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Greenotels Award 2019 - Watch this space...!

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Imagine...

Economics pretends to calculate the value of things. Yet when asked whether we can return the planet to health, capitalist economics all too often answers, "No, we can't." The project of saving the biosphere from catastrophe is considered unprofitable in the short term compared with other financial opportunities, so it won't be done, because profit rules all.

And so we arrive at the old saying "It is easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism."

Our challenge, then, is to imagine harder. Because the world is not an optional investment we can choose to forgo due to its low rate of return.

There is no Planet B.

We have to keep this planet healthy, because it's our one and only home, our extended body. And for the tourism industry protecting our land is protecting our business too!

Just consider the possibilities that with the right financial incentives, farmers would focus as much on the yields of carbon sequestered in the soil as they once did on

crop yields. Timber companies would find revenues in replanting forests—not tree plantations for a future harvest but real, biodiverse forests valued for how much carbon dioxide they inhaled and stored. Ranchers would double as wildlife stewards, paid for the number of wolves, grizzlies, and bison roaming their land as well as the cattle they raised.

Imagine a remade world founded upon health and prosperity. Imagine transportation of every kind propelled by clean energy - electric cars, for sure, but also container ships pulled by kite sails, then battery powered when navigating close to port.

Imagine every light bulb and internet download powered by the sun and the wind. Imagine engineers and technicians and heavy-equipment operators finding meaningful work building out a global clean energy infrastructure.

All these technologies are available off-the-shelf and if we garner the political will to improvise then the payoffs will be incalculable. The alpine meadows will still be lush in the centuries to come. The glaciers will return, and the grizzly bears too.

Maybe the welfare of the ecosystems seem like a small matter in the larger picture but know that if the Amazons, the seas, the wild life, the Himalayas, the forests stay healthy then it will be so because the world has stayed healthy.

That is something to wish for, and to work for in 2019...

Let me know what you wish for atminakshi@greenotels.com

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ELECTRIC CARS AND CHARGING STATION MAKE AN ADVENT IN 2019

When guests book a stay at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel & Suites Victoria, they have the option of also reserving a Toyota Prius. The hotel has two of the white Toyotas decked out with green leaves and the name of the hotel property on the doors. Guests can book the vehicles through a separate website called http://mystaymycar.com/. What is truly unique about the hotel, however, is its pair of Solo electric vehicles. The Solo vehicles have a range of 100 miles. Guests are encouraged to stay within the city. he cars are charged by staff prior to guest use and after guest use. The hotel has two electric vehicle charging stations. Guests receive instruction before driving off with a Solo.

Similarly, on the other hand, Four Seasons Hotel Cairo becomes the first hotel in Egypt to install an electric car charging station, which is now fully-operational. The brand new charging station works with a variety of vehicles, such as plug-in electric vehicles and hybrids. For a full battery, vehicles get charged for eight straight hours, however a two-hour charging session is enough for a 500-kilometer (310 mile) drive.

2019 SUSTAINABILITY FORECAST : SIX PRIORITIES FOR YOUR HOTEL

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Here are six sustainability, Science-based trends for hotel groups that are likely to come to the forefront in the current year.

Reporting and climate goal compliance:

Science-based carbon reduction targets provide companies with a defined pathway to future-proof growth by specifying how much and how quickly they need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Since Hilton Hotels has declared it will measure its performance according to SBTs, others in the industry, such as Meliá Hotels and NH Hotel have followed suit in committing to this pathway. This is a great news for the sector, as it will allow for industry baselines to be established and smaller groups to follow best-practices. This will include data not only on direct emissions but also on supply chains, waste produced and transport.

Reporting on CO2 emissions for mid-sized groups, and sustainable development goals:

For hotel groups with fewer properties, no in-house CSR department, there are still ways to participate in the race to reduce our global temperatures – by simply measuring their own CO2 emissions through a monitoring tool and adhering to energy efficiency certifications such as ISO50001, energy-proofing their buildings, through a LEED certification or something similar.In addition to this, the UN’s World Tourism Organization and its UN Environment Programme are encouraging hotel and tourism businesses to integrate the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and report progress on those, for further transparency.

