Hospitality Study - Going Green

Laurenthia Sherly
Hospitality Study Report
Class: 1-9 [1081 words]

Table of Contents

Introduction

Nowadays, the condition of our earth is no further the same as it was a few years back. The earth has been going through a lot of changes due to this unpleasant matter called global warming. Global warming affects the climate quite badly and creates some problems to environment that spread rapidly. These changes of our precious earth slowly attract people 's attention to build their concern towards this beautiful massive creation. One of the dynamic industries that is recently being extremely concern about going green to prevent further global warming is hospitality industry. Therefore, in the following paragraphs below, I am going to discuss about why hotels and resorts should be going green, what kind of efforts and steps the hotels might be able to take, and the advantages and disadvantages of being environmental conscious.

Why a Hotel Should be Concern About Going Green Hospitality is a very dynamic industry. Hotels and resorts are one of the hospitality industries that are everywhere and keep growing in huge numbers every single year. People are part of the products and these days, people are being more aware towards their environment and society in order to participate to help saving the earth. The reason is because global warming causes troubles that link to a lot of cases related to human and other living things ' health and life conditions, natural disasters, and as well lead to a very limited resources such as water. A research done by “Travelocity” stated “80% of travellers are willing to pay extra to visit an eco-friendly destination” (Anon, 2011) which means people are beginning to appreciate the hotels that show cares to the environment and value the limited resources left. Thus, the hotels have to be very competitive to impress the customers that embrace today 's society.

What the Hotels Can Do to Go Green

LIGHT Hotels are available and open 24 hours per day and 7 days in a week. The activities of the stuffs and the customers will never stop as hotel have restaurants and kitchen, night bar and casino, healthy club, 24 hours reception and else which are always operating. The amount of energy used for the lights, heaters, kitchen 's stuffs, air conditioners and other electricity is absolutely massive. To reduce the expenses for the electricity, hotels could change their system into key card, which is enabled to control the lights and electricity inside the room and disable them automatically when the key is removed.

WATER Other than electricity, water is one of the resources used in the hotels in an excessive amount for swimming pools, kitchen, shower, and laundry. As we know that water is a limited resource and people need to use it very wisely. Solar panel is a new technology invented to decrease the electricity used to heat the water for shower, Jacuzzi, kitchen and spa. When they see how much they have to spend for a solar panel, it definitely requires an unbelievably high cost. However, it has been proved by some hotels that it actually saves lots of money, in a long term period, because it re-uses the water within hotel, filters the water through the shower, and controls the amount released each time. Furthermore, they could as well carry out the 'Gray water recycling program ' where we re-use the water consumed by customers to water all the existing plants in the hotel.

RECYCLING Recycling is the most common method to participate in going green. The easiest thing to do is to provide different trashes for the paper and plastic, cans and normal dustbin. In the other hand, replacing the disposable cups, plastic pods, and paper napkin in restaurants by providing the reusable items such as ceramic or glass cups and cloth napkin is surely a great idea as well as getting rid of the toiletries and change them into refillable wall dispensers to avoid such an excessive waste. The other last big thing that affect the most is turning the hotel into paperless system by displaying menus on television instead of printing colorful paper, and sending the registration and payment confirmation form via email to prevent a massive waste of papers.
GREEN ROOF Green roof is a system of planting green plants on top of the roof, mostly flat roof, with the purpose of absorbing rainwater, providing insulation, and decreasing the air temperature of urban spaces. Some benefits of green roof are prolong the roof 's lifespan, cost saving on heating/cooling bills, create a habitat for small wildlife animals and filter pollutants and carbon dioxide.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Going Green

ADVANTAGES Being conscious to environmental and society gives lots of benefits. Hotels that are going green will definitely have a lower operating cost as they are performing the strategy of sustaining environment. The competitiveness of the hotels will increase as people notice about their awareness towards the earth and people will cherish and appreciate them more. By then, hotels are going to earn recognition through any kind of media in the circumstances including the customers themselves. Lastly, it will reduce the environmental impacts that eventually saves resources, energy, ecosystems, the planet, the future and it basically saves the people themselves.

