Green hotels use eco-friendly practices to reduce their impact on the environment, such as recycling, using renewable resources, and energy-efficient appliances. They also offer guests options to reduce their impact, such as reusing towels and linens. Some hotels source food locally and recycle cooking oil and food waste.
An environmentally conscious hotel practices procedures designed to minimize the hotel’s impact on the planet. This may include using recycled materials and participating in programs that recycle materials used by the hotel. Some hotels install appliances that reduce water or electricity usage, while others go so far as to use all locally grown foods for their kitchens.
Many green hotels try to reduce the building’s environmental impact. This may include participating in recycling programs instead of simply sending waste to a landfill, composting kitchen waste for use in the garden, or even disposing of telephone directories, menus or other literature unless requested. Using only biodegradable, natural cleaners can help limit the amount of pollutants released during cleaning, and some of these hotels even use towels and linens made only from organically grown, easily renewable sustainable resources.
A new building can become an ecological hotel right from the start. Some use wood from renewable sources, non-toxic paints and solar panels to meet part or all of the building’s energy needs. Energy efficient windows can save on electricity and reduce heating costs, while energy efficient appliances can do the same in kitchens and laundry rooms.
A truly environmentally conscious hotel will implement practices that not only allow employees to minimize their impact on the environment, but also include ways to help guests, whether they know it or not. Many hotels will give guests the option of reusing towels and linens to reduce laundry. Showers, sinks and toilets can be equipped to use less water and low energy light bulbs are used for lighting. In some places, guests who take environmentally conscious steps, from reusing laundry to driving electric cars, are offered discounts and other incentives.
The kitchen is another focal point of an eco-hotel. Some hotels have their own chefs who change menus to produce food that is in season and can be sourced from local farmers to reduce shipping costs and the environmental costs of freezing and shipping food long distances. In some green hotels, kitchens are equipped to recycle used cooking oil and create fuel from it, and to save peelings and other food waste to be turned into compost used to maintain landscapes.
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