Eco-friendly measures popular with group travelers

SEAL OF APPROVAL: Odena Chacon, room attendant at the the Hotel Viking, fills shampoo dispensers. The hotel uses cleaning chemicals that are “Green Seal” certified. / PBN PHOTO/KATE WHITNEY LUCEY
SEAL OF APPROVAL: Odena Chacon, room attendant at the the Hotel Viking, fills shampoo dispensers. The hotel uses cleaning chemicals that are “Green Seal” certified. / PBN PHOTO/KATE WHITNEY LUCEY

“Green” initiatives at Rhode Island hotels and R.I. Convention Center are sought after by large groups, though individual travelers, it seems, have come to take the benefits for granted.
“This isn’t top of mind for everyone, but it is very important for some of the groups coming in, so we want to make sure they recognize that we are on top of it and taking steps to be as green as we can,” said Kim Keough, director of marketing and public relations for the R.I. Convention Center Authority.
Green – that is, environmentally friendly and energy saving – measures, taken in the hospitality industry for the past several years, are now commonplace, hospitality experts say. The authority oversees activity at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center, the convention center and Veterans Memorial Auditorium.
Group events that require planning for meetings and conventions generate inquiries on a regular basis, Keough said. These range from questions about whether the outlets recycle bottles and cans, conserve water, or recycle cooking oil by turning it into diesel oil.
The authority does all of that and more, she said, citing steps from a list that includes using motion sensors so lighting is only on in parking garages as needed and using napkins made from recycled paper. Leftover food deemed by the chef to be fit for human consumption is either donated to a local food pantry or sent to a pulper for food composting, she added.
“The biggest request is in concessions during big shows – whether or not we use recyclable cups and containers,” she added. “And we do.”
At conventions, using pitchers of water instead of plastic bottles and donating leftover food to charity are initiatives groups seek out, said Tim Walsh, vice president of sales for Discover Newport. Walsh and Keough both noted that it’s not a deal-breaker if these things aren’t offered, but groups holding meetings at hotels and the convention center do usually ask about such things.
“Everybody realizes it is the important thing to do now,” Walsh said.
Martha Sheridan, president and CEO of the Providence Warwick Convention and Visitors Bureau, confirmed in an email that being “green” has become second nature at many outlets. “Because today’s traveler expects hotels and facilities to engage in sustainable practices and initiatives, it is no longer a differentiator that is specifically marketed to the traveler externally,” she said. “However, in most instances these programs are promoted internally for guests staying at the property.”
Hotels and bed-and-breakfast establishments likewise have many similar eco-friendly initiatives in place, involving everything from lighting to water usage – along with some pretty unique options.
Forty 1° North Marina Resort in Newport, which was the first LEED-certified hotel in Rhode Island, markets that fact “to some extent,” but not explicitly as a marketing tool, said Paul Sauceda, director of sales and marketing.
LEED, a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design program, is a standardized, ratings-based, green-building tool that addresses the entire building life cycle and recognizes best-in-class building strategies, according to its website.
“We are a luxury hotel,” Sauceda said. “Our responsibilities are to live up to the LEED certification. It’s the right thing to do – that really is the driving factor behind it for us.”
Besides the more common initiatives, the hotel also recycles wine bottles for use as water bottles, to cut down on the use of plastic bottles, Sauceda said. A triple-filtration cleaning system is used to adapt the wine bottles for water consumption, he said.
Another popular feature is to provide an iPad in every one of the 24 guest rooms in place of paper news subscriptions to cut down on paper waste. Room-service menus can then be found online, so hotel staff “do not have to reprint stacks of paper when we have to change a menu item,” he said.
“Our travelers like it,” he added.
Hotel Viking in Newport has a variety of initiatives that include eliminating Stryofoam cups and lunch boxes, which are not biodegradable, and using cleaning chemicals that are “Green Seal” certified and less harmful to the environment, said General Manager Mark Gervais. Old electronics and cardboard are recycled and 100 percent organic products are used in the hotel spa, he said. “We do tons of things, and I bet 90 percent of guests won’t see that we’re doing this,” Gervais noted.
“And it doesn’t necessarily save the hotel money. But whether you’re a believer or not in global warming, what’s been going on the world has not been terribly eco-friendly. We’re not over the top, but we want to do our little part as much as we can.”
While many of the green initiatives may go unnoticed by travelers as behind-the-scenes improvements, some do get their attention, Gervais said.
His hotel no longer provides multiple small shampoo, conditioner and hand-lotion bottles in its guest rooms, instead providing dispensers in the shower. And only one bar of soap is provided in each vanity, he said.
“We do [more than] 50,000 occupied rooms a year, so more than 150,000 plastic bottles no longer go in the trash,” Gervais said. “We explain the ecology, and people tend to get it.”
The Admiral Fitzroy Inn in Newport, which has 18 guest rooms, provides information about its green initiatives on its website, but does not use the information explicitly as a marketing tool, said innkeeper Angela Craig.
Some things, such as not washing towels every day to save water and using high-efficiency light bulbs in most places have become pretty standard and are “not a selling point,” Craig said. “If they haven’t read about our policies somewhere along the way, they don’t ask. The thing they do notice is the recycling of the water bottles.”
Ultimately, she and others said, cost savings have not been the motivator for providing eco-friendly and energy-saving initiatives, though long-term savings may accrue – nor is it a way to lure travelers.
“They’re coming to me because of my location, my price points and what we offer,” Craig said. “Our intention was not to get business through it. Our intention was to do the right thing. And if we get people who recognize that and come to us because of that, [then] that is a fringe benefit.” •

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