Talking Point: How can hotels switch employees on to energy saving?

Claire Maugham, Director of Policy and Communications at Smart Energy GB says employees are a crucial resource in good energy management at any hotel and keeping them switched on to sustainability is really important. In today’s Talking Point she describes some ways to keep employees fully engaged on the energy front.

Many of the small changes required to save energy in hotels across the globe are the same as those in the home – even if they are sometimes on a larger scale.

Whether it’s turning down the heating and air conditioning, turning lighting and other appliances off, or trying to save hot water, there is a plethora of ways to tap into the behaviours that employees and guests are already aware of. Drawing on experience in the home and topical sustainability events can be a great way to encourage behaviour change and get employees thinking about energy – at work as well as at home.

For example, in Great Britain, the rollout of energy smart meters to every home is providing an opportunity for hospitality employers to engage with their staff on sustainability issues like never before. Some hotel staff are likely to already have smart meters in their homes and others will be offered the opportunity to upgrade shortly.

Smart meters are installed by energy suppliers, and they show consumers how much energy they are using in pounds and pence, in near real time. The new technology is encouraging people across Britain to change the way they use energy, with eight in ten people with smart meters taking steps to reduce energy waste at home.

The national rollout presents the perfect opportunity to inspire energy behaviour change in workplaces. Simply put, behaviour change in the home is vital to make consumers and employees smarter and greener at work too.

Smart Energy GB worked with Hilton Worldwide's Energy and Environment Manager, to coordinate a session at Hilton’s head office to share information about smart meters with their staff. Encouraging employees at all levels to understand the concept of smart energy helps receptiveness for further smart energy initiatives.

A guide for employers

How to engage employees with energy saving is a challenge that the International Tourism Partnership has been working on with the Carbon Trust.

They have produced this easy to use guide for employers. The guide explains how to design and run an energy efficiency awareness campaign in the workplace, including giving practical advice to employees on how they can benefit from getting a smart meter and saving energy at home. You can download a copy at smartenergyGB.org/employers, or get started with the tips below.

Tips for kick-starting engagement with energy efficiency

• To engage employees you need to be creative

Homes, personal experiences and saving money, are topics that can help make a campaign relevant to your employees.

Creative campaigns can provide information on sustainability options outside the office, such as transport or energy saving at home, to make a connection with workplace behaviour.

User-generated content is always popular and effective at bringing campaigns to life – ask your employees for their views and stories to really engage them in the subject.

• Make data visual

People respond well to visual data. If you have smart/half-hourly metering in the workplace you could use the data it provides to help employees feel more connected to their energy use at home and at work.

• Tap in to a range of motivations

Look at people’s existing values and motivations and build specific behaviour change campaigns around those. For example, a campaign around productivity gains from planning and daily routine changes are more relevant to staff than a campaign addressing costs and carbon.

Source: Green Hotelier

Marriott latest hotel group to align CSR with the Global Goals

Marriott International launched the group’s new CSR strategy called Serve 360 and is the latest global group to align responsible business activities with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Marriott's Serve 360 Empower commitments

The company says that the new sustainability and social impact initiative is designed to foster business growth while balancing the needs of associates, customers, owners, the environment and communities.

Called Serve 360: Doing Good in Every Direction, the platform includes commitments for 2025 to:

• Reduce water by 15%, carbon by 30%, waste by 45% and food waste by 50%
• Contribute 15 million associate volunteer hours, 25% of which will be skills-based, to capitalize on personal talents and core business skills
• Train 100% of associates to know the signs of human trafficking
• Embed human rights criteria in recruitment and sourcing policies

Ray Bennett, Chief Global Officer, Global Operations at Marriott International and Serve 360 Executive Leadership Council Co-Chair said, “As the global hospitality leader with properties and associates across 125 countries and territories, Marriott International has a global responsibility and unique opportunity to be a force for good in all aspects of our business – from helping to reduce carbon and water use to providing our associates with human trafficking awareness training.

“We recognise that how we do business is as important as the business that we do. Incorporating environmental and social initiatives, including human rights awareness training, into our business is not only the right thing to do, it has a direct impact on our profits and beyond.”

Guided by the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, Marriott created Serve 360 to guide the company’s commitment and deliver positive results through four priority areas or “coordinates”:

• Nurture Our World – Advancing the resiliency and development of our communities.
• Sustain Responsible Operations – Reducing the company’s environmental impacts, sourcing responsibly and building and operating sustainable hotels.
• Empower Through Opportunity – Helping people prepare for jobs in the hospitality industry.
• Welcome All & Advance Human Rights – Creating a safe and welcoming world for associates and travellers alike.

Tricia Primrose, Global Chief Communications Officer at Marriott International and Serve 360 Executive Leadership Council Co-Chair said, “Building off our 2007 Sustainability goals, Marriott is proud to issue our next generation of goals, inclusive of social and human rights targets to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges.

