There’s More to Sustainability Than Meets the Eye

By Stephen P. Ashkin

A few minutes of research about how hotels around North America are becoming more sustainable brings up a number of examples. For instance, referring to a major hotel renovation in the San Francisco Bay Area, one article says this hotel is a “leading example on how to successfully integrate sustainable programs to reduce waste and conserve natural resources [into hotel operations].”

Another news story, this one about a chain of hotels throughout the world, boasts that as a result of new initiatives, all of their 1000-plus facilities will enjoy a 30 percent reduction in energy use per room and a 20 percent reduction in water consumption by 2020. “These efforts make sense operationally and our guests are choosing brands that share their sense of purpose for reducing environmental impacts,” says a spokesperson for this hotel.

And one more hotel organization reports they have a “company-wide ‘big green’ program in place that focuses on the three core elements of sustainability: Conserve Resources; Reduce Waste and Recycle [More]; Act Now. Learn and Lead.” They also proudly report that they have received recognition from various government and private organizations, honoring their sustainability efforts and accomplishments.

Well, all three of these hotel organizations should indeed be recognized and honored. They are examples of what many hotels around the world are accomplishing, reducing energy and water consumption; and while it was not referenced specifically, most are now cleaning their properties using Green Cleaning products and procedures.

However, we have a problem here, one that is shared by many not only in the hotel industry, but the professional cleaning industry, the building industry, education, healthcare, and many others. And that is: sustainability means much more today than conserving resources or, the more proper way to describe it, using them more efficiently.* Today sustainability refers not to the three elements mentioned earlier but to the following:

  • People
  • Planet
  • Profits

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word “sustainable” means “able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed,” and “involving methods that do not completely use up or destroy natural resources.”

History of the Word

Possibly we should begin our exploration of “sustainability” by defining the term and tracing how its meaning has evolved over the centuries. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word “sustainable” means “able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed,” and “involving methods that do not completely use up or destroy natural resources.” Based on this definition, the three hotel organizations referenced earlier are indeed becoming much more sustainable.

There is evidence that more than 8,000 years ago, agrarian communities outgrew their local food supply and depleted natural resources, forcing the communities to migrate or face collapse. Further, it is thought that a key reason some of the most important civilizations in history, such as the Mayans, communities in Egypt, Anasazi, and Easter Islanders, died and disappeared was the result of poor or non-existent management of natural resources.

This scenario has played out in different forms and with different consequences for thousands of years. Eventually, although we became more astute, our communities did not necessarily become more sustainable and responsible with earth’s natural resources. Instead, we developed or found new sources of water, energy, and other natural resources and used those until they also ran dry.

But it appears that everything came to a screeching halt in the 1970s. Petroleum supplies to the U.S. were stopped, causing an energy crisis in this country along with shortages around the world. Thus, many people, especially those in government and industry, were awakened to a startling fact: we had become dependent on the whims of foreign countries. Furthermore, the petroleum and many other natural resources we take for granted were not available in endless supply.

In 1987, the United Nations more formally defined sustainability as the use of natural resources to meet today’s needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. But by 1994, the word and its definition had expanded. Now sustainability encompasses three components typically referred to as the triple bottom line (TBL):

  • Social (people)
  • Environmental (planet)
  • Financial (profits)

When we use the word sustainability today, we are referring to these three components.


TBL and Housekeepers

By now, we have a pretty good idea of what the environmental (planet) component of sustainability is all about, to use natural resources so that they are available for future generations. But what are the economic and social components of sustainability?

Let’s look at the economic side first. Suppose we have a hotel that is reporting significant profits and those profits have been increasing regularly for several years. While that bottom line - profitably – is being addressed, a closer look at this property shows it uses more water and energy than comparable hotels in the community. It also generates a lot more waste than any of those hotels and, because of the chemicals used to clean and maintain the property, more potentially harmful toxins are released into the local sewer system.

Essentially what is happening here is this hotel is profiting at the expense of its community. Its use of more energy and water drives up the costs of these supplies. The hotel’s excess waste fills local landfills more rapidly than planned, requiring more taxpayer money to be spent building additional landfill sites. Similarly, the discharge of toxins into the sewer system, resulting from the hotel’s cleaning chemicals, means water utility companies must spend more time, money, and resources to properly treat water and keep waterways clean and healthy.

This is obviously not a sustainable practice either for this hotel or for the community. We want this hotel to make a profit, of course, but not at the expense of the community. And this leads us more specifically to the social (people) component of sustainability. Let’s use our same hotel once again to explain this component.

Looking a bit deeper into its operations, we find this property has a history of hiring housekeepers on a part-time basis. This practice helps it avoid paying healthcare and other costs. In fact, this hotel offers few benefits at all and pays their housekeepers less than other properties in the community. Not only does this make it more difficult for these housekeepers, it means they have less disposable income which could benefit the entire community.

While other hotels have incorporated what they call “well-being” programs for their housekeepers – programs to protect the health of their staff and promote vitality and enthusiasm for their work - no such program exists in our example. Further, training programs are minimal. Not only does this negatively impact the housekeeper’s ability to use effective cleaning techniques, it increases the possibility of an accident or misuse of chemicals or equipment that could result in injuries to the worker and others in the property. Fair wages and appropriate investment in worker training and programs contribute to the social component of sustainability.

Our example centers on hotels, but the same principles apply to hospitals and similar organizations where housekeepers work. Fortunately, more and more hotel organizations and other facilities are catching on, realizing that using natural resources responsibly is just one component of sustainability. And it benefits everyone. Happy and healthy workers are more loyal to an employer, reducing its employee turnover and the time and expense required to train new housekeepers. And facilities of all kinds, including hotels, are finding that as they adopt greener and more sustainable operations, their operating costs are reduced.

This means we could actually say there is a fourth component to sustainability; and that is that everybody wins.

 

There’s More to Sustainability Than Meets the Eye:  Published on March 28th, 2016.  Last Modified on April 10th, 2016

Comment by:
James Cahill

8 years ago (May 4th, 2016 at 2:45pm)

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0 People thanked James

Good read, Thank you Stephen

 

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About Stephen P. Ashkin

Stephen P. Ashkin is founder of the Green Cleaning Network, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to educating building owners and suppliers about Green Cleaning and president of The Ashkin Group a consulting firm specializing in Greening the cleaning industry.? He is considered the %u201Cfather of Green Cleaning,%u201D on the Board of the Green Sports Alliance, and has been inducted into the International Green Industry Hall of Fame (IGIHOF).