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My Ultimate Hotel Guide for an Eco-Friendly Stay

Posted by Nicole

After skimming through my previous posts, which mentioned what hotels and organisations do to reduce the negative impacts, I have decided to touch on what we as guests could do to ensure we make minimal damage to our environment while staying in hotels. We should not rely on hotels’ and organisations’ efforts to change things.

Before I begin, I understand that all of us have different outlooks about the environment, hence we have different habits and behaviours when staying in hotels. Some of us believe that the hotel has no obvious impacts on the environment, and would not consciously have the environmental mindset when staying in hotels. Meanwhile, a handful of us would be environmentally conscious. Personally, I opined that it is alright to stay comfortably in hotels without our convenience compromised, only if we are conscious of our actions being harmless to the environment. Here are some of my tips!

Summary of my ideas!

First tip: Research and plan before you go.

Before you go on a trip, it may be helpful to calculate your carbon and water footprint. You may refer to the few online tools in one of my previous posts. This helps you to plan out your journey during your trip to reduce these numbers. In addition, planning on which hotel to stay is important as well. Choosing a hotel that supports the environment through their actions is recommended. Or if you would like to enrich your travel by staying in an Airbnb, you can find an Airbnb that produces a low carbon and water footprint. Lastly, planning your trip will ensure you bring the right amount of items. Imagine a situation where you bring too little shampoo. You will end up buying these items just for your trip, but you may not continue using it at home, hence it will be unnecessary and it adds on to environmental waste

Second tip: The important “Do Not Disturb” sign.

During your short stay, sometimes you feel that it is not necessary to change your bedsheet and have your towels changed every single day. By hanging the “Do Not Disturb” sign at your door, it informs staff to not enter and clean your room. Imagine if many of us were to do that, less water is used to wash the items. This saves so much water! Another benefit would certainly be helping staff reduce their workload!

Third tip: Your voices matter.

As hotels want the best for their customers, most hotels value customer feedback. Should you have any improvements on how the hotel can better manage their environmental conservation efforts, writing into the hotel’s management may be useful. If everyone were to be aware and provide their feedback, this incentives hotels to take necessary actions to curb their actions. Have a brilliant idea to reduce environmental damage? Let hotels know about it!

Do you have any other ideas? Do let me know!

Cheers,

Nicole

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7Bg4_W-guI&feature=youtu.be (Take a look at this youtube video about Hyatt taking part in Clean the World!)

Organisations’ role

Posted by Nicole

Hi everyone! We have been talking about the roles that hotels and guests play in reducing hotels’ wastage. Apart from them, non-governmental organisations do play a role as well. These organisations come up with initiatives and innovative programmes, to curb the high hotel’s wastage. Let’s take a look at a couple of them.

1) Clean the World

Clean the World is indeed one of my favourite environmental organisations given their unique way of reducing hotel’s waste, in particular, soap waste. Volunteers at Clean the World repackage unwanted soap and their plastic bottles from hotels into brand new packaging, and give it to those who are less fortunate. (source) This initiative not only aims to protect the environment by reducing waste generated by hotels, it also helps the less fortunate by giving them clean soaps. Hopefully, more and more hotels will embark on this project, making the world a much better place.

While looking at their website, I thought of a few ideas. Perhaps this project could be extended to Singapore as well! Similarly, besides soap, maybe bedroom slippers which are opened from their packaging but are still in mint condition can be washed or redesigned. These bedroom slippers could also be given to the less fortunate.

2) Hands for Hunger

Non-profit Hands for Hunger aims to collect foods from different places such as restaurants and hotels, and donate them to the less fortunate through partnering organisations. (source) While hotels are not the main target group to reduce waste, this organisation still helps hotels reduce their food wastage, and hence helping the environment. Many hotels do have a substantial amount of food wastage. For instance, certain hotels do have buffet for meals and buffet is more likely to bring about food waste.

All these organisations help minimise hotel’s wastage one way or another. While there are not many organisations targeting solely at reducing hotels’ wastage, certain organisations do involve hotels and assist them in their waste management. Moreover, hotels that embark on projects that these organisations create may attract more environmentally conscious guests. Do you know of any organisations that reduce hotel wastage? Do let me know!

Cheers,

Nicole

The Rising Airbnb

Posted by Nicole

Gone were the days where we are afraid and uncomfortable with staying in an apartment, hosted by someone who we are not familiar with. However in recent years, we seem to have no issue with it at all.

