Going Green

One of the top ten hospitality and meeting trends is "going green." "Greening up your IT systems can save you money in the long run while boosting your karma at the same time." With technology, it is easier to be environmentally conscious and provide efficient service. So, start with the guest rooms. Most guests do not stay in the hotel rooms for long. Many hotels have programmable on/off timers or sensors used for lighting in low occupancy areas. However, not many hotels have the same system for air conditioners. Think about how much money is wasted when the air conditioner is kept on!
Incomm offers a thermostat that can sense when a guest is in the room. If there is no movement in the room for a certain amount of time, it will turn off automatically. Even though it might be slightly cold or hot when the guest enters, it will not take long to warm up or cool the room since hotels rooms are not the size of a gigantic mansion.
Another issue is solar electric energy becoming the major source of energy in the future. Hotels with flat roofs can establish panels that produce solar energy. The Carlton Hotel in San Francisco has flat panels for solar electric energy on their roof. I was surprised to find a hotel that actually operates on solar energy.
A huge area we must accomplish is recycling! I only thought about typical recycling, but this article also stated that properties that run a lot of different technologies is wasting e-waste or electronic waste. Since hotels have to keep up with the technology-savvy tools, the amount of technological garbage is unbelievable. For example, changing TVs to flat-panel TVs is an issue these days. All these hazardous materials have to go in the garbage bins.
It is important to improve technology tools in the hotel, but we must remind ourselves that not all technology tools save the environment.