Reduce waste:

It is going to be paramount for hotels to reduce waste, in particular those hotels with no access to recycling schemes, and to reduce single-use items coming into their properties. This covers not only moving away from plastic bottles in all sizes but general

wrapping, delivery crates and more. Again, the UN has set up a scheme to help hotels adopt sustainable consumption and production practices. There are also other tools available for hotels to measure and reduce waste. Plus, it is imperative to put pressure on the waste companies to allow a more comprehensive and detailed billing system in order to know exact pick-up loads. Many, so far, only work on weekly averages, which makes it hard to reduce.

Address water scarcity:

The past summer has delivered to the northern hemisphere one of the hottest and driest summers ever recorded, which means that even in northern America and all over Europe, there has been an increase not just in wildfires but also water restrictions. This gives hotels the opportunity to start monitoring their water usage, make sure there are no leaks or inefficiencies, and retrain staff on the use of water, as the price and availability of this commodity will no longer remain the same.

Be attractive employers:

Millennial want to work for “meaningful” companies – i.e., for organizations that care about their social and environmental impact. It is therefore also key for them to adopt responsible business practices in order to attract this new generation of workers, as they will rather continue looking for their ideal employer than take any job for the sake of it.

Engage in fun green story-telling:

Guests and travelers are of course also increasingly aware of the change in our world’s climate and are looking for “guilt-free” holidays. Therefore, it is always great to use positive story-telling to communicate all of your hotel’s engagement to the guest. Don’t be shy about telling your stories, showing your staff’s engagement and offering guests the option to participate in some initiatives, should they wish to do so.

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HOSPITALITY TRENDS IN 2019 - AN OVERVIEW

Driven by the rise of the middle-class income bracket and a deep desire of the young Indians to travel and savour experiences, India’s hospitality and tourism industries are experiencing a period of rapid change. Millennials and their distinct habits are compelling organizations to review their workplace culture, operating models and product offerings. Following is an overview of trends in the hospitality sector that have already made their way into 2019 -

The workplace environment is the key differentiator:Human capital has an immense impact on the strength of the organization today. It is imperative to define today for the workforce a purpose – Why do we do what we do? Transform purpose into performance. Core values are not about mere words but phrases, rules, and boundaries that define a company’s culture and personality. It is critical to codify the core, articulate it and reinforce it on an on-going basis. Creating an environment which blends wisdom from experience with the quest for purpose of the millennials will be the key.

Exponential growth in the number of millennial travellers:With the advent of disruptive change across sectors like BFSI, e-commerce, IT, FinTech, the organizations realize the importance of talent mix of industry experts with fresh minds. Thus, the corporate travel segment

has observed an increase in the millennial population over the better part of the last decade. They look for exploration, interaction, and experience rather than a place to crash at night. Thus, staying relevant to the customized needs of this segment is of paramount importance for the sustainability of the hospitality sector.

Age of the Influencer:Travellers are on a quest for ‘insta-worthy’ locations due to constant social media pressure. These are driven by the influencers on platforms that help the business grow through campaigns and offering certain incentives to their followers. Leveraging social media by supporting likes with relevant content, juxtaposing push and pull marketing will be the way forward.

Changing the definition of Corporate Travel:2019 will observe an increase in travellers that combine business and leisure travel into one trip. According to reports, 55% of millennials extend business trips for extra leisure time. Driven by the blurring lines between work and leisure along with the need to have a comprehensive travel experience, corporate and leisure travel is expected to see an uptake. It is compelling to match up to the needs of today’s business traveller whose constantly on-the-go lifestyle requires simple, mobile, local and inclusive experiences.

Rise of Responsible and Sustainable Tourism:Every industry is undergoing sustainability reforms where organisations have begun taking dedicated initiatives to reduce their carbon footprint. Travellers today prefer staying at hotels that adopt sustainable practices and are committed to fulfilling environmental responsibilities like optimising energy consumption in the hotels.

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While guests are pampered, Aashyana Lakhanpal takes care of the environment by harvesting rainwater and feeding it back into the soil via four aquifers on the property. This has benefited the property and perhaps even the neighboring homes. The garden employs a permiculture framework that regenerates soil naturally.

However, like every hotel, this hotel also faces certain challenges in their daily functioning. The hotel cannot help but provide guests with “Mineral” water which generates a lot of plastic waste. The team wishes to stop this habit but with the cooperation of all the guests.