“Associates and customers want to work for and do business with a company that aligns with their values and drives positive community impact. We are proud to be part of the solution.”

The platform also builds on Marriott’s support for ITP’s Goals and Vision for 2030. The International Tourism Partnership is the hotel industry’s voice for sustainability, leading the sector to a fairer future for all. The organisation launched Goals on carbon, water, youth employment and human rights, supported by its members. They are:

• YOUTH EMPLOYMENT: Collectively impact one million young people through employability programmes by 2030, thereby doubling the members’ current impact on youth unemployment.
• CARBON: Embrace science-based targets, and encourage the wider industry to join in reducing emissions at scale
• WATER: Embed water stewardship programmes to reduce the number of people affected by water scarcity; also improve water-use efficiency and identify ways to address water scarcity.
• HUMAN RIGHTS: Raise awareness of human rights risks, embed human rights into corporate governance, and address risks arising in the labour supply chain and during hotel construction.

Learn more about Serve 360 and Marriott’s commitments here.

Source: Green Hotelier

Commitment to the surrounding communities at Alaya Tulum

Alaya Tulum Hotel in Mexico shows a strong commitment to the surrounding communities by creating employment opportunities and by promoting sustainable development among the local region.

Alaya Tulum participated in the Green Key Best Practice Competition 2017 organized earlier this year with the theme “partnership and local engagement for sustainable development”. In January 2017, the hotel established a partnership with a family business of one of the employees at the hotel. The business is a 3 hectare organic farm called ‘Lemons’ 150 km from Tulum and it provides produce exclusively for Alaya Tulum Hotel. Through its operation, the farm provides work for a family of 4 people.

The sustainable production entails a better way of using existing resources at the farm, it promotes recycling of nutrients and helps improve the soil.  Organic production is based on the integration of practices of tilling the field, which includes a great amount of labour. This generates employment in the same area or region and prevents leakage of foreign exchange in the procurement of external inputs.  

There are several benefits of organic farming, which include:

• No use of chemicals, pesticides or fertilizers
• The produce has a flavor, color and aroma of the highest quality
• The produce contains more vitamins, minerals and antioxidants

The locally produced products also help in preventing global warming, as the transportation lengths are minimized and by purchasing produce from the farm, Alaya Tulum supports the local economy.

Through their established partnership, the farm delivers produce to the hotel 3 times a week. The produce and amounts (per month) include:

• 2000 pieces of coconut
• 200 parts of pineapple
• 160 kg lemons
• 640 kg oranges
• 20 kg dragon fruit
• 12 kg habanero chili

The goal of Alaya Tulum is to maintain the relationship with the family business and to start working with new suppliers in order to increase the variety of products and the number of deliveries to the hotel. The hotel also want to offer more new and healthy dishes on their menu. In addition to their existing partnership, the hotel also encourages the use of organic, fair trade- labelled, ecolabelled and locally produced products when purchasing.   

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Water is not cheap, it is invaluable

A bit more than a year ago , the International Tourism Partnership (ITP) launched the Hotel Water Measurement Initiative (HWMI) to support the hotel sector towards consistent measuring and reporting of its water use. HWMI is now used by more than 12,000 properties, which is very encouraging news for water stewardship progress in the hotel sector.

The launch of HWMI was a collective step of 18 hotel companies towards better measurement and benchmarking of their water use, which will pave the way for ambitious and thorough water stewardship policies. As the severity of water risk is increasing worldwide (see which countries will be the most water-stressed in 2040 here), ITP’s Programme Manager, Nicolas Perin, asks what challenges lay ahead for hotels to play their part?

“Water is cheap”. ITP stakeholder dialogue events and discussions from the recent BITC Smart Water Knowledge Swap event have all confirmed that the low price of water is still one of the main obstacles preventing more significant investment in water programmes. It is, unfortunately, easier to convince a board or CFO to invest capital expenditure in projects that will reduce carbon emissions than on water projects. Low carbon and energy efficiency projects not only benefit from wide public awareness and support, they also have a much shorter payback period due to the rising price of energy worldwide. Few investments are made if they exceed the 3 year-payback timeline: they simply won’t be considered. This is the case for many potential corporate water initiatives. But the cost of water goes beyond the modest numbers on a utility bill.

Here are 6 reasons to value water more than it costs:

1) Water costs are exponential in times of drought

Recent droughts in Rome and California are grim reminders of the impact that water shortages can have on local hotels and communities. In California, the six years of recent and still ongoing drought cost consumers $2.4 billion in higher power costs and led to an 8% increase in carbon dioxide emissions from the state’s power plants as they turned to natural gas to make up shortfalls in hydropower.