DISADVANTAGES To maintain the environment healthy and pleasant, there are always disadvantages that somehow prevent the project of going green to go smoothly and successful. Some of them are the extremely high cost to start such as buying solar panel, building rooftop and change into entirely electronic system. Time is being an issue sometimes to totally accomplish the actual planned mission. The horrible thing is that not lots of people are completely participating and committed to go green because, at its worst, people actually do not care at all about it like it 's completely nothing and worthless.

Conclusion

Having read the paragraphs, we should get at least a few ideas why and how we should be aware of sustaining our priceless environment. Hotel is one of the leading industries and we could see how much impacts they make being green altogether and people would immensely value them. There are many things can be done such as recycling, conserve the energy and water by controlling them automatically and electronically, and green roof system. This gives us lots of benefits for examples lower operating expenses, enhance the competition among hotels, and reduce environmental impacts. Nevertheless, the disadvantages found should never bother and discourage people to move forward and let it be the reason of people stop the environmental sustainability as being green actually starts from yourself to take the first step before participates in a bigger move. Thus, it would be a better world when people are being seriously conscious to the environment and society.
References

Schwietert, J. (2009) 10 Steps Hotels Can Take To Go Green [online]. Available from [Accessed: 24th April 2013]

The Free Library (2010) Why Should Hotels Consider Going Green [online]. Available from [Accessed: 24th April 2013]

Schospitality (2011) South Carolina Green Hospitality Alliance [online]. Available from [Accessed: 26th April 2013]

Wolfe, C. (2011) Why Hotels Should Go Green [online]. Available from [Accessed: 25th April 2013]

Rakhit, A. (2012) My Green World [online]. Available from: [Accessed: 23rd April 2013]

Green Hotels & Responsible Tourism Initiative (2010) How to Increase Your Bottom Line By Going Green [online]. Available from < http://green.hotelscombined.com/Gyh- The-Business-Case-For-Sustainability.php>

Top Canadian Hotels (2012) Green Hotel [online]. Available from [Accessed: 26th April 2013]

Wikipedia (2013) Green Roof [online]. Available from [Accessed: 26th April 2013]

Romig, J. (2011) Save the Planet: 14 Benefits of Going Green! [online]. Available from [Accessed: 26th April 2013]

Global Stewards (2013) Go Green Hotels: Green Ideas for Hotels and Resorts [online]. Available from [Accessed: 26th April 2013]

Arqueco Ltda (2010) Manuel Antonio Hotel [Online image]. Available from http://www.amcostarica.com/080910.htm [Accessed: 27th April 2013]

References: Schwietert, J. (2009) 10 Steps Hotels Can Take To Go Green [online]. Available from [Accessed: 24th April 2013] The Free Library (2010) Why Should Hotels Consider Going Green [online]. Available from [Accessed: 24th April 2013] Schospitality (2011) South Carolina Green Hospitality Alliance [online] Wolfe, C. (2011) Why Hotels Should Go Green [online]. Available from [Accessed: 25th April 2013] Rakhit, A Green Hotels & Responsible Tourism Initiative (2010) How to Increase Your Bottom Line By Going Green [online]. Available from < http://green.hotelscombined.com/Gyh- The-Business-Case-For-Sustainability.php> Top Canadian Hotels (2012) Green Hotel [online] Wikipedia (2013) Green Roof [online]. Available from [Accessed: 26th April 2013] Romig, J. (2011) Save the Planet: 14 Benefits of Going Green! [online]. Available from [Accessed: 26th April 2013] Global Stewards (2013) Go Green Hotels: Green Ideas for Hotels and Resorts [online] Arqueco Ltda (2010) Manuel Antonio Hotel [Online image]. Available from http://www.amcostarica.com/080910.htm [Accessed: 27th April 2013]