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Are you really green?

Another way that has seen success is actually letting the guest know that their efforts at conservation are recognised.

“One of our primary methods of spreading environmental awareness amongst our guests is through a magazine which is kept in all the 245 rooms of the hotel.

The hotel also has a linen reuse program for guests who stay for more than one night. A guest who reuses their linen is given a certificate along with a gift for reusing their linen.

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Each room in the hotel also has a master control panel to control the lighting and temperature of the room that has an eco-button which when pressed, increases the temperature of the room by two degrees without affecting guest comfort.

Guests who press the eco-button are given a certificate upon checkout which appreciates their efforts towards reducing energy,” says Akshay Gavai, Environment Officer, The Orchid, Mumbai.

Umesh Tandon, Sales Manager Everstyle Hotel Supplies India, suppliers of tableware brands like Robbe & Berking , Eisch , Urban Bar and Fuerstenberg, says “It mostly depends on how far the hotel management would go with eco friendly initiatives. Cost benefits and guest preferences are the top two reasons why hotels opt for ‘green’ practices.

Luxury hotel chains are the ones focusing more on green products as they are more attuned to international trends and the clientele too is more aware and inclined to make environment friendly choices. However, what is seen are hotels compromising on quality due to high costs”.

Giving an example he says, “We have introduced Chilewich basket weave placemats which are made of durable, easy to clean textiles that can help restaurants reduce both energy and laundry costs, but due to high initial costs, hoteliers would rather look for cheaper alternatives which might not be cost effective in the long run.”

Vijay KS, manager sales, Aesthetix Solutions, vendors for integrated AV technology, HVAC, lighting and security systems agrees “Green label for hotels is only partly true as it promotes more of guest participation initiatives such as eco friendly stationary, towel reuse, and plastic recycling bins for marketing of hotels, but for back of the house operations such as HVAC, lighting management and hot water recycling, many hotels are reluctant to implement green technologies because of the costs involved.

It is the luxury segment hotels that are opting for energy efficient systems and advanced technologies such as use of key cards to turn on the power in the room or the latest RFID cards.”

He adds “It also depends on the architect and designers of the property, if they incorporate eco friendly systems during the construction stage.

Sometimes due to budget constraints customers go for cheaper alternatives, which might claim to be eco friendly, but are not. That’s the sort of green labeling the public is objecting to.”

In all what hotels are doing is being increasingly scrutinised not just by the environmentalists but also by organisations like the Indian Green Building Council.

As S Srinivas, Principal Counsellor says, “hotels are uniquely positioned to make a difference as far as the environment is concerned as they can use automation and building technologies that help conserve energy, water and recycle and reduce carbon footprint.

When we started 10 years ago, hotels was a sector that was most challenging to convince to go green. But that has changed oday and we have hotels implementing this in spirit.

ITC Gardenia at Bangalore transplanted 100-year old trees which is commendable.”