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Adhering to eco-friendly norms

At a time when the entire world is calling out for eco-friendly norms, the hospitality industry is following several models toward eco-friendly regularities. But much remains to be achieved. By Aubrey Mullerworth

Aubrey Mullerworth

The world is going through increased awareness of what pollution has done and is doing to the environment and the greenhouse gases that are rapidly causing the meltdown of the polar ice caps. The information age and the internet has ensured that no issue will ever be swept under the carpet again, nor will anyone be able to hide an environmental disaster ala Chernobyl. The question that comes up then is, what can we as hospitality industry individuals do to sustain this planet for generations to come? The answer to this is - a lot.

Creating eco-friendly hotels

The easiest and the most obvious is: let's build more eco-friendly hotels. Fine, but what do we do with all the hotels that are already there? We cannot possibly tear them down and rebuild them. So the other option is to make modifications and change things around so that they become more eco-friendly than they currently are, with the assumption that every little bit counts. The first step, and probably the most important one, is to do an energy audit of the property. This will reveal some of the inefficiencies of the building and can lead to some major cost savings in the long run.

One example that I remember is the unbearably high temperature in our kitchen. Rather than adding more cooling that got sucked outside the exhaust hoods, we just added a makeup air unit with two high RPM blowers and solved the problem at a lower installation cost and lower energy usage. The other solution that we came up with was to balance the positive/negative air flow to make the building as close to neutral as possible so we were not drawing in cold air in winter and hot air in summer.

Link up everyone

The secret to being eco-friendly is to involve everyone in the organisation and to make it a fun and rewarding experience in which everyone can participate. The ideas that come from our employees can make a huge difference, besides recognising them for their contribution, and makes it all worthwhile.

Another important point to remember is to pick the most energy-efficient equipment you can find when replacing old equipment. Reuse of guestroom towels and bed linen is one of the easiest ways to save energy, chemical costs and water, and all it involves is the printing of a simple card which gives the guest the option to choose, and training the staff to recognise this guest option.

Reprocessing effects

More savings can be realised by re-routing the water lines to your ice machines through a heat exchanger in the cooler. This ends up pre-chilling the water, which reduces the cycle time and increases your ice output per hour. This will dramatically bring down the energy consumed per kilogram of ice produced. Most hotels in India recycle their paper, glass and cardboard and if they do not, they should do so right away. There are plenty of recyclers who will pay a hotel for this. When purchasing chemicals, it is a good idea to pick eco-friendly ones that are completely biodegradable and do not pollute. Rain water can also be directed to the ground to replenish the water table in older hotels that do not have harvesting tanks. Waste water from the 'old' water cooled ice machines (if anyone is still using them) can be used for landscaping.

When planning a renovation, the new low water, high flow flush tanks can save a tremendous amount of water, especially the ones with dual option selection. Hotels and lodges built in rural areas should consider a good septic tank system and separation of grey water, which again can be used once nominally treated for landscaping.

Energy conservation

Whenever changing old boilers, consider the ones that work on CNG or LPG. These are cleaner burning, and in some cases older units can be retro-fitted to this option. Also, heat absorption from the chilled water return to preheat water for boilers is another way that energy can be conserved.

The solar panel option for water heating has not yet caught on in hotels due to the high usage factor. However, it can also be used as a preheat option for hot water boilers. Most hotels and offices have already gone paperless to the extent possible, and we now have to convince the government to do away with all its paper applications as well.

There are many more areas that I have not even attempted to go into like the use of plastic and other non-biodegradable products, but I believe that a thoughtful discussion with your managers and employees will bring all this to the forefront. Let us as an industry embrace this critical issue and do our part to leave this planet a little cleaner than we found it. So all those who come after us will experience a place that will continue to sustain life and all that goes with it.

(The writer is GM, The Metropolitan Hotel, New Delhi)