Tag: Sustainability


Hotel Sustainability: Moving Into a New Phase

12
October

This article is cross-posted on Environmental Leader.

Over the past decade, hotel companies have implemented programs to reduce the waste generated and the energy used in their daily operations. Many have been successful in saving both resources and money as well as attracting environmentally conscious guests; however, the industry as a whole has yet to make sustainability an integral part of its strategic plans. The Two Tomorrow’s sustainability agency’s latest survey, the Tomorrow’s Value Rating (TVR) from 2009, indicates that the world’s ten largest hotel companies “are only just beginning to address the wide range of social and environmental challenges facing the sector.” Climate Counts, which scores corporations on the climate impact of their business, found similar results when researching six major hotel firms. “The world’s largest hotel chains may be seeking practical ways to address a range of broad environmental impacts in their operations . . . however, few appear to be aligning such actions as part of a larger and more comprehensive carbon management strategy. An average sector score of 19 out of a possible 100 suggests the sector has much work ahead.” Now that the low hanging fruit that has enabled hotels to claim they are going green has been picked, it is time for hotel companies to evolve their sustainability programs in order to address the new phase of challenges and opportunities they currently face.

After several years of running environmental programs, hotels need to evaluate if their current organizational structures supporting these projects continue to be effective. Early green programs were often developed in the Environmental, Health, and Safety department. Their initiatives to protect workers and the Earth from dangerous chemicals evolved into projects to reduce waste and operating costs. Other sustainability programs were managed by the social responsibility team, run through the Human Resources department, which focused on giving back to the community. As a result, many sustainability officers now reside in Operations or HR. These alignments made perfect sense ten years ago when changing out light bulbs and cleaning up local parks represented major sustainability programs within a lot of hotels. The benefits of these initiatives are real but, as our world enters a new era where stakeholders are demanding more transparency and third party certifications are evolving and becoming a requirement to conduct business, keeping these programs in their original locations is often limiting.

Sustainability has evolved into a much deeper practice than many business leaders initially believed was possible. It is a tool and philosophy that can be applied strategically to every department, from the new hotel design team and franchise relations to the sales, marketing, and food services groups. By using the lens of sustainability, it is possible to uncover new data points to track and reveal previously unseen metrics about current key indicators. Rather than having Operations or HR staff trying to implement sustainability goals for other departments, hotels need corporate sustainability officers that operate out of their own unique department and are empowered to assess and coach all other departments within the organization. Some hotel companies are realizing this and 2011 has seen the development of several new or revamped sustainability director and officer positions residing within environmental or sustainability departments. This organizational realignment will greatly increase the ability of hotels to address the new challenges faced by environmental teams in all industries, such as managing a green supply chain and deciphering what consumers will want one year from now.

Once these roles are established, hotels need to find visionary leaders who can inspire, educate, and spark excitement for sustainability from within the organization. One of their main tasks will be convincing departmental leaders that sustainability is not just another passing trend but a valid business model with real benefits. Each department within a hotel company should work with the sustainability officers to define how environmentalism affects their team, develop a clear strategy with measurable goals, and then create a plan to achieve their objectives. This will ensure sustainability goals are not in conflict with more traditional hotel aims of increasing occupancy and revenue per available room (RevPAR).

The bottom line according to the TVR survey is that “Only three companies (Accor, InterContinental Hotels Group, and Marriott) seem to see sustainability management as important for protecting and creating commercial value.” Recently announced programs are showing progress and are very encouraging. The Carbon Measurement Working Group, formed by the International Tourism Partnership and the World Travel & Tourism Council, has pulled together ten major players in the hotel industry and is working to standardize how carbon is measured and reported. Hilton Worldwide has earned ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certifications for all if its brands. Their programs should be applauded as well as emulated by other hotel companies. These examples make it clear that hotels can engage with sustainability in a deeper, more strategic way. As they do so, they will move the hospitality industry into the next phase of sustainability: one defined by strategic, proactive decisions instead of reactionary measures.

2 comments » | Hospitality, Hotel, Marketing, Planning, Sustainability

Don’t Fear The Compost: A Zero Waste Implementation Story

30
September

This article is cross-posted on Triple Pundit.

