MY RANGGO’S 13 best Eco-Employee Tips – to share with your boss and help save money and the planet.
The time is NOW! The Eco Global Community is finally reacting to the realities of mans impact on the natural world. More and more travelers and customers say that they look at a business’s environmental impact, when making choices about where to stay, eat or drink.
Despite this, some businesses continue to hold fast to poor environmental practices. For some it’s the costs involved in changing what they’ve always done. For others, it’s not knowing where to start because it feels like so much needs to be changed.
So MY RANGGO has come up with some quick, easy or inexpensive solutions for all you Eco-Employees, which you can suggest to your boss
1.Replace/Eliminate Plastic Straws
A simple and cost saving option is to stop automatically providing straws when serving drinks. For guests that ask for a straw have re-usable straws available; bamboo or metal straws. It is cheaper than constantly buying plastic or paper, throw-away (ends up in the environment) straws.
The business savvy can also consider having a separate stock of branded, re-usable straws available for guests to purchase; resulting in an environmentally friendly Marketing Product they can take home with them! Eco-Employee Star Points!
- 59PHP for 50 plastic straws, if you only use 50 straws a day = 21,535PHP a year
- 69PHP for 50 paper straws, if you only use 50 straws a day = 25,185PHP a year
- 24PHP per Bamboo Straw ; Total price for 300 Reusable Bamboo Straws = 7,200PHP a year*
- 24PHP per Metal Straw; Total price for 300 Reusable Metal Straws = 7,200PHP a Year*
* Local Stockists: Zero Waste Philippines
Alternative Throw-away Straws: Lukay Straws
Café Editha in Dapa, Surigao del Norte was recently in the news for making great strides in being as environmentally conscious as possible. The owner of Café Editha says that she got the idea for introducing coconut leaf “Lukay” Straws after a visit to Corregidor.
2. Stop Providing Mini Toiletry Bottles
Stop offering mini bottles of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel in guest bathrooms, and invest in refillable dispensers. Buying bulk products to refill the dispensers, instead of thousands of little plastic bottles, reduces the need for storage space, as well as reduces the impact on the environment and your business garbage disposal rates. Eco-Employee Star Points!
Bathroom Dispensers range anywhere from 300PHP up to 4,000PHP for wall-mounted triple Dispensers*
3. Stop Providing Plastic Shower Caps, Razors etc
Stop providing plastic razors, shower cap, and toothbrushes too. Few people actually use them and they are one-time use as well. Front Desk can stock branded Bamboo Toothbrushes and shower caps for purchase, for those guests who’ve forgotten theirs.
4. Reduce Water Wastage – part 1.
There are many water efficient bathroom fittings available today but to replace all your bathroom suites just to be more water efficient will be expensive.
Reduce Toilet Water Usage – You can save between 2 and 3 litres of water with every flush with devices such as the Hippo Water Saver. Over a year that is a lot of water saved and a much lower water bill; good for your budgets and good for the environment! Eco-Employee Star Points!
The Hippo Water Saver is 165PHP each and will last for over 10 years.
Did you know: Hippos can be found in all the best places including Buckingham Palace, The White House and the Houses of Parliament
Or you can fit a Toilet Water Fill Cycle Diverter to older style toilets. In older toilets, the bowl will fill with water before the tank, which means the water continues to run in to the bowl (and straight back down the U-bend unused) until the tank fills high enough to shut off the fill valve. A Diverter redirects some of the flow of water in to the tank, so that it fills around the same time as the bowl, shutting off the fill valve quicker.
Fill Cycle Diverters are about 300PHP each from Amazon.
5. Reduce Water Wastage – Part 2
Showering uses large volumes of water. A water-saving shower-head uses 9 litres of water per minute or less. If each guest were to shower for 7 minutes that’s a saving of more than 26 litres of water per shower, and more than 9,000 litres of water per person per year!
Water-Saving showerheads can be purchased for 2000-8000PHP each from Manhattan Green Solutions
6. Stop with the Complimentary Mini Plastic Water Bottles
Instead of providing 2 plastic bottles of water a day in your guest rooms, invest in jugs with lids and provide glasses, placed upside down on doilies rather than with a cellophane or cling wrap tops. Install water stations on each corridor, so guests can refill as required.