2) Less water use means smaller energy costs

Improving water efficiency leads to smaller water bills but can also considerably impact energy consumption. BITC’s Smart Water Report highlights several examples of companies saving up to 50% of their water-related energy costs when improving recycling and treatment systems.

3) Water treatment costs can be considerable

The discharge of wastewater without adequate treatment can lead to pollution of local water bodies, and decrease the attractiveness of tourism destinations. In particular, eutrophication can directly affect the potential value of adjacent hotels. Academic studies suggest that leisure and residential properties can be devalued by as much as 25% as a result of consistently poor water quality (Wood and Handley, 1999).

Research done by Megan Epler Wood and her team at Harvard Extension School and published this year in “Sustainable Tourism on a Finite Planet” shows that preventing water pollution can also bring economic opportunities for hoteliers. Hotel properties who invested in innovative treatment levels such as constructed wetlands managed to treat their waste water at a lower cost both in the short term (those systems cost 50% less than conventional systems to install and operate) and the long term. The payback periods of such systems were between 2 and 3 years for a 350 rooms property through avoiding local sewer and water fees (representing over $650,000 annual savings).

4) Tourism relies on water to attract

Water pollution can also cause more indirect costs to the tourism economy. The US Environmental Protection Agency highlights that the tourism industry loses close to $1 billion each year through losses in fishing and boating activities in polluted water bodies. The industry can also suffer economic damages when the availability and productivity of local staff are affected by illnesses due to poor water sanitation. A study of the economic impacts of sanitation in Cambodia shows that drinking water access can have an economic cost up to $94 million annually.

5) Investors expect good water stewardship

There is a growing movement towards transparency on corporate water practices, which takes shape every year through the CDP report on water disclosure. Investors managing more than $64 trillion in assets expect companies to better manage water risk. In the latest report, more than a quarter of companies reported detrimental impacts from water on their business in 2016. They suffered $14 billion of water-related impacts, 5 times more than in 2015.

6) Water is not just an environmental issue

The water crisis has snowballing impacts on a global scale, beyond the direct cost to businesses. They are closely intertwined with effects of climate change, causing conflict and large-scale human migration (see an excellent article and studies from the World Resource Institute). With war and migration come many other risks to human rights, such as forced labour and human trafficking, which businesses worldwide are expected to address in their operations and supply chain. The International Tourism Partnership works with its members on addressing all these issues, in which water stewardship plays a central role.

Source: Green Hotelier

Hotels can adopt seafood supply chain Code of Practice to protect human rights

A new Code of Practice which includes labour rights issues at sea will help hotels check their seafood supply chains.

Human Rights at Sea has announced its close involvement in the Steering Group for the development of the Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 1550:2017, which concerns a new voluntary Code of Practice for due diligence and fair working practices in the fisheries sector. 

The document's full title is PAS 1550:2017 Exercising due diligence in establishing the legal origin of seafood products and marine ingredients - importing and processing - Code of Practice.

Human Rights at Sea - a charitable organisation - worked alongside 15 other stakeholders including the British Retail Consortium (BRC), ClientEarth, Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), FishWise, Food and Drink Federation (FDF), Lovering Foods Ltd., Marine Management Organisation (MMO), MRAG Ltd., Oceana, The Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew), Seafish, UK Seafood Industry Alliance, Tesco Stores Limited, Wm. Morrison Supermarkets plc and WWF.

As a Code of Practice, this PAS takes the form of guidance and recommendations. It incorporates labour issues and considers illegal treatment of crew on fishing vessels to be linked with illegal fishing. It's long been recognised that the industry - including shrimps and prawns and the canning of tuna - has human rights issues for employees. One of the aims of this PAS is to help enable decent working conditions to be provided not only on board vessels but at all factories, work stations and during all activities throughout supply chains.

The PAS builds on the BRC Advisory Note for the UK supply chain on how to avoid Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishery products, which was published in February 2015, by including in addition, aspects of traceability as well as social elements. The PAS is aimed at processors and importers and gives recommendations on: the considerations within a due diligence system in order to minimise the risk of IUU seafood in the supply chain; the considerations to minimise the risk of a lack of decent conditions at work in the supply chain; and what traceability systems are used to deliver the ability to verify the claim.

Ensuring suppliers are aware of and are adopting the PAS will help hoteliers ensure their seafood supply chain is free of human rights issues.

A PAS is a document that standardises elements of a product, service or process. PASs are usually commissioned by industry leaders - be they individual companies, SMEs, trade associations or government departments.

The PAS was developed with the financial support of the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Oceana, The Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew) and WWF) Its development was facilitated by BSI Standards Limited and it was published under licence from The British Standards Institution (BSI). It came into effect on 31 July 2017.

It's possible to request a free copy from this website.