Zero waste is a movement that aims to minimize the material that goes into landfills by recycling or composting most items. It is the next generation of traditional recycling and a sustainability initiative, which I recently implemented as my company’s Green Committee chair. After months of planning, it was very exciting to launch the program in late spring. Now that we have the summer behind us, I am taking the time to reflect on lessons learned and following up on my promise to share how our zero waste project has been running.

The program was rolled out in the corporate headquarters of an international software company and is the first zero waste implementation to be put in place within a large office building in our state.  The transition to a zero waste system in an office building, specifically collecting compost, involves a significant cultural change on behalf of the employees and management. We knew our leadership team was on board when after being pitched the idea last fall, our CEO asked, “Why would we not launch a program like this?” With his endorsement in our hands, the Green Committee began turning our focus to our 200 colleagues.

Six months before we began seriously entertaining the idea of a full-scale zero waste initiative, we had used our Green Leaves educational program to provide employees with information about home composting. We placed paper leaves throughout the office that read, “Reduce trash, save money on garbage and lawn bags, and create great soil by composting organic scraps. For more info go to: www.HowToCompost.org“. Over the weeks that followed, Green Committee members made it a point to discuss the many virtues of composting with anyone who asked us a question, commented on the green leaf, or just happened to be standing next to us in the kitchen. Some people said they remembered their grandparents composting on the family farm fifty years ago and were surprised that the practice is becoming popular once again. Several people expressed concern over the odor and were very surprised when a few Green Committee members began keeping small compost bins at their desks to collect fruit and vegetables waste from themselves and their neighbors to bring home with them at the end of each day. We soon realized that compost can be a touchy subject and would most likely be our biggest challenge moving our zero waste plans forward.

After priming the pump with our suggestion that employees consider composting at home, during the annual Kick Off Meeting in February, I announced to the entire company that a zero waste initiative would be implemented in 2011. I officially unveiled the program several months later at our spring quarterly meeting by defining zero waste and explaining we had contracted a local company that was, at the time, providing zero waste hauling to over thirty area restaurants. I had one of the two customized zero waste stations we had purchased for each kitchen in our office with me in the meeting and used it to help me education people on the types of items that should be placed into each bin. Finally, I our displayed the names of all Green Committee members and asked employees to seek these people out with their questions and comments about the program.

The most complicated part of our implementation is the variety of bins we provide employees. Traditional zero waste programs include three options: Recycling, Compost, and Landfill. We chose to include two additional collections in our zero waste station, Cans and Bottles, and Mixed Paper, because during the past three years, these items have been taken away for free by local companies. The cans and bottles are collected by a local charity that turns them in to collect the deposit and all of our paper is collected by a business that has been recycling scrap metal and mixed paper in our region for twenty years. The Green Committee began working with him four years ago when our company moved offices and encouraged employees to recycle the paper they were getting rid of before the move. The free price tag comes with a request that we sort the paper ourselves so we have set up bins throughout the office to capture the paper in four groups: white copy paper, chipboard, cardboard, and all other paper (colored, glossy, etc.)

Not only would our new zero waste hauler, Eco-Movement, charge us for removing paper, cans, and bottles from our building, we would be asking employees to change a collection system that has worked well for years. By continuing the current process and adding composting to the mix, we chose to partner with three local organizations instead of one, save money, and make the transition to zero waste easier for the employees.

Almost immediately after launching the program, we began making adjustments. Prior to zero waste, we had been told by our facilities department they were unable to secure wooden coffee stirrers. Knowing this, we made sure to point out that the plastic coffee stirrers needed to be placed into the landfill bin. After one week the Green Committee received so many requests for wooden coffee stirrers from employees , including the Vice President of Human Resources, who were concerned about the impact adding plastic coffee stirrers to the landfill has on the environment that we went back to our facilities manager and asked him to widen his search for wooden coffee stirrers. After another week, we had completely discontinued using plastic coffee stirrers are now purchasing wooden coffee stirrers which can be composted.