Therefore, in the year 2019, the hotel will focus on discarding or lessening the use of plastic bottles. The hotel plans to do this by installation of water filters like the aquaguard or kent at strategic points. Not the RO type, but the simple standard ones. In a double room with 2 guests, 2 one litre stainless steel water flasks can be provided and this can be filled and re-filled with water from the water stations according to requirement of the guest. If this idea is embraced on a wide level, the hotel can and will lessen the use of plastic and save our environment which is already reeling under the toxic plastic waste all over the world.

Dr G.B.K Rao CMD Pragati Group with inspiration from Dr Khadar Vali renowned and independent scientist, millets expert, launched India's first of its kind, Amrutha Ahaaram Package - on the occasion of Pragati Group's 25th Year Celebrations.

In the year 2019, Pragati Amrutha Ahaaram Package is Pragati Resorts’ innovative method to create awareness amongst people in regards to maintaining healthy diet and living. Dr Sarala Khadar provides the needful guidance in healthy living and healthy diet to the registered members of Amrutha Ahaaram Package at Pragati Resorts. Amrutha Ahaaram focuses on Millets - Foxtail, Browntop, Little, Kodo, Barnyard; herbal decoctions, Wooden cold pressed oils and Palm jaggery. By promoting the cultivation of millets, Pragati Amrutha Ahaaram re-discovers healthy, peaceful, joyful and prosperous India with farmers turning rich and happy again.

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Keeping the Circular Economy principles in mind, the Fern hotels expect to start a closed-loop initiative with a non-profit to convert all waste paper of the hotel into products that will be utilised in their premise. This is in a pilot stage and the Green Team looks forward to it creating value for the community too.

For the year 2019, Waxpol Hotels and Resorts plans to go completely solar for outdoor lightings at two of their properties - Sunderban Tiger Camp and Deoors. The team has successfully achieved the goal at The Riverwood Forest retreat, their property at Pench, Madhya Pradesh and will now focus at aforesaid resorts. The chain of properties is also aiming at implementing greater solar usage for other day to day activities and is mainly looking for air conditioning solar solutions in full capacity.

In 2019, Madhuban Resorts have planned the installation of Solar Power Grid in which 50% of resort load of 850 KVA would be solar power generated on site. The hotel also intends to install heat pumps for water heating system which will enable savings upto 80% cost compared to PNG operated boilers.

“Many catastrophes are underway—ocean pollution and acidification, air pollution. We are hitting catastrophe in so many environmental dimensions we can barely keep track. In India – you’re reaching 50° C. These are killers, not inconvenience.”

- Prof Jeffrey David Sachs

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2019 SUSTAINIBILITY TRENDS IN HOTEL DESIGN - BY TANMAY TATHAGAT

2019 has already established the fact that it is critical to use design strategies that won’t compromise health and design environments and embrace renewable, recyclable and low-waste building materials and systems. Rather than building “green,” our goal, now, must be to create hotels and communities that allow people to live better now and in the future.

With over 25 years of experience as an architect at Environmental Design Solutions (EDS), Tanmay Tathagat has put forth a few sustainability trends that hotels shall focus on adopting in designing structures.

1. Local flourishes for a sense of placeExpect hotel design in 2019 to cater to the rising traveler expectation for a sense of the local culture. This could be by integrating local materials, design elements, and construction techniques with contemporary approach. Hotels are adapting traditional artisanal crafts or works by local artists into hotel rooms and communal spaces, thus encouraging, promoting and engaging in local community building.

2. Focus on Health and Wellbeing for Guests and StaffFrom a design perspective, it will become imperative for hotels to make sure the environment feels comfortable and positive. Hotels will pay great emphasis to choose the correct construction materials, making sure it contains less or no toxic, chemical substances at all. Natural products will make their way into designs. Health and comfort for hotel staff and employees will be as much a focus as the guests’.

3. Designs Will Be More Contextual and Climate Responsive

Take the examples of top category hotels - all of them are focusing on factors that help them reduce their carbon footprint. Today, properties are not all glass, steel, aluminium like earlier. They are more conscious of the climate and focus on having solutions like better shading, greater balcony space, natural ventilation, better control over comfort etc. depending on the site context and climate.