Logo of Airbnb

Airbnb is a company that allows people to rent out their houses to guests, especially travelers. It has grown such that more than 150 million travelers opt for Airbnb rooms worldwide annually (of course, with the exception of the current Covid-19 pandemic). (source)

As we have previously seen how hotel has impacted the environment, let’s change our lenses and take a look and evaluate on how Airbnb impacts the environment, and how it differs from those in hotels.

Positive impact

In my recent survey with 60 Singaporean respondents who are seasoned travellers, I included an ended question “Do you think other accommodation types like Airbnb rooms produce a higher carbon footprint than hotel rooms? Why?” As I scrolled through the responses, the majority of them agreed, well only a handful disagreed.

Answers from 4 different respondents

Take a look at the four responses above. All four agreed that Airbnb service, in which they provide less cleaning services as compared to hotels. Indeed, in my recent stay in an Airbnb in Japan, our room was not cleaned a single time, with the exception of the host clearing our trash about once in two days. The reduced cleaning services would mean that less water will be used and less carbon output because less energy is used.

Another comment

Here is another interesting response that I received, which did not occur to me previously. Airbnb rooms give off a homely vibe and I am curious to know whether people reduce their usage similar to home. Perhaps I should do another survey to see if this is the case!

Negative Impacts

Responses from 2 different people

Among the yes responses, one of them gave me a new insight as well.

Considering the hotel building as a whole, there are many people staying in a hotel building, and a few people staying in a small room.Hotels will be able to reap the benefits of economies of scales, where hotels are able to accommodate more customers while lowering the cost, and hence reducing the overall carbon footprint. For instance, a shared central air condition can be used for the entire building. Whereas for Airbnb, the entire apartment is only serving the few guests who are staying in the apartment. Hence, the amount of electricity used per person could be more when a person is staying in an Airbnb than in a hotel.

In a nutshell, comparing hotel rooms and Airbnb rooms, the environmental impact both cause depends on how the guests actions and the hosts services determine which has a higher carbon footprint. It would be interesting to research more about the environmental impact difference between the two. Let me know what you think!

Cheers,

Nicole

How Hotels go GREEN?

Posted by Nicole

Previously, we have seen the negative impacts that hotels bring to the environment, namely, plastic waste, carbon output. We have also looked at the reasons behind why hotels do so. Hence, enough with all the pessimism, let us catch a glimpse on how certain hotels are eco-friendly! In today’s post, we will be taking a look at the ways hotels go eco-friendly, especially in the context of Singapore!

Design of the building

Apart from looking aesthetic, hotel buildings can adopt exterior designs that reduce their own carbon footprint.

Design of JW Marriott Hotel by Foster+Partners (source)

Well-known JW Marriott Hotel South Beach has an intricate tower design, angled in a manner such that air flow is well regulated, making the place relatively cooler, hence less energy can be spent on installing fans and air conditioners. (source). I went on a trip to catch of glimpse of how PARKROYAL looks as I heard this hotels is filled with lush greenery. Indeed, this hotel looks AMAZING with many gardens. Looking at the examples above, the exterior and interior look of the buildings do play a crucial role in reducing energy use and carbon footprint.

Went on a trip to look at PARKROYAL hotel

Energy Saving Technology

Another way hotels could reduce their electricity consumption is to install energy saving technologies. With the advent of technology, there are many eco-friendly alternatives that hotels can use. For instance, instead of high energy consuming light bulbs, hotels can opt to install light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which is more energy saving. For instance, Crowne Plaza Changi Airport hotel, which is located right beside our iconic airport, utilises water saving technology. Water flow controllers are installed in guests rooms and public toilets to prevent excessive water waste. (source)

Green Practices

Certainly, these technologies mentioned above may be costly. New hotels chains and start-ups may not be inclined to implement such technologies due to their financial constraints. Hence, another method they could adopt is by upholding environmental values and executing green practices. While it may take an extra effort to carry out, these practices require little or no money. Such practices simply include placing recycling bins around the building to encourage staff and guests to recycle instead of discarding their waste. Or having the option for guests to reject the idea of washing their towels and bed linens daily, which Oasis Hotel Downtown implemented. (source) I am sure there are countless measures that hotels could implement that will not deter guests from staying.

That’s all for this post! Do let me know in the comments section what other methods are common in Singapore! See you!

Have an enjoyable week ahead!

~Nicole

Then, Where is the Carbon Footprint from?

Posted by Nicole

In our last post, we examined the carbon footprint that each guest generates when staying in hotels, and we observed that there is a high number of carbon footprints. Surely we may wonder, where do these carbon emissions come from? Let’s talk about where and how these high numbers come from!

No prize in guessing what causes the high carbon footprint, electricity! It is no doubt that hotels consume a lot of energy for electricity. In most hotels, each room has its own air conditioner. Or worse, more than a set of air conditioners! Even though it keeps the room extremely cool, the amount of energy used by these air conditioners are extremely large and the number of air conditioners in a hotel is massive!

I came across an interesting habit from a friend of mine that may aggravate the carbon footprint. A few years back, we went on a staycation together. As we were about to leave the room for a short walk outside, she removed the hotel room card from the card reader, pulled out an old and unused card from her wallet, and slotted it in the card reader instead.

Insert card for power! (Instead of room card, dummy card is inserted)

She explained that by doing so, the electricity will always be on and the air conditioner will be kept running. When we reach back in the room, the room will remain cooled as it is.

Back then I was indifferent to her actions. Sounds interesting I thought. However, as I become more environmentally conscious, I realised even such small actions of ours can contribute to the high carbon footprint of hotels.

Zooming out to the hotel as a whole, hotels require energy throughout the day as locations such as the lobby have to be lighted up throughout the day for security reasons. Bigger hotels that provide more facilities such as swimming pools definitely generate a large carbon footprint. Although these facilities serve to enhance guests’ experiences during their stay, these facilities require large amounts of energy to run and sustain, hence generating a larger carbon footprint.

Moving on, let’s zoom in to another feature of hotel stays. The frequent washing of bed linen. Without the “Do Not Disturb” sign, most hotels clean each room bed linen almost everyday! Imagine the amount of water and energy used to clean the rooms everyday. While to some it is essential to change and clean the bed linen everyday, I am certain there are a handful of us who do not mind having to use the same set throughout their stay, and can do their part to reduce the energy used to wash them everyday.

There are definitely more features of hotels that caused the high carbon footprint. Do let me know what features you identify! Till next time.

~Nicole

Calculating Carbon Footprint

Posted by Nicole

Have you ever wondered what is the amount of carbon footprint contributed by hotels?

I’m sure in some way or another, many of us have wondered what is the amount of carbon footprint that we as individuals contribute in our daily lives. Activities in our everyday living, such as our meat consumption and our mode of transport, will churn out our very own carbon footprint. With that, how can we then calculate the carbon footprint that is produced during our stays in hotels? I will be sharing two calculation tools that can help us with this!

1. TripZero

This calculator serves to calculate your travel and hotel stay carbon footprint. (source) Let’s imagine. You and your three close friends have finally completed finals and decided to take a breather at one of Singapore’s most popular hotels, St Regis Hotel, for a short two days one night staycation. With two hotel rooms shared among the four of you, let’s take a look at how much carbon footprint all of you produced. This is how the input should look like:

Input location and number of rooms

Including mode of travel

Once done, your results will be shown!

Final results!

Carbon footprint from the hotel stay is approximately 53.5kg of CO2 whereas carbon footprint from transportation is about 7.7kg of CO2. Therefore the numbers may not be very accurate. Let’s take a look at another online tool.

2. Hotel Footprinting

Another tool that we can use easily online is the Hotel Footprinting tool that was rolled out by the International Tourism Partnership (ITP) and Greenview. Similar to the Hotel Carbon Measurement (HCMI), this tool serves for guests and business travellers to measure their hotel carbon footprint so that they can monitor their carbon footprint, and opt to select the hotel with the least carbon footprint. (source)

Using the same example, I assume that each room is about 50 metres square.

Inputting details

Since we are not focusing on the meeting rooms, looking at the rooms’ carbon footprint, the amount of CO2 output is approximately 68.0kg.

Results!

This differs from the first tool by 14.5kg. From these data, we can say that the estimated CO2 output is around 53.5-68.0kg. There are certainly some factors that render these estimates inaccurate. This includes how often one is in their own room and how much energy one consumes. Moreover, since St Regis hotel is not found in the list of hotels in these tools, we can only input the location, which is Tanglin Road. Hence the results are not very precise.

Now, let’s multiply that number to the number of rooms in a hotel building. Wait, we have yet to include other factors such as corridor lightings, air conditioning in the main lobby and that restaurant that serves meals in the hotel. What do you think the carbon footprint generated for hotels will be? With this number in mind, in my next post, I will delve deeper into the reasons for these high carbon footprint. Stay tuned!

~ Nicole

The Freebies are SO Irresistible

Posted by Nicole

Hi, I hope everyone has been coping well. Today, I will be sharing on plastic waste caused by staying in hotels.

Let me share with you a survey that I have conducted on 55 Singaporeans, on their attitudes and behaviours towards a hotel stay.

Survey results

From my findings, I found out that all but 2 respondents bring home freebies from their hotel stays back home. The top few items that they bring home include soaps contained in multiple small plastic bottles, bedroom slippers wrapped in plastic, and disposable plastic toothbrushes.

Pair of bedroom slippers that I brought home previously

Personally, I am guilty of bringing such items home from a hotel stay as well. When asked for their reasons in doing so, there are two main answers. Firstly, these items are necessities that our guests use at home. Secondly, guests tend to feel entitled to these freebies as they already paid for their hotel stays. To sidetrack, one of the most memorable and interesting responses I got was “the soap smells so good hence we bring home”, which I agree.

Many might wonder, “Hey, it is justifiable for me to bring home those freebies. For instance, bedroom slippers. It is comfortable and I can use them at home without purchasing one. I should be fully utilising what the hotel provides as I have already paid for it. Furthermore, I am not stealing it, hence it is not illegal as well.”

It is understandable why many may think that way. However, one might overlook the fact that our selfish actions result in hotels having to purchase more of these disposables to replenish the ones in the hotels. In fact, hotels can save if everyone just uses what they need. One of the ways to protect the environment is by reducing the usage of plastics, but yet hotels are not doing so because of their customers.

Many might wonder, “I am just taking one item back, how bad can it be?” Let’s assume that the average stay of a guest in a hotel room is five days and that the hotel supplies three bottles of soap (which is more than enough for a five-day stay). Every guest then brings home all three bottles provided. This means that in a year, 219 bottles have to be replenished. If a hotel has 200 rooms, 43,800 plastic bottles will be used! In comparison, if everyone uses only what they need, the total number of plastic bottles used will be much less.

Small bottles that hotels may provide

On the bright side, certain hotels are aware of this issue and some of them have decided to make certain adaptations. Instead of placing small plastic bottles of soap, some have switched to a permanent soap dispenser. Hotels like Hilton are also looking to cut down on their plastic waste such as not providing plastic straws at dining areas. (source)

While many of us seek for convenience when enjoying ourselves in hotels, we should not forget to remain environmentally conscious to reduce our plastic waste. It is certainly not easy, but I believe with the right mindset, we will find joy in going green even when staying in hotels.

Cheers!

~ Nicole

(Infographic on emissions from hotels)

Does the Environment Matter to Hotels?

Posted by Nicole

Did you know that the hotel industry actually has an impact on the environment? Well, this industry is one of the largest energy-consuming sectors in the tourism industry. Research has also shown that almost half of the carbon dioxide produced by the tourism industry stems from the hotel sector. (Source)

Take a look at this infographic, it shows that an average room per night is responsible for emitting about 68.6lbs (31.1kg) of carbon. This actually got me wondering how exactly this industry contributes to greenhouse gas emission. After doing further research on this topic, I’ve come out with two possible reasons for why the hotel industry affects our environment.

Customer Matters
The hotel industry is dominated by customer service and the business of the hotel is heavily dependent on the satisfaction of their guests. Hotels aim to place their customers at their utmost priority, ensuring that their needs are met and that they have an enjoyable and delightful time. It is therefore no doubt that the hotel would neither ensure that their customers stay environmentally conscious during their stay, nor would they ensure that their services are 100% carbon neutral or positive.
The 5-Star Rating Matters
Lavish hotels offer wonderful services that suit the customers’ needs. However, if these hotels were to deny their requests on the pretext of preserving the environment, they will turn to other hotels that give in to their needs. (Source) Hotels are doing business after all and would want to gain more profits by attracting more customers. If a hotel is unable to meet the customer’s needs and offers undesirable service, especially in a high rating hotel, the customer may put up a negative remark on popular websites such as Tripadvisor, tarnishing the hotel’s reputation.

But fret not! There are still hotels that promote environmental sustainability! Let’s take a look at the news headline about Shangri La hotel below.

News article headline

There are still hotels that preserve the environment while serving their customers! I will be researching and discussing more about them in my future posts. It is definitely not an easy journey for many hotels to go green as they may risk losing revenue. Hence, in order to maintain their reputation, some hotels choose to pay less attention to environmental impacts.

However, hotels are not the sole contributor to this problem. Customers themselves are also causing the problem. In my next post, I’ll be sharing more of individuals’ attitudes and behaviours when staying in hotels. See you then!

~ Nicole