The lessons I have learned from developing and launching this zero waste program revolve around ease of use and listening to employees. Making the program easy and optional allowed employees to begin fully utilizing the system soon after it was launched and harnessed the power of peer pressure rather than the mandate of the Green Committee to persuade the folks who were reticent of participating to give it a try. Stressing our hope for feedback and then acting on the information we received was key. If you are about to launch a zero waste program, I suggest gathering all changes and clarifications during the first two weeks of the initiative and then communicating them all at once though a zero waste update email. Finally, sending out a survey after the program has been running for several months is an important way to see to what degree employees have internalized the idea of zero waste. We plan to poll our colleagues soon and I will be back to let you know what we learn.

Comment » | Compost, food, Local, Recycling, Sustainability, Zero Waste

The Cloud Institute for Sustainability: Educating for Sustainability with K – 12 Students

21
September


The Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education is a New York City based non-profit founded by Jamie P. Cloud in 1995. The Institute has developed a holistic educational philosophy that involves the individual student along with his or her classroom, school, and community. Known as Education for Sustainability (EfS), this learner-centered method works with the primary influences in the lives of students, knowing that true, long-term change is most easily attained when nearly all major influences support the new vision.

This is the second of three posts that provide Jamie’s answers to several questions I recently posed to her regarding sustainability education.

Can you please explain the distinction between educating about sustainability and educating for sustainability?

What people don’t always realize is that educating for sustainability is not always about sustainability. It is first and foremost about developing the knowledge and the ways of thinking that will help us to thrive over time.

It is clear that people educating for sustainability do not all have a shared vocabulary with shared meanings.

The Cloud Institute’s framework for Education for Sustainability is designed to contribute to our individual and collective potential and that of the living systems upon which our lives depend.

When we educate about sustainability we treat sustainability as a topic. In my opinion, its use strictly as a topic is limiting and does not allow for what I believe is its highest and best use. To us, sustainability and regeneration are the names for the desired condition we are educating for. I think the greatest value to us is that the concepts of sustainability and regeneration are aspirational and measurable destinations.

Why have you chosen to focus your efforts on K – 12?

The Cloud Institute believes that a sustainable community agenda is unsustainable if it doesn’t formally involve all the children, young people and their teachers. We unite schools and communities to learn and change together  to instigate, sustain, and scale up the innovations and best practices that contribute to sustainability and that characterize Education for Sustainability. We can accelerate the shift toward Sustainability by engaging the schools in Education for Sustainability and securing the role of children and young people as participants, innovators and leaders. We believe that K-12 education can substantially influence knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviors related to sustainability. This is the most fertile ground for helping to shape a society committed to sustainable development.

In the most serious conversations about sustainability, I have not detected a shared understanding of the role of education, particularly K-12, in contributing to the shift toward a sustainable future. I have spoken to system dynamics modelers who assume that the time horizon for the return on an investment in K-12 education is twenty years. When I hear that, I ask them, “Do you know any children?!” In my experience, it takes children and young people very little time (especially compared to adults) to turn what they’ve learned into action at the local level.  On average, they are much more responsive, creative, and quicker to make change than we adults are.

Many people have given up on public schools and yet we keep sending the majority of our children there. It is a bad scenario. We can either give up on them and create something else instead, or we can transform them into learning organizations that contribute to our children’s individual and collective potential and that of the living systems upon which our lives depend  (we actually like a bit of both.) We cannot, I would argue, continue to send the majority of our nation’s children to places for thirteen years of their lives that we have abandoned financially, psychologically and emotionally.  That’s just a disaster. That’s part of the problem. I’ll say that upfront.

Comment » | Sustainability, Sustainability Education

Sustainability Education at Enclave Harbour

25
May

This article is cross-posted on Environmental Leader.

In my recent article, The Promise of Sustainability Education, I discussed the importance of introducing whole systems thinking and environmental sustainability into the US educational system. There are a variety of organizations using a range of methods to bring sustainability pedagogy into today’s schools. In this interview, David Miller from Enclave Harbour discusses the role virtual worlds can play in the transition to sustainability education.

MC: How long have you been developing virtual worlds and when did you get the idea to create Enclave Harbour?