7. Stock up with Re-usable Water Bottles
Take it one step further and offer guests the use of a re-usable water bottle with your logo on it, during their stay. If you can’t afford to offer complimentary water bottles, take a deposit to cover the cost of replacing the bottle, should they lose it or decide to keep it. You reduce the thousands of empty plastic water bottles in our landfills and oceans and gain some marketing for your hotel too during the guests stay and beyond. Eco-Employee Star Points!
8. Encourage Customers to BYO!
Offer a money-off, or token stamp scheme for people who order take-out drinks and food but supply their own cups, containers and wraps to use.
Not only does this gradually save you money and space, as you can reduce the amount of take-away containers and cups your order in, but it can encourage customers to become regulars, because they save money on their purchases too.
9. Provide Segregated Trash Bins
Set up clearly labelled segregated trash bins; in guest bedrooms, kitchens and public areas.
Do not line these with individual plastic bin bags, as you’re still adding to the plastic waste in the environment. Even bags labelled bio-degradable may not be bio-degradable in your particular climate.
Housekeeping, or those responsible for emptying the bins, can use one large bag, per type of trash and empty the bins in to that. Then wash the room bins before returning them to their place.
- Reduce your trash bag costs*
- Save on potential Local Government fines by segregating your trash more effectively*
Eco-Employee Star Points!
10. Implement a Linen Re-use Program.
There are very few people in the world who change their towels or bed-linen daily. And if people knew the costs involved financially and environmentally, fewer people would expect it during their hotel stay. Economically Sound reported that a 150-room hotel can save on 72,000 gallons of water and 480 gallons of laundry soap, every year, by implementing a Linen Re-use Program. Eco-Employee Star Points!
- Have enough towel rails for the number of people in each room, so they can hang them up to dry during their stay
- Have a Linen Reuse Program sign in your guest bathrooms, which says how often towels will be changes, unless requested by the guest.
- Have a Linen Reuse Program sign which states how often the bed-linen will be changed, unless requested by the guest.
11. Reduce the Amount of Paper You Use
Look at where you can reduce the amount of paper used. Fine tune systems so less paper is required for one action, or booking. Eco-Employee Star Points!
12. Use Silicon or Bees Wax Wraps instead of Clingwrap/Gladwrap
Clingwrap/Clingfilm/Gladwrap is another plastic we use too much and it’s terrible for the environment. Cut your Clingwrap use, and costs, in the kitchen by investing instead in re-usable options. Eco-Employee Star Points!
- Beeswax Wraps are made of organic cotton and coated with a mix of bees wax, tree resin and Jojoba Oil. Use the warmth of your hands to mold the wrap round the food. This creates a tighter seal than plastic wrap. To reuse the wrap, just wash it in cold soapy water and leave it to dry. You can buy rolls of the wrap and cut it to the most common sizes that you need. Or you can buy ready-made wraps.
Milea offers 3 sheets of Large, Medium and Small Beeswrap for 450PHP but has discounts for bulk-orders.
- Silicon Wraps are a great alternative. These stretchy wraps come in different sizes and fit over cups, bowls and plates. They seal in freshness and preventing contamination. phmegadeals are offering sets of 6 at 600PHP, whilst Shopee is offering sets of 4 wraps for as little as 78PHP.
13. Finally; Implement a Green Team
Suggest that there is a key person in each section of your business. Their role will be to look at things that can be reduced or improved on. Have a monthly or annual reward scheme for the best performing teams. This can be based on costs saved or improved efficiency. Eco-Employee Star Points!
For further suggestions and ideas, check out our December 2018 article Ditching Plastics: Managing Guest Expectations (https://yourhospitalityhub.com/ditching-plastics-managing-guests-expectations/ )
Article Sources
https://www.clock-software.com/blog/sustainable-hotel-practices.html
https://www.thebalancesmb.com/sustainability-and-eco-friendly-hotel-initiatives-1223545
http://www.globalstewards.org/green-hotel.htm
https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/column/because-you-asked/what-is-silicone-and-how-green-is-it
http://nymag.com/strategist/article/best-reusable-eco-friendly-food-storage-bags.html
