As much as we all love to travel, the unfortunate truth is that it creates large amounts of carbon emissions. That’s why it is important to be aware of ways we can offset this on our trips. Flying is the biggest contributor to the carbon emission associated with your trip. Sadly, there isn’t much you can do about that. However, something else you can change is where you choose to stay.

Picking hotels that are committed to making sustainable changes is a wonderful way to offset your carbon emissions from your trip. It is easy for hotels to become big energy users. Therefore, hotels that make conscious decisions make a big difference. When you’re browsing the websites of prospective hotels, look for the following things outlined in this blog. These sustainable practices should be easy to find if the hotel is taking its environmental efforts seriously. Hopefully, on your next trip, you can feel a lot better knowing you have chosen accommodation that is a more sustainable choice.

In-Room Changes

Many of the common practices in running hotels have unfortunately become extremely wasteful. However, the hotels that have recognized this and are making changes in the ways they operate are making a difference. To start off, let’s discuss some changes that hotels can make inside individual rooms to be more eco-friendly.

Laundry

Many hotels wash their guest’s towels anytime they see they have been used. Recently, some hotels have shifted to leaving signs in the bathroom indicating that if you would like your towels to be washed to place them on the floor. If you would not like them to be washed, then you leave them hanging up. If you are only staying a few days at a hotel, simply hang your towels up to dry instead of having them be washed every day. It is unnecessary for every towel to be washed after each use.

This also applies to sheets. Some hotels change the bedsheets daily. This is so excessive! Washing machines take up a lot of water and energy. Can you imagine how much laundry hotels already do every single day? Skip out on the sheet changing if you’re staying for a week or less. You are not only making a greener choice but are also giving the hotel maids less unnecessary work.

Refilling Toiletries

It has become the norm for hotels to offer tiny travel-sized shampoo and conditioner for guests to use when showering. These bottles are made of plastic and are extremely wasteful. The better alternative for hotels is to have larger refillable shower products. This eliminates the plastic waste created by these tiny bottles. There are many wonderful refilleries hotels can team up with.

One refillery I love is The Den located in Ucluelet, BC. They have made a wonderful impact in the Tofino/Ucluelet community by providing Long Beach Lodge Resort, Black Rock Resort and Mackenzie Beach Resort with products to easily refill shampoo, conditioner, and soap for their guests. Not only are they contributing to so much waste reduction, but the products they offer are free of toxins and high quality. You can check out The Den Ucluelet’s website here. They’ve got a great online store!

Recycling/Compost Bins

Another eco-friendly addition to hotel rooms is recycling bins and compost bins. By providing a wider range of bins, it is more likely that people will sort their garbage appropriately. Having a single trash can makes it impossible to avoid the waste of putting compostable items and recyclable items all in one bin with the garbage. Recyclable items like glass bottles, cans and paper can have their own sections to ensure proper disposal. Having somewhere to collect food scraps is a double plus because the hotel can even reuse them as fertilizer for the landscaping.

Coffee Stations

Many hotel rooms provide a coffee station. Usually, this includes a coffee machine, coffee pods and cups. A lot of the time you will find that the pods and disposable cups are wasteful. Hotels can minimize this waste by instead providing ceramic mugs for drinking and using compostable pods instead—two very easy swaps to make. A great option for compostable pods is OneCoffee. They are also organic and fair trade! You can check out their products here.

Lighting

Let’s talk about the lighting in hotel rooms. LED lightbulbs are the most eco-friendly option available. They use way less energy than traditional lightbulbs. You can get more light for less power, which means more bang for your buck. A win-win! Another change that can be made is for the lights in the hotel room to not be operatable without the room key being placed in a special slot. This makes it impossible for the lights to be left on while guests are out of their room. A great way to make sure no electricity is going to waste.

Eco-Friendly Key Cards

Finally, a more sustainable change would be to eliminate the use of plastic key cards. This helps cut down on unnecessary plastic waste. Replacing plastic key cards with newly developed wood fibre keys or even metal keys (depending on the size of the hotel) is a much better way to have guests enter their room.

Rest of Hotel Changes

Moving on to the rest of the hotel, these are some more changes that can help increase sustainability.

Solar Panels

Firstly, the installation of solar panels is a great way to source clean energy for use at the hotel. Especially in sunny destinations, this can be a huge offset to the energy the hotel would be getting from non-renewable resources. They can be placed on the roof of the hotel so no additional space on the property is even needed.

Rain Water Collection/Garden

The collection of rainwater is a natural resource that can be used to water the landscape of the property. It could also be used to water a garden! Hotels having their own gardens makes so much sense. Hotels almost always have a restaurant to serve food to their guests. Why not pick fresh herbs, vegetables, and fruit from their own property. This cuts down on the emissions caused by the transportation of food produced in further away places.

Energy Efficient Appliances

Using energy-efficient appliances is essential to ensure energy is being used at a minimum. It takes a lot to keep a hotel up and running. Therefore, making sure everything is operating at an efficient level is a must.

That was a long list of many ways that hotels can become more eco-friendly. It’s sad to think of how wasteful so many of the practices in hotels have become. The good news is there are so many solutions just like the ones outlined in this blog that can be implemented. Next time you’re looking to book a hotel, do research into the sustainability of the hotel. This is a great way to offset some of the negative environmental impacts that travelling causes. If a hotel you wish to stay in is slacking in any of these areas, let them know! As customers, we have the power to use our voices to make these changes.

Daydreamer Digital offers a Sustainability Package that can help businesses figure out how to become more sustainable. You can check it out here.