DM: I started working in virtual worlds at the end of 2006 when Second Life was all the frenzy in the media.  I had been doing Blender 3D, an open source 3D animation program, as a hobby and saw the opportunity to make buildings that could be used by others. My first project was an art gallery for a Norwegian artist that was having a real life art reception and wanted it mirrored in Second Life.

I was interested in using Second Life for teaching science but it was far too expensive and Second Life does not allow anyone under 16 years of age to enter. However, I did use Second Life to teach eLearning developers how to “film” 3D animation, much like you would do with the much harder to learn Blender 3D.

MC: What are the advantages of teaching earth science “in world”?

DM: Immersion and engagement. The concepts I have students explore in these virtual science field trips have traditionally been taught with illustrations or photographs in a text book. If you are lucky, then maybe you can see a video or even a 3D projector image. All we are doing with Enclave Harbour is taking that illustration or photo and making it a 3D model that a student can walk around in.

It’s more fun to have an avatar and walk around a desalination plant or a landfill then to read about it. Kids love to explore, even if it is just virtually. Most kids won’t ever participate in a field trip to hydro-electric plant or calculate the kinetic energy of a toilet they flush atop of the world’s tallest building as captured by a wastewater turbine.

You can also teach the fantastical. We have a space station that teaches closed-circuit systems like the water cycle and the carbon cycle and we also have a spaceship that serves as a way to discuss future energy possibilities – those topics that are just fun to explore.

“In-world” activities can also be enjoyed by those at brick-and-mortar schools, virtual schools, and home schools.

MC: Was it a conscious choice to use a variety of alternative energy solutions within Enclave Harbour?

DM: We teach Environmental Science topics using Life, Earth, and Physical Science principles taken from the National Science Education Standards (NSES) and from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In this mix it seems appropriate to teach all forms of energy being used. We teach science and not policy and in this respect there is no right or wrong energy.

However, since we do this with an eye towards closing the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), we do present activities designed in a way that students do their own research on current events and can write papers on differing topics. The goal is for them to uncover various sides of issues and to question assumptions presented by the media. They will make up their own minds about energy solutions and be better equipped to make sound decisions regarding them as they become older.

MC: How can youth best be educated on sustainability?

DM: I think that today’s youth is on the verge of this question becoming a moot one for them. We have seen significant changes in the last five years in the automobile industry and recent incentives, such as San Francisco allowing the free charging of electric cars, that are now making these things a day-to-day reality and not simply novel.

I believe that science literacy can help us become sustainable in our lives and our decisions. Science literacy in the US is lower than in many countries and we are now aware of this. Science needs to be restored to its former glory of the days when dreaming of space travel was something many kids did. Today we have no planned manned missions and the lunar walk is from a time way before today’s kids were born. The romantic side of science is not as bright as it could be.

Personally, I blame standardized testing to an extent because it removes some of the reward for passionate science teachers who want to teach but get ranked on their ability to have students memorize facts. Rote memorization might look good for test results but we can see that this does not inspire great science nor does it allow the US to lead the world in science innovation.

I taught three years at the secondary level and seven at college but I would not teach secondary science unless it was at a very progressive school that valued enthusiasm, passion, and real life experience.

MC: What is the most important actionable item you would like readers to take away?

DM: Question science that you hear in the media. It is sometimes pseudo-science presented to further a political agenda that may sound plausible but falls apart upon cursory inspection.

Science is all around us, it’s in your cell phone, the water you drink, the transportation you use, and science is magical and sometimes invisible. From pollination to hurricanes to sail boats, wind is an important “thing” that we have studied and understand very well but have you ever actually seen the wind?

 

3 comments » | Sustainability Education

Sustainability Programs Must Engage Employees

17
November

This article is cross-posted on Triple Pundit.

People learn through stories. When special tales are told frequently, they become more than words. They are transformed into myths which hold life lessons. The Green Committee I founded in 2007, and which I wrote about launching in Developing an Award Winning Sustainability Program, has one of these stories. It shines a light on our past and reminds us that sustainability programs must engage employees.

Soon after removing Styrofoam™ cups from our kitchens and providing all employees with a ceramic mