This was published 7 years ago
Travel with an environmental conscience: How green is your hotel room?
By Lee Tulloch
Some hotels and resorts, but by no means all, urge guests to be more active by reusing towels or linen but few make it compulsory.Credit: iStock
Most of us have seen the evidence: two-thirds of the coral in the northern waters of the Great Barrier Reef above Cairns died in 2016, as a result of climate change and other man-made factors. The severe bleaching extended south to Townsville this year. It's not just depressing, it's gut-wrenching.
Out on the sea, the flourishing cruise industry is bringing small cities of people to fragile ecosystems each day. More than 757,000 litres of sewage and five times that amount of grey water is disgorged into our oceans by cruise ships every single week.
Over a year, these ships use around 400 million litres of petroleum products, which seep into the oceans. And cruising is only a fragment of the international shipping trade. Hotels, too, consume an enormous amount of energy. A hotel might use about 100 litres of water a day on laundry for each guest, not taking into consideration the energy used for washing machines and dryers and the polluting chemicals washed into the environment.
I was staying in a hotel last week that provided a printed card on the nightstand to be placed on the bed if I didn't want my sheets changed that day. It seems a sensible request. For most people, a daily change of sheets is unnecessary.
Some hotels and resorts, but by no means all, urge guests to be more active by reusing linen and turning off energy, but few make it compulsory. Hotels tend to pussyfoot around it so as not to offend guests by asking them to use towels more than once or limit the number of baths they have.
So I wondered, what's the point of making a small gesture like not changing sheets? Are we just whistling in the wind while the big polluters continue unregulated or not regulated enough? It's very easy to feel defeated by the bigger global picture of societal and political indifference to climate change.
This year has been named The Year of Sustainable Tourism by the World Tourism Organisation. It's not just about reducing electricity and water usage. There are three pillars to sustainability: economic, which involves hiring as many local staff as possible; social, which means the rich cultural heritage of a place is protected; and environmental, initiatives such as recycling water and waste.
How do you know your cruise ship or hotel is paying more than lip service to sustainability? For one thing, if they're placing plastic bottles of water on your nightstand, you might reconsider how serious they are about it.
The Green Hotels Association bestows LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification on hotels that adhere to certain practices that conserve the environment. This certification is one way to check the eco bona fides of where you are staying.
But it's easier for smaller luxury hotels and resorts to meet these standards, as a new breed of "ecoluxury" traveller is prepared to pay a premium for accommodation that doesn't come at a cost to the planet.
The Brando in remote Tahiti is one resort that is self-sustainable and carbon neutral. Groups that operate resorts and hotels in exotic destinations, such as Six Senses, Alila, Aman and Beyond, tend to be rigorous about their sustainability practices. And they tend to be pricey. It's the big, mainstream hotels that would make the most impact by being more eco-friendly.
Even so, some hotel groups, such as Rosewood, are implementing major sustainability programs. And setting a new benchmark is the high-rise 1 Hotel beside New York's Brooklyn Bridge, run entirely on wind power, which uses local and reclaimed materials and includes rainwater tanks under the hotel that will irrigate the entire Brooklyn Bridge Park during summer. There's not a single plastic bottle on the property.
The cruise industry is slow to come around. In fact, ships are getting larger and, by corollary, more toxic. The largest burn more fuel than whole towns, emit more sulphur than several million cars.
Air pollution from international shipping (including cargo) accounts for around 50,000 premature deaths per year in Europe, the Brussels-based Transport and Environment group claims. The Swiss have just announced the first carbon-neutral ship on Lake Lucerne.
Shippers such as UPS offer carbon offsets. It's a start but hardly earth shattering.
One thing every concerned traveller can do: let your hotel/ship know your expectations. Point out waste, such as plastic water bottles and food disposal. Maybe it feels like a drop in the ocean, but that ocean will be grateful for even small measures.
Sign up for the Traveller newsletter
The latest travel news, tips and inspiration delivered to your inbox. Sign up now.