Wednesday, October 13, 2010

THe Hotel, Restaurant and Leisure industry going green!

Due to an enormous amount of pollution around the world, global warming has become a major issue globally during the past few years. As a result, steps have been taken either individually or business-wise to support what we refer as “the green movement.” The green movement has been going on now for the past few years and strongly sustained by many industries, especially the Hotel, Restaurants, & Leisure Industry.

“Most major chains are looking for ways to integrate green into their hotels, and water and energy conservation are popular routes." Hotels have for plan to use eco-friendly air-conditioning, solar heating, and heat recovery systems to extract waste water from one system and use it in another. This sounds like a promising plan that however demands sacrifices. But have you ever thought about advantageous ways of going green for a company? Sometimes “going green” might seem like a hassle; it is however not always the case since it can be beneficial to some companies. For example, Starbucks used to serve their hot beverages in two cups in order for the customer not to get burned. A while later, a wise man came with the superb idea of creating a holding band made with recyclable papers. By taking such step, Starbucks is definitely going green, but saving money at the same time.

Another example is when lodging at a hotel and customers tend to get encouraged to go green by using the same towel during their entire stay. The hotel will be appreciated for taking ethical steps and will save money as well by having fewer towels to wash. In the business world, there are always opportunities; it just takes one to know his product, his customers, and his industry in order to take advantage of those openings and be successful.

3 comments:

  1. I like the examples you gave of certain hotels and restaurants going green through such practices as encouraging customers to reuse their towels and decreasing the amount of paper products used in disposable coffee cups. I would like to know some more examples of how hotels and restaurants are going green, and how this will appeal to their current customers and possibly attract new customers.

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  2. I liked the Starbucks example, as it showed a way that a company went green AND saved money, which can be important in today's economy. I think going green is extremely important for businesses to consider, because many consumers are concerned about the environment, and only wish to do business with eco-friendly companies.

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  3. Nice job, though going green can be great for reputation, it can also be expensive in the short run. I really liked your Starbucks example, though it is not very recent (I don't even remember the days of 2 cups)!

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