4. Adding greenery and going greenWe mean green in two senses of the word: Literally, as in, more plant life incorporated into the hotel’s aesthetic from green roofs to green walls. And secondly, eco-friendliness, with environmentally benign construction materials, energy efficient lighting and air conditioning systems, better controls and other measures to reduce the hotel’s and guest’s carbon footprint.

5. Validation From Third PartiesThe trend of obtaining green certification from third parties like Living Building Challenge, Green Globe, LEED for Hospitality, GRIHA etc will grow, with hotels vying for higher and higher performance benchmarks. AIming towards being net carbon neutral, these systems now look at both design and operations as a complete life-cycle of a hospitality project.

Tanmay Tathagat - Architect

The LaLit - Jaipur has been consistent in upgrading itself with innovative sustainable practices.For the year 2019 -2020, the hotel is focusing on adopting the use of Environment Friendly Products in all its the restaurants and F&B outlets. Plastic utensils, items will soon be replaced with the following-

• Disposable Wooden Plates & Platters for Guest Services• Paper Glass instead of Plastic or Thermocol Glass• Use of Wooden stands instead of Acrylic or plastic stands

The hotel is also looking at generating organic manure from biodegradable waste-generated within hotel premises.

“We are witnessing the severe impacts of climate change throughout the world. Every credible scientific source is telling us that these impacts will only get worse if we do not address climate change and it also tells us that our window of time for addressing it is closing very soon…We need to dramatically increase our ambitions.”

- Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), at press conference on the Paris agreement negotiations.

WATER AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT2019

Around 4 billion people,

nearly two-thirds of the world’s

population, experience severe water

scarcity during at least

one month of the year.

This World Water Day, what is Your Hotel doing to support this objective?

Tell us @GreenOtels about your initiative towards

the World Water Day and get yourself a certificate of appreciation.

ndMarch 22 - World Water Day 2019

"Whoever you are, wherever you are,

water is your human right"

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RESPONSIBLE TOURISM VS TECHNOLOGY - CHALLENGE FOR HOTELS - EXPLAINS AKANKSHA GARG - WAXPOL HOTELS

Responsible Tourism and Technology-driven activities have been two major trends in the year 2018 and are surely making their way to 2019. While technology-driven activities are certainly important for millennials, conducting some of them present the scope of neglecting their environmental impact.

How are Waxpol Hotels and Resorts embracing this trend? -Explains Akanksha

Travellers today don’t just want to visit sights at destinations, they want to embrace local cultures and experience something unique while making sure their actions don’t harm the environment. Waxpol Hotels and Resorts makes it possible for travellers to connect with the environment - honey collectors in the Sundarbans, meet indigenous tribes in Dooars, or spot wild tigers in Pench while making sure no environmental harm is caused. Most of the tourists thoroughly enjoy these experiences and cooperate fully - in terms of following destination specific ethics, as they come with a sense of responsible travelling. Hotels today, must use this change in behaviour - especially witnessed with millennials - to their advantage. On the other hand, technology has made its way in almost every aspect of functioning. For instance - Today, Wi-Fi plays an important role in the overall travel experience. Millennials like to share their travel experiences instantly.

They want to show what is happening in their lives on the go and thus expect easy Wi-Fi connectivity at all hotels and resorts.

However, at Waxpol - Sunderban Tiger Camp and The Riverwood Forest Retreat - Pench, we noticed the depletion of birds. An observation made us realise that it was because of the radiations emitted from the WiFi that these pretty creatures were away. As a result of this, we decided to have Wi-Fi only in common areas such as in the lobbies and restaurants of our resorts, and not elsewhere. This initiative was conducive for greater interaction between guests but it also corresponds with Waxpol's eco-friendly and sustainability ethos as we limit the harmful effects of Wi-Fi signals on birdlife and other animals. To our surprise, this initiative worked in our favour as guests who came to the common area for WiFi usage started interacting with each other and this gradually led to the promotion of the art of cultural exchange. Moreover, all of them have been supportive of the cause for they would rather experience spotting colourful, distinct species of birds than criticize about the WiFi.

