Just Don’t Put Soy Milk in My Coffee

May 5, 2008 | Uncategorized

Yesterday I was one of about a dozen people who volunteered to help clean the shoreline of a park along a bay near where we live. I quickly developed a totally new perspective on Styrofoam. And slobs.

While climbing about the rocks, filling bags with assorted trash, I got to thinking about a major travel trade show I had attended just about a year earlier.

Rocks to trade show, you’re wondering, but just stay with me here.

The link in my thinking was that I remembered at that show most companies positioned themselves as “green.” It seemed that just about every hotel, car company and tourist attraction had miraculously turned into a raving environmentalist over night.

Not knowing if it was just me, or whether others shared my perception, I casually mentioned to a few people that I wondered if all the environmental flags being waved about were more hype than substance. Interestingly, each of the several people I asked — all in the tourism industry — nodded yes.

This miraculous “greening” of the hotels was publicized in many press releases, no doubt, as well as on small signs placed in guest rooms. Such-and-such hotel was environmentally friendly, they said, because the property recycled, and guests were being asked not to have their towels washed every day.

I don’t think it took anyone with more than a fifth-grade education to figure out that not washing towels did more to save the hotel money than to save the planet. And much of that recycling was probably mandated by local law.

Looking back now, it’s incredible how things have changed in a year’s time.

Today hotels are rushing to develop new environmental policies that impact recycling, energy and waste-water. New hotels are being built that utilize solar panels, safer paints and carpets made of recycled materials. Some now provide free parking to guests who arrive in hybrid cars. They’re becoming very inventive and attentive in developing real green policies.

Do you want to take a guess regarding who is responsible for motivating the industry — or, at least, motivating the big hotel chains — to get really serious about environmental standards? And no, it wasn’t any environmental group.

It was corporate America.

What has happened is that in the past year some of the industry’s big corporate customers have been pressuring hotel chains to substantiate all their green-talk. It has, in fact, become a real issue. Many meeting planners, for example, are asking about a hotel’s recycling program and water and energy policies, putting environmental issues smack in the middle of the table when negotiating for meetings and conventions.

It’s amazing how much the green movement has been embraced by popular culture. It was likely this sea change in consumer thinking that prompted corporate America to play it safe and jump on the environmental bandwagon. After all, why risk the wrath of environmental bloggers or stock holders when there are greener pastures in another lobby right down the street?

I think most people would agree this is good for both the industry and the planet, especially when you look at what is now happening at just a few companies.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has announced the development of a new brand, ELEMENT hotels, which will pursue the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design program (LEED) certification in development of all its properties. Its first hotel — scheduled to open this July in Lexington, MA — will be a “working laboratory” to test the latest green products, design and operations.

Marriott International, in addition to increasing environmental initiatives at its properties, has also committed $2 million to protect an Amazon rainforest from deforestation. By the end of this year, says Marriott, guests will be able to calculate the cost of greenhouse emissions related to stays at their hotels and contribute to the fund through a carbon-offset plan.

Sofitel Hotels recently announced its intention to purchase wind-generated energy for its nine U.S. properties through Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), the first company to do it chain-wide in the U.S. market.

Kimpton Hotels, for several years considered the standard-bearer for environmental action in its 42 properties, today features low-energy lighting, non-toxic housekeeping cleaning products, in-room recycling bins and the printing of all materials (including its brochures) on recycled paper with soy-based ink. Many of its properties even provide a discount if you drive up in a hybrid car.

But when you come right down to it, I think most people support the industry going green — just as long as it doesn’t impact on their comfort. I admit that I’m one of them.

I think it’s great that Kimpton is using soy-based ink for printing, just don’t ask me to use soy milk in my morning coffee. And at that beach resort — well, I love the sea breeze but we need to keep the A/C cranked up on those hot and humid days.

But, in reality, comfort and luxury needn’t suffer just because a hotel shows concern for the environment. Hoteliers can be very inventive. In fact, almost every month there seems to be another luxury hotel or resort popping up somewhere in the world that demonstrates that. In the future I don’t think anyone needs to fear a downturn in hotel luxury or a radical upturn in hotel costs due to the greening of the industry. This is an area where we’ll likely be able to have our cake and eat it too.

Better yet, since tourism is the largest industry in the world — and according to the UN a key driver for socio-economic progress — perhaps the greening of tourism may be the engine to help motivate the rest of us.

Jim Ferri