Environmentalism Is Checking In

Business travelers, meet environmentalism.

More and more, hotel guests are encountering low-flow shower heads, less packaging on toiletries and the option of using towels for more than one day--reflecting growing concern about waste and the potential savings from recycling and conservation.

And business people increasingly are letting the hotels know they support such efforts, according to Patricia Griffin, founder of the Green Hotels Assn. in Houston, a resource group promoting environmental measures in hotels. She says that surveys conducted by hotels and independent agencies show little customer resistance to such changes.

In a recent survey of 300 hotels around the world, Steigenberger Reservation Service, based in New York, found that nearly three out of four (74%) had environmental programs, about 25% of which were started within the last year. The survey also found that guests approved of those efforts; only 3.2% of the mostly-business hotels reporting any negative reaction from guests.

The programs were started in part to answer inquiries from people looking to base at least some of their travel decisions on environmental considerations, Steigenberger spokesman Roger Ellis said.

Hotels have made conservation standard policy. The Ritz Carlton Huntington Hotel in Pasadena recycles 20% of waste, including paper, cardboard, bottles, plastics and newspapers. It also saves energy by keeping corridors cooler in winter and warmer in summer, although guests still control their own room temperatures, spokeswoman Landry Kimbrough said.

Radisson Hotels International has designated 15 of its West Coast hotels testing sites for Los Angeles-based Green Suites, a company that retrofits hotel rooms with air and water filters and supplies biodegradable soap and shampoo and recycled paper products. Radisson also has started its own brand of biodegradable, non-animal-tested toiletries.

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The Hyatt Regency in Irvine is testing a fuel cell that produces heat and electricity from natural gas.

Many hotels have switched to low-wattage light bulbs. And some have dropped the packaged toiletries usually left in guest bathrooms in favor of refillable soap and shampoo dispensers.

Still others conserve water with low-flow showers, or have automated thermostats that reduce the heat in rooms during the day.

And there are other ideas in the works. A few respondents to the SRS survey said they were considering handing out free passes for public transportation to guests.

Some hotels in the Hilton chain are eliminating wire clothes hangers and plastic bags from the laundry service, using phosphate-free detergents, and, in one case, recycling food wastes into fertilizer to be used at the hotel. Some properties reported saving between $4,000 and $50,000 through their environmental efforts.

Another area of interest for hotels is reducing the laundry operation to conserve water and other resources, Griffin said.

The association supplies printed cards for placement on towel racks or night stands so that guests can notify housekeeping as to whether towels or sheets need to be changed. Standard practice is to change all towels and bedding every day, she said, but some guests prefer not to waste the water if their towels and sheets don’t really need to be washed. So far, Griffin said she has distributed more than 95,000 towel rack cards and 65,000 bed linens cards.

In Germany and elsewhere in Europe, some hotels leave cards saying that maids will replace towels left on the floor but not those left on the rack.

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Griffin said the movement won’t really take off until hotels get more positive reinforcement.

“Hotels are so afraid of insulting even one guest,” she said.

“Business travelers, who travel much more than anyone else, have a lot more influence,” she said. “Hotels definitely listen to what they have to say on this.”