Thus, it is essential for hotels to understand their problems and bring about solutions - making sure they maintain a balance between offering ways of adopting responsible tourism and technology-driven activities. Technology certainly continues to be the basis of travel in 2019 and beyond, but only if incorporated in a sustainable way.

Akanksha Garg imbibed sustainable tourism as one of her founding business principles, which are evident in all her operations even after all these years. In recognition of her efforts, she has won numerous awards along the way. These include the TiE Tiger Award in 2008 for her initiative of developing tourism in the Sundarbans, followed by Rotary Club Award for CSR and the 'Face of the Future' in 2016 by East India Travel Awards.

Akanksha Garg - Director & Environment Officer

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designer and ended up uncovering the fact that most of the things that we have designed in our lives are designed without much consideration for the user or the global world. Throughout her daily work, Acaroglu studies ways we can re-interact with our everyday products in a different way.

The problem has emerged due to the linear economic systems we’ve created. That means we take resources from nature, transfer them to the industrial systems that we use to create goods and then we landfill those goods—or sometimes they leak into nature and sometimes we burn them.

Acaroglu suggested businesses and individuals conduct waste audits or assessments to see where the problems are in their systems. Moving forward, she urged companies to redesign products and services to be put back into the system to help mitigate the problem created over the past few generations.

Brent Bell is the vice president of Waste Management Recycling Services. Bell

regularly audits his mother’s recycling cart at her home but one night at the dinner table, she asked him if she could put Christmas lights in her recycling bin. “That’s the moment I realized recycling was in trouble,” Bell quipped.

Contaminants can impact good recycling programs by increasing the cost, reducing efficiencies of the operations and lowering commodity values. But the most serious problem many companies have with contamination is the dangers it causes the employees who sort recyclables, noted Bell.And over the years, Bell and the employees at Waste Management have seen some odd items in the recycling stream.

What Bell has found most fascinating is the number of bowling balls that Waste Management has received. Every week, the company collects 100 bowling balls in its recycling facilities—that’s more than 5,000 bowling balls a year and it works out to be 80,000 pounds of bowling balls annually.

Waste Management also sees 96,000 propane tanks every year in the recycling stream, as well as 28,000 batteries every month. The company spends 140,000 hours a year cleaning screens at its facilities, noted Bell. He said the number one question customers ask is what they can do to help.

Bell explained that it’s all about cleaning up the contamination and knowing that not everything that has a number on it can be recycled in a curbside program.

“It's a collective endeavour, it's collective accountability and it may not be too late."

- Christine Lagarde on Climate Change

wrapping, delivery crates and more. Again, the UN has set up a scheme to help hotels adopt sustainable consumption and production practices. There are also other tools available for hotels to measure and reduce waste. Plus, it is imperative to put pressure on the waste companies to allow a more comprehensive and detailed billing system in order to know exact pick-up loads. Many, so far, only work on weekly averages, which makes it hard to reduce.

Address water scarcity:

The past summer has delivered to the northern hemisphere one of the hottest and driest summers ever recorded, which means that even in northern America and all over Europe, there has been an increase not just in wildfires but also water restrictions. This gives hotels the opportunity to start monitoring their water usage, make sure there are no leaks or inefficiencies, and retrain staff on the use of water, as the price and availability of this commodity will no longer remain the same.

Be attractive employers:

Millennial want to work for “meaningful” companies – i.e., for organizations that care about their social and environmental impact. It is therefore also key for them to adopt responsible business practices in order to attract this new generation of workers, as they will rather continue looking for their ideal employer than take any job for the sake of it.

Engage in fun green story-telling:

Guests and travelers are of course also increasingly aware of the change in our world’s climate and are looking for “guilt-free” holidays. Therefore, it is always great to use positive story-telling to communicate all of your hotel’s engagement to the guest. Don’t be shy about telling your stories, showing your staff’s engagement and offering guests the option to participate in some initiatives, should they wish to do so.

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TAKEAWAYS FROM WASTE MANAGEMENT�S 2019 SUSTAINABILITY FORUM

This year’s Waste Management Sustainability Forum illuminated what has been called the greatest global crisis of our time: the ocean plastics pollution problem.

Here are some key highlights from this year’s forum.

“Why Plastics? Why Now?”Valerie Craig - deputy to the chief scientist and vice president of Impact Initiatives for National Geographic Society, kicked off her discussion with the following question: “Plastic: miracle material or environmental scourge?”

