintained, even influencing guest behaviors in some instances. Empowering employees to make the right operational decisions that reduce scope 3 emissions is key for any meaningful movement of the needle here.
All this being said, every hotel and brand will need to evaluate what will work best for them. Removing straws from the hotel restaurant is a lot easier than creating a consumable recycling plan or installing solar panels. However, for brands that want to demonstrate a concerted effort to tackle climate change, it’s go big or go home.
Sustainability Sells
Guests want more environmental accountability from the brands they use, and Ascension Associates can help small or medium sized hospitality brands build sustainable operations and communicate that to guests. Contact us today at clients@ascension-consulting.com or through our online form to see how we can help your hospitality brand ascend today.