YOU SAY GREEN…I SEE RED

My Rant for August
Steve Gillick CTM

As a relatively frequent traveller, in and out of Canada, I stay at a number of different hotels both private and mainstream. While the promotion of Green practices has certainly been stepped up over the years, the actual practice seems to be diminishing. Now that everyone has ‘done their bit’ and registered on various ‘we are green—we support the environment” web sites and directories, it seems that they have fallen into a green comfort zone. Green for most hotels (despite pop-up displays and ads throughout the lobby) has been relegated to that simple announcement on a printed card in your hotel room advising that if you would like to be environmentally friendly and re-use your towel, then hang in on the towel bar after use; that if you require new towels, then leave them on the floor.

Is there an issue here? Well first off, it does seem a bit disingenuous. While re-using a towel may in fact save energy and soap and somehow impact the environment, it also saves the company itself money—which I suspect is the true motivation. Why do I say this? Because, my second point is that in many hotels, it matters not where you leave the wet towels—the cleaning staff change them anyway—and sometimes up to three times a day, depending on the star-rating of the hotel!

Anything else? Well now that you mention it, you see all the “we are Green” “We support the environment” “We epitomize sustainability” ads and then you see that this is a lot of talk (printed of course—how environmentally friendly is that?). Sustainability, for instance, includes working with local communities and hiring and training local staff. Yet the general manager of the hotel is from Berlin, the Sales Manager is from Cincinnati and the Chef is from Hong Kong. The locals are present, but mainly as bell boys, cleaning staff and in pool and restaurant service roles. Where are the trainees? Where are the locals who have been promoted to higher positions?

Once you pass through the lobby and enter your hotel room, you see papers and cards throughout. Single pages, each advertising a hotel program or a special festive meal crowded together on the desktop. You find a card talking about green practices by the telephone, another on the night stand, and a third in the washroom. And then…the ultimate test…you fling back the shower curtains and are greeted by tiny non-refillable plastic bottles filled with shampoo, conditioner, moisturizing cream and shower gel. Not terribly environmental. And to add insult to injury, there is no consideration for those who have scent –sensitivities (thank goodness I am not too affected by this) as each bottle competes with the next to include name brand products with, sometimes, the most oppressive ‘fresh’ smells. No wonder everyone in the hotel smells of apricots, avocadoes or ginger and lemons!

In some hotels, including 5 stars, despite the fact the room is on the non-smoking floor, the staff spray the room with cheap 2-star motel-smelling spray (why, I will never know) which again is offensive to those with scent allergies but also negates the effect of staying in a non-smoking and presumably fresh-smelling room.

And on and on it goes. So I guess the message is for those hotels that identify with what I have written to either walk the walk or stop talking nonsense when they say are Green.

Oh, do you complain, you ask? Yes, I fill out those comment cards and include my email contact information, but I have yet to hear back from any properties. I guess they are trying to be green and not waste space on the world wide web