The hotel industry must go green, in order to survive, says online hotel reservations services company, hotel.info HI GmbH.
The company is promoting that hotels should follow a green agenda, and notes that an act as simple as a guest putting the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on their hotel room door will result in the avoidance of unwanted room cleaning and the conservation of water.
Research carried out by the company has shown that hotels in the US consume an average of 84.7 billion kWh of electricity, annually, which is equivalent to the electricity supplied to Washington DC for ten years. Even a 10 percent reduction in energy usage would result in saving 8.47 billion Kwh of electricity, per year.
Hotels also generate around 60 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year mainly because guests are unaware of their wastefulness, and because of unsustainable policies.
The study has shown that it is possible for guests to save electricity in hotels by unplugging tea kettles and hair dryers when not in use, as these appliances consume a small quantity of electricity even when they are plugged in but switched off.
While hotels create 1.9 billion pounds of waste every year, equivalent to 37 million full suitcases; it is possible to reduce 50 percent to 75 percent of the landfill waste generated, by implementing green building standards while constructing new hotels.
Green hotels in the US would save around 65.7 billion gallons of water annually, compared to an annual use of 219 billion gallons of water used by hotels that are not water consumption conscious.
If all hotels in the US were run in a sustainable way, it would be possible to save around $750 million annually; equivalent to offering 7.6 million free hotel stays to guests.