“Maybe both,” she said. “It is undeniable that plastic has changed our lives for the better. But it has also created a pollution problem at an almost unimaginable scale. It’s a problem that’s visible; we know it’s harmful, it’s global, but it’s also solvable.”

About 40 percent of the plastic that we use today is used just once before it’s tossed, explained Craig. Today, nearly 9 million tons of plastic enter the oceans every single year. From the mid-1950s to now, we’ ve produced about 8 billion metric tons of plastic, with nearly half of it produced in the last 15 years. At the rate we’re going, we’re set to hit 34 billion tons by 2050, she added.

The biggest market for plastics today is packaging materials. These items have an average use time of less than six months. Packaging materials are also the same items that are more than half of the waste of plastic

produced today—whether it is disposed of correctly or not. About half of the production of plastic products is happening in Asia. And China alone represents 29 percent of all plastics production.

Craig stressed that one of the biggest challenges associated with plastics today is how lightweight they are. And once plastic waste ends up in the ocean, it breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces but never disappears. Instead, microplastics and nanoplastics are created that then end up permeating our environment and food chain. Additionally, once plastics are in the ocean, they’re nearly impossible to recover.

So, how can we solve this problem? Craig suggests working backwards through the value chain to see where we can take action to make sure zero waste ends up in the ocean. Craig turned the focus to materials design and waste management.

Items such as thin films and plastic bags might be the items to focus on when it comes to biodegradables. And when it comes to compostable plastics, it’s a viable option moving forward; however it is not necessarily applicable for everything, but for a lot of single-use plastics it is. Composting has to happen under specific conditions and under extremely high heat. That’s where industrial composting facilities come in.

How Waste has Become a Design FlawDr. Leyla Acaroglu, a designer and sociologist, began her career as an industrial

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Gone are the days when hoteliers could look at a traditional linear economy - i.e make, use, dispose. It is now time to apply circular economy (CE) principles to sustainable tourism.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation defines Circular Economy as...Looking beyond the current take-make-waste extractive industrial model, a circular economy aims to redefine growth, focusing on positive society-wide benefits. It entails gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, and designing waste out of the system. Underpinned by a transition to renewable energy sources, the circular model builds

economic, natural, and social capital. What does this mean for the hospitality industry? CE is based on three principles: • Design out waste and pollution• Keep products and materials in use• Regenerate natural systems This means invoking a culture of no waste, designing closed loop systems of material flows and innovation.

At Meluha The Fern, we are constantly in the pursuit of creating further value from existing products as long as possible and turning them into resources while benefiting local communities. This is done through extensive employee engagement and collaborations with NGOs/NPOs/social enterprises. A few partnerships are with Munzer to convert used cooking oil (UCO) into bio diesel, with Sundara to transform old soap into new bars of soap while adding value to underserved communities etc. A key aspect of CE in the hospitality industry is responsible purchasing. It is essential to have a purchasing policy that gives priority to local, natural, recycled/recyclable and seasonal products. Around 30 percent of food produced is being wasted, according to estimates by the UNs Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO, 2011), 20 percent of which is along the supply chain. There is ample room to incorporate CE principles and reduce these losses in operations through menu stream lining, food donation, responsible procurement, waste management etc. Application of circular economy principles in the hospitality industry is still nascent. However, it is very essential on different levels of business. This requires innovation, harnessing creativity and research. It is more important now than ever before to create this shift in the way we do business.

Aldrina Fernandes - Environment Officer

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GREENVIEW RELEASES GREEN LODGING TRENDS REPORT

Greenview has released its Green Lodging Trends Report 2018 that depicts the way ahead - 2019 for the lodging industry. The Report is industry’s annual exercise to assess and catalyze green innovation, best practices regarding the state of sustainability across hotels worldwide. The Report highlights and summarizes responses to 115 survey in these categories: Energy and Waste Management, Water Conservation, Health & Wellness, Back of House, Communications, Staff Involvement, Community Involvement, Climate Action & Certification.

