Becoming more sustainable can save your hotel money. There, we said it.

And making a hotel more sustainable can be tough – You know this, and we know this, but it doesn’t have to be!

Managing a large-scale business with so many moving parts is hard enough and now you have to deal with the added pressure of becoming a greener organisation.

What if we told you there were easy, simple and cost-effective ways to improve your green credentials and actually save you money?

So, if you like the sound of that, here are our ‘small changes for success’ in turning your hotel into a green business:

1. Recycle – it’s nothing new

You are probably already doing this regularly at home (or you should be – but that’s another blog for another time). And like the heading says, recycling is nothing new, but it makes such a huge difference to business wastage, for absolutely no extra cost.

According to the Waste Resources Action Programme, a quarter of the UK’s waste is produced by businesses, but this number can be severely lessened by increased recycling.

Pro tip: providing your guests with means to recycle whilst using your business can also take a lot of the load from off your staff.

2. Go ‘Paper-free’ – or close to it

More and more businesses are embracing a more digital approach to the working day by scrapping – or massively reducing – their day to day usage of paper.

Did you know the paper industry is one of the world’s major polluting industries and one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases with over 900 million trees cut down annually?

And most hotels fly through paper: whether it be through office paperwork; disposable paper napkins; menus; etc.

So, reducing your paper usage will reduce the amount of paper you go through, and less paper = less filing, and who doesn’t want that?

3. Take a look at where you buy

Start trying to buy local goods and produce where this is possible and makes sense.

Doing business with local, sustainable businesses can have a huge impact on your business’s effect on the environment. Increased locality means less travelling and waste in your supply chain, and therefore a lessened strain on the environment.

4. Educate employees

Chucking your own waste in the correct coloured bin alone won’t cut the mustard, you’ll need your employees to follow suit.

So, keep your employees in the loop and educate them about the benefits of how being more sustainable will have a positive impact on the business. This will help ten-fold in the longevity of instilling an eco-friendlier stance to work.

Pro tip: we recommend setting up an internal Green Team (something we’ve done with a number of clients), helping to encourage behavioural changes and work towards becoming more sustainable.

5. Choose renewable energy

Businesses need energy – obviously – but not all energy is made equal.

In line with the government’s pledge to become carbon neutral by 2050, investment in renewable energy generation is increasing rapidly. Businesses can now power their whole site or multiple sites with green energy for the same price as traditional sources.

I could tell you about different purchasing strategies but we’ve covered this in another blog, what I will say is hoteliers are perfectly positioned to take advantage of a renewable energy basket buying approach, you can read more about and the benefits here.

So, to recap, sustainability does not have to be a financially crippling step for your business, some of the most effective ways to reduce your impact on the environment are not only free, but actually result in cost savings for your business.

And with the government’s Net-Zero plans for 2050, businesses need to become savvier about their energy and wastage impacts, so why not make the change today?