“How to survive next year and attract more customers”
Croatian Tourism Minister Damir Bajs said on August 29 in Dubrovnik: “Our tourism has yielded better results than anticipated this year, but the real test will come next year and it is realistic to expect that tourism powers like Italy, Spain and France will take strong measures to attract tourists, so we too must have a ready response."
At EcoBase we have a solution how you can make an extra effort to attract more tourists next year using ECO or GREEN technologies, because no color has more character these days than green in its new role as the symbol of the environmental movement. But we all know that green also is the color of money. And in the hotel industry, green will soon come to symbolize both at the same time.
As many industries are learning, environmentally sound practices can also attract new customers and reap more profits. Because the same people who are trying to cut down their use of energy at home expect the same from hotels when they travel. And more consumers, whether they're on the road for business or pleasure are using green as their guide when choosing a hotel.
On this site we will explore different possibilities for increasing your incomes, attract more customers and prepare your business for the next year and probably for the next 10-20 years after it. So let's get started...
For some inspiration please take a look at the World's Top 10 Eco Friendly Hotels:
You probably might think that during this tough economic time adopting green practices is last objective in your task list. However it can be a “best marketing vehicle right now” for your industry, according to Jerry Yudelson – US leading green building consultant, speaker and author. We can only share his opinion regarding how green building will do in the face of the economic downturn.
So it is really up to you to decide if you want to stay still or gain momentum and take over the leadership. And EcoBase can help to apply new methods using knowledge and technologies.
In the past an eco-friendly hotel might have been a mountain lodge where guests recycled their trash. Obviously things have changed now. If you looked at the hospitality industry a couple years ago everyone would say this was a fad. Green's not going to stick with us. Yeah, there are a couple people who want to go stay at some hotels made out of paper on some desert island. And that might be the definition of the extreme green.
But since then the industry has woken up to realize that this is something that's going to be here for a long time and you need to think about ways to be environmentally friendly.
Again why?
Most simple answer is - because your customers demanding that. Let’s take the segment of business travelers as example. In April 2008 more than 1,000 business travelers participated at Deloitte’s special survey. Fully 95% of respondents think that lodging companies should be undertaking green initiatives. Please take a look at the Table (source Deloitte Consumer Survey. April 2008):
What’s also interesting is that this sentiment is similarly high across the various gender, age and income groups, and among frequent and infrequent travelers. Clearly, you should be considering the consumer’s green expectations when planning your business activity.
Your customers want green!
Consumers increasingly are demanding green behavior from companies. The eco-conscious consumer segment has grown so large that there are now several acronyms for them, including Scuppies – socially conscious upwardly mobile persons – and LOHAS – Lifestyles of Heath and Sustainability.
They are massive movements. They have their own journals, organizing conferences and meetings and guess what – have a business directory on their web site recommending environmentally sustainable business practices around the world including hotels of course.
So the point is: you need to make these improvements simply in order to stay in the game. You're not getting ahead - you might be getting ahead for a short period of time which can be very good, big advantage for competing with other countries during the next year or so, but over the long term you will have to do this in order to play in the game of the hotel industry.
So you can say, great, I'm not going to invest any money today and the guy across the street will /or in our case it could probably be the nearest country/ and then one or two years from now all of the travelers going to go across the street. And that will happen because people will say, you know what, I'm not going to pay some extra, but I'm going to pick the two hotels, even if they're charging the same, the one that's the green one. So you could be at a weak market position from the fact that people will stop going to your hotel.
That's maybe a little drastic way of looking at it but, back to our example with business travelers, more and more corporations are saying to staff: "here are the people we want you to do conferences with, here are the people we want you to have meetings with, here's where you can click to see which of the hotels have better environmental policies than the other", and that's start to drive the behavior of the hotel companies. And it’s happens all over Europe, the United Kingdom or United States.
As you can see it’s not just about going green actually; it is about competing in a different world.
And another good reason why to become eco-friendly is increased government pressures.
The new European energy efficiency standard prEN 16001, out in 2009, will extend the scope of the ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 environmental standards into energy management to help companies set up continuous improvement processes for efficient energy use. The ISO is planning to do likewise with a new ISO 50001 standards by 2011.
Alongside energy efficiency standard, a draft EU standard for energy efficiency services was published in March 2009 for public comment. It outlines standards for:
- calculating energy consumption,
- energy audit methodologies, and
- energy certificates which the EU hopes may be tradable in the future.
