With properties frequently clustered in low-lying coastal areas, rising sea levels, coastal erosion, increasing frequency and ferocity of storms are some threats the hospitality sector is already facing from climate change. It requires hotels to rethink building design, construction, geographic location and operational practices.
Sustainable tourism provides opportunities and solutions for how the industry can become an active player in addressing climate change. This includes reducing its carbon footprint by embracing renewable energy, eliminating single use plastics, supporting energy conservation to decrease carbon emissions and reforestation.
LOOK BEYOND
Real environmental action goes beyond the basics of green practices. It means investment in technological innovation. Make a decision to eliminate plastic from the hotel supply chain, starting with all plastic water bottles on the property.
Hotels can, and should, set sustainability goals and then have a system for measuring and monitoring progress towards these goals. For example, to reduce energy consumption and conserve water use, a property needs to first measure its energy and water usage. It can then calculate its progress towards conserving water and energy.
COST OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The truth is that it costs a hotel less money to pollute the environment; it is cheaper to send waste to a landfill than to recycle it. This short-term thinking for short-term gain will destroy nature, harm our planet, contribute to climate change, and force future generations to pay for this environmental damage.
We need to put the ‘eco’ back into economy and that is where sustainable tourism best practices come in. In other words, hotels need a real P&L statement that includes the costs of their environment impact.
There are many ways for hotels to save money by wasting less and being more sustainable. For instance, it can invest in a self-bottling water purification system rather than buying plastic water bottles.
Similarly, a solar array can generate renewable energy removing the property’s dependence on fossil fuel
consumption. The bigger issue is that a hotel should engage in sustainable best practices because it is
the right thing to do both now and for future generations.
A truly sustainable hotel owner and operator company understand their responsibility towards sustainability. They will adopt a holistic approach that supports protecting cultural and natural heritage, while balancing social and economic benefits.