Greenview received data for 4,544 hotels across 61 countries. Of the overall data set, 2,202 properties were classified as City/Urban Hotels, 814 as Suburban Hotels, 607 as Resorts, 296 as Small Metro/Town, 258 as Airport Hotels, 211 as Convention/Conference Centers, 66 as Bed & Breakfast Hotels and 11 as Serviced Apartments. A total of 2,271 properties of the data set were in Asia-Pacific, 2,127 in the Americas, and 146 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In terms of service type, 2,564 properties were classified as full-service properties, and 1,954 were classified as limited service.

The Report includes examples of best practices that include results broken down by region and property type. The following are examples of just some of the highlights from the Report:

• 80 percent said more than 90 percent of

their guestrooms have occupancy sensors.• A total of 82.7 percent have over 75 percent of their hotels’ interior space equipped with LED light bulbs, up from 2017 and 2016.• 21.4 percent of hotels have on-site renewable energy.• 32.5 percent have electric vehicle charging stations installed, an increase of 6 percent since last year.• 53.1 percent place recycling bins in guestrooms, an increase since 2016.• 58.5 percent have bulk soap and shampoo dispensers in over 90 percent of their guestrooms. This practice is more prevalent in Asia Pacific (63.2 percent) than in EMEA (39.2 percent) and the Americas (23.2 percent).• 69.7 percent have low-flow showerheads for over 90 percent of the guestrooms.• 26.1 percent capture rainwater for property use.• 72.4 percent target travelers who are concerned about health and wellness in their marketing.• 41 percent offer portable air purifiers in guestrooms upon request or in designated rooms for guests with allergies or chemical sensitivities.• 51.2 percent have a linen/towel reuse program in place that offers guests the option of opting out of housekeeping services altogether for one or more nights.• 85.8 percent have a policy that requires procurement from local suppliers. This is an increase from 2017 and 2016.• 42.5 percent grow food ingredients such as herbs or vegetables on-site.• 55.3 percent have a space on their hotels’ website dedicated to sharing green practices. • The adoption rate for this practice has increased since 2017 and 2016.• Globally, 70.6 percent have a green team or sustainability management team.• 70.6 percent give employees the opportunity to volunteer time and services during regular working hours.• Globally, 8.9 percent purchase carbon offsets or renewable energy certificates

“Every individual can contribute by executing at least one green, good deed every day through the green social responsibility. The smallest step heralds the biggest changes.”

- Narendra Modi

Disclaimer :

All rights reserved

Editor: Minakshi Agarwal. Editorial Contribution: Pooja AkulaPublished by

occurring, we won’t have much of the valuable forestry left. With natural wildfires, illegal logging and the mass amount of timber being harvested for commercial use, our forests are decreasing at an alarming rate and are reducing our supply of oxygen. To help, you can buy more recycled and organic products, limiting the amount of paper and cardboard.

4. PollutionAll 7 key types of pollution – air, water, soil, noise, radioactive, light and thermal – are affecting our environment. All types of pollution, and environmental concerns, are interlinked and influence one another. So, to tackle one is to tackle them all.

5. Climate ChangeAs pointed out by a recent UN report, without ‘unprecedented changes’ in our actions and behaviour, our planet will suffer drastically from global warming in just 12 years. The rise in global sea levels is shrinking our land, causing mass floods and freak weather incidents across the world. If we continue as we are, the world will suffer irreversibly. Saying no to driving more will reduce your carbon footprint, as will switching off electrical items when they’re not in use.

2019 will see worse days! We need to be prepared to tackle the below 5 major environmental threats. How ready are you?

1. BiodiversityBiodiversity is the most complex and vital feature of our planet. But with the increase in global warming, pollution and deforestation, biodiversity is in danger. Billions of species are going or have gone extinct all over the world. Some scientists, in fact, are suggesting that we are in the beginning of a 6th mass extinction, posing issues for our planet and ourselves. Reducing our meat intake, particularly red meat, as well as making sustainable choices can help to keep our planet running smoothly.

2. WaterWith oil spills, an abundance of plastic waste and toxic chemicals entering our waterways, we are damaging the most valuable resource our planet has to offer. By educating people on the causes and effects of water pollution, we can work together to undo the damage humans have caused. Laws also need to change to make pollution tougher, consistently across national borders.

3. DeforestationIf deforestation continues at the rate it’s

5 MAJOR ENVIRONMENT CONCERNS OF 2019