These standards will have significant effects on management systems throughout Europe – even more so when the governments decide to implement some of the recommendations into law.
On the construction side, various regulations, including Code for Sustainable Buildings in the UK and The European Union Energy Performance of Buildings Directive for example are guiding the development and implementation of green building practices. So stay up to speed with the energy efficiency trends – it is all changing and new energy laws are likely to be just around the corner!
So these are factors which explain why hotels are becoming eco-friendly customers’ demand and more strict legal requirements.
But what you will get if you will go green. What must be the benefits and advantages to encourage you to invest in sustainability and green technologies? Here we can pass on to the next important point...
"Risk and Rewards for building sustainable hotel."
Let’s take a closer look at these benefits:
1. Your incomes will be significantly increased 2. Demand for your hotel will be enlarged 3. And your brand image will be improved
(so your brand value will grow)
And the bottom line is - your business will be more sustainable. Now, how does being green translate to:
Your incomes will be significantly increased.
It is possible by using your current resources more efficiently and considerably reducing your spending on electricity, water, heating and cooling.
According to Green Hotels Association, when energy-saving measures are introduced, such as energy management systems, fluorescent bulbs, ceiling fans, linen cards, lights out cards, motion sensors for public rest rooms, meeting rooms or exercise rooms - energy bills are much reduced.
As an example: the Embassy Suites Lake Tahoe Hotel & Ski Resort (400-suite property) has spent $250,000 less than it had expected to spend on energy so far this year after rolling out a series of energy-saving improvements that cost about $200,000,the hotel owners will recover their investment in just 10 months. The hotel could come close to a total of $500,000 in energy savings by the end of 2009. When comparing the first six months of 2008 electricity consumption dropped by 575,000 kilowatt hours ($98,902 savings) and natural gas consumption by 9,314 dekatherms ($67,709 savings).
So its worth to try, is it?
When water-saving equipment and techniques are introduced, such as low-flow showerheads, 1.5 gpm aerators, serving water on request only in restaurants, special dishwashing valves, low-flow toilets, waterless urinals, toilet tank fill diverters in older toilets and linen cards - water bills are reduced dramatically.
A California GM received an award for reducing water usage at his property by two million gallons in one year by using this features. In 2007 Marriott International, Inc. reported that its Linen Reuse Program, a global effort to encourage guests to reuse linens and towels during their hotel stay, has saved an average of 11% to 17% on hot water and sewer costs involved in laundering operations at each hotel.
Waste hauling is a huge expense for a hotel which can be lowered drastically through recycling and avoiding wastefully-packaged products. Hoteliers can ask vendors to deliver products in minimal wrapping. Vendors can be asked to deliver products one day, and pick up the packaging materials the next day.
A Chicago Hyatt reduced their waste hauling by 80%! They started a recycling program and hired staff to separate the materials. Management was absolutely astonished to find that these employees were pulling $3,000 to $10,000 a month of hotel property out of the waste stream—napkins, towels, spoons, etc.—all of which had clearly been discarded prior to recycling.
So all these technologies and techniques can be applied with a purpose to use resources more efficiently and reduce your expenses. And that can be a crucial factor for business, especially these days, during economy downturn period.
All that will have some additional implications:
According to a recent report published by the Green Hotels Association, "Companies with proactive environmental strategies have a 4 % higher return on investment, 9 % higher sales growth and 17 % higher operating income growth than companies with poor environmental track records."
Demand for your hotel will be enlarged and your brand image will be improved.
Consumer expectations are becoming even more important in the current environment where information transparency via the Internet provides immediate access to any company. Numerous groups are providing information on green establishments and other related information.
Another compelling reason to consider going green sooner rather than later is the potential benefit in terms of talent attraction and retention.
Many human resource specialists believe that companies across all industries will face a growing talent crunch as members of the Baby Boomer generation begin to retire in increasing numbers in 2008 and onward. To replace these retiring employees, companies will need to appeal to younger generations of workers for whom environmental and social responsibility is an important factor in their choice of where to work.
A 2008 MonsterTRAK.com survey found that 80 % of young professionals are interested in securing a job that has a positive impact on the environment, and 92 % - would be more inclined to work for a company that is environmentally friendly.
Because a green workplace can be a convincing way to establish such a reputation, companies that adopt green practices ahead of the curve may be able to create an image of environmental leadership that will stand them in good stead in their future search for talent.
Let’s look on the other side. On-line survey of 16 project owners that had undergone at least one green building retrofit was conducted in 2008 by Deloitte. The main question was: What is their experience with going green?
As you know, company brand image – a critical aspect of doing business for the industry – can be directly influenced by its perceived level of social and environmental responsibility. A company’s reputation is one of its more important assets and one of the hardest to build back up, once damaged.
So creating the reputation of environmentally conscious company is a good way to increase the value of your brand towards customers, employees and other stakeholders like potential investors.
So let’s sum up everything now...
You need to go green in order to stay in the game of hotel business. Because your customers want green. And because it will be mandatory as an EU standard very soon. But you can seize the opportunity now and using green technologies and practices captivate new customers, significantly reduce your running cost, increase your brand value and as a result you will receive more sustainable business – amazingly attractive for investors.
So use first-mover advantage to adopting green practices and you will have a very real opportunity to take a leadership position in the industry.
There is substantial statistical evidence that green buildings are better for the environment than conventional buildings. And now it’s clear that green buildings can be better for business, too.
As you will see building doesn’t have to be new to be green. An empty building can undergo a top-to-bottom green renovation that incorporates green design, building products, and technologies. Or companies can choose a green retrofit, which enables them to introduce green benefits into their existing property at a reasonable cost and with only minor impact on their day-to-day operations.
But for every organization that embraces green retrofits, there are many others that lose the many benefits of green in favor of conventional retrofits. Some of these may simply be unaware that a green option exists. Many others, however, contend that green adds too much to the cost of a retrofit, or that green’s ROI (return on investment) is too low or unclear.
We at EcoBase believe that organizations taking this overly cautious approach should reconsider. We believe that within the next two years, companies that do not have green workplaces will be at a competitive disadvantage from higher operating costs, lower productivity, declining attraction and retention of skilled workers, and an increasingly negative brand image. In addition, owners and investors in conventional buildings will be less able to compete in the marketplace as green buildings become customers’ preferred choice.
Green cost premium
The “green cost premium” issue deserves a closer look, since it’s the most common objections raised to green building - the idea that it costs significantly more than conventional construction. Certainly, some green projects can cost more than a comparable conventional project.
On the other hand, Davis Langdon’s “Cost of Green Revisited” study as early as 2007 found that: “There is no significant difference in average costs for green buildings as compared to non-green buildings... Average construction costs have risen dramatically the past years – between 25 and 30 percent. And yet we still see a large number of projects achieving green objective within budget.” Recent studies by the IFMA Foundation and Turner Construction also demonstrate that most new green buildings cost less than 1% more than conventional buildings. Some even cost less than conventional buildings.
Many industry observers believe that the green building trend is growing – and as green building becomes more widespread, the marketplace differentiation crucial to such intangible benefits as brand image, greater attractiveness as an employer, and better community relations will become more difficult to achieve.
The evidence is mounting that green building is indeed gaining momentum. The green building industry grows at 30% per annum - "And this is in a recession" (Source: USGBC Annual Report 2008). Also, according to the McGraw Hill Green Building Trends 2008 report, construction industry in Eastern Europe (and Middle East) is experiencing rapid growth.
According to the McGraw Hill Global Green building Trends 2008 report "green is highly visible - 32% of responding construction industry professionals (700 respondents from 45 countries) perceive that green already makes up over 10% of domestic construction output.
The level of firm involvement is expected to grow dramatically, with 94% of responding firms expecting to be significantly dedicated to green by 2013, building green on at least 16% of their projects, and 53% expecting to build green at least 60% of the time".
(Source: Bowerbank, A. & Bernstein, H., 2008. McGraw Hill Global Green building Trends)
Green buildings can now be found in every building category, from office buildings, stores, warehouse/distribution centers, hotels, and restaurants to universities, car dealerships, police and fire stations, and even convents.
And the bottom line...
Companies that want to stay ahead of the green regulatory curve, reap the many green building benefits, and remain competitive in the marketplace should implement green retrofits of their workplaces sooner rather than later. All things considered, we believe the business imperative is clear: The earlier a company adopts green building practices, the bigger the gains it stands to reap!
