Citing a 2012 report, the magazine says that “Recently built properties use twice as much energy per night as hotels built 50 years ago.”
If that’s the case, as Metropolis asks in its “On the Spot” column, are “so-called green hotels” just the less-bad of bad choices?
Not so. The hospitality industry as a whole is making great strides to serve customers better while taking better care of the planet.
I know that’s true for the more than 1,600 hospitality partners in North America who work with Clean the World to recycle discarded soap and bottled amenities. With more than 320,000 hotel rooms being recycled daily, they’ve helped divert more than 750 tons (1.5 million lbs.) of hotel waste from North American landfills. And in doing so, made it possible for us to distribute more than 11 million soap bars worldwide in just three years.
Our hospitality partners are part of what we call the “Global Hygiene Revolution,” our mission to end the thousands of child deaths daily from acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease, respectively the #1 and #2 killers of children under 5 years of age. A simple bar of soap saves lives.
One of our Clean the World hospitality partners, Andrea Pinabell from Starwood Hotels and Resorts, is quoted in the Metropolis article. As director for Environmental Sustainability, she cited Starwood’s ambitious “30/20 by 20 program, which is aiming for a 30 percent reduction in our energy use and a 20 percent reduction in our water use by 2020, across all of our hotels.”
Of course, the Metropolis article was meant to spark a conversation. The environmental and health challenges facing our world are daunting. That’s precisely why we’re glad to have this chance to share our experience. With thanks to our Hospitality Partners, we’re working together to make the world a better place.
Learn more about becoming a Clean the World Hospitality Partner at CleantheWorld.org.
–Written by Claire Sommer, Clean the World communications partner. Read her Sustainability blog at Kayakmedia.com/blog.