Source: Green Hotelier

HUMAN = EARTH – Klaus K Hotel´s environmental work resembles their essence

In the lobby of Green Key awarded Klaus K Hotel you can feel impressed – and look a bit funny, as a magnificent 3D photo exhibition takes you to journey into Finnish nature. The exhibition portrays humans as inseparable parts of nature and earth. Let´s put on some 3D classes.

Design hotel Klaus K lies in the heart of capital of Finland, Helsinki. HUMAN = EARTH artworks picture Finnish nature: swamps, rocks, rain and woods. They lure to touch the branches and dive into cold water, to take you from the hotel lobby to the forest. You can almost feel the rain drops on your cheeks.

“Nature has been proved to help to recover from stress, forget the things that worry your mind and uplift your spirits. We chose to present artworks of nature because we want to remind our customers to spend time in the nature,” Klaus K´s hotel and marketing manager Tero Thynell says.

Kämp Collection Hotels', part of which Klaus K is, environmental policy focuses on a dream of a greener world - Green Dream. Green Dream is a practice which aims to enhance environmental awareness and set targets through everyday activities. All the Kämp Collection Hotels have been Green Key certified to have support on their journey towards the Green Dream.

As Klaus K has a strong brand as a design hotel that showcases Finnish design and art, artworks of nature is a natural way to resemble their Green Dream.

The artworks of the exhibition were created in collaboration by TVPR Creative design agency and WWOOLLFF CO. clothing brand. More info on Klaus K website.

Online reviews featuring social and environmental initiatives score higher

A recent study reveals that there is a correlation between mentions of social or environmental initiatives in online reviews and hotel ratings.

The recent study in the Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism shows a correlation between customers who mention social or environmental initiatives in online reviews and how they rate hotels. The research showed that reviews with explicit mentions of sustainability was 4.75 while reviews with implicit mentions of sustainability was 4.32 and reviews with no mention of sustainability was 4.17.

Initiatives with high scores for explicit and implicit sustainability mentions in the reviews mention sustainable management, education, biodiversity, wildlife conservation and sustainable products. Despite the promising results, the socially or environmentally responsible practices factored in in reviews might be considered low with an occurrence of 31.7% and 6.8% implicit and explicit mentions respectively. Another factor worth noting is that all the hotels in the study had a sustainability certification. These certifications often have levels, e.g. 1 through 5 or bronze, silver, gold and platinum.

When breaking down the explicit mentions of sustainability (6.8%), hotels with a Level 5 certification received nearly 19% mentions while hotels with Level 1 received only 2.1%. This indicates that hotels with a higher and more broadly integrated level of sustainability are more likely to leave an impression on the guests.

The results of the study point to a business case for investing in sustainability certification, as a strong certification means implementing sustainability throughout the organization and operations, thus becoming more noticeable to guests.  

Source: Travindy

First Green Key video now available

Green Key International is in the process of making a video series explaining the programme, its criteria and the application process, and the first video, an Introduction to Green Key, is now ready!

Click on the image to open the video in a new browser window or scroll down to see the video in this post. 

With the video series, we aim to make our programme and our criteria more approachable with an easy to understand, visual format. This first video provides an overview of Green Key and its different components and you are more than welcome to utilize the video in your channels!

Our coming videos are going to explain the Green Key criteria and the application process in more detail.

Do you have an idea for a Green Key video? Let us know by contacting us at the Head Office! 

Green Key present at sustainable tourism conference in Kaunas, Lithuania

Within the frames of the UN Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development 2017, a Sustainable tourism conference for the Kaunas region in Lithuania was held on 23 November 2017.

The conference was initiated with a funny video interviewing people about their knowledge about sustainable tourism. Not surprisingly, many did not know the meaning of the word "Sustainability", so the conclusion after the video was that everyone working with sustainable tourism should explain the meaning of sustainability without necessarily mentioning the word.

The Ministry of Economy (Tourism Department) presented the sustainable tourism strategy in Lithuania as well as the figures for tourism in the Kaunas region. The representative encouraged conference participants to use 2018, as 100 years of Lithuania as a country, to promote sustainable tourism and the natural beauty of the country. Other tourism experts explained how sustainable tourism fits with the UN Sustainable Development goals.

In the conference, Green Key International Director, Finn Bolding Thomsen and National Operator, Renaldas Rimivicius had the opportunity to present Green Key with focus on the eligibility of the programme for small accommodations. The environmental manager at Green Key awarded Park Inn by Radisson hotel in Kaunas gave a presentation about the environmental and social work of the hotel leading to the Green Key award.

Finn Bolding Thomsen was also interviewed about Green Key for the regional TV station. The reporter wanted to know more about Green Key and the benefits of joining the programme as well as observations that Bolding Thomsen made about the Green Key awarded hotel where the conference was held.

For our Lithuanian speaking followers, click on the picture to see the interview with Bolding Thomsen by Init TV (starting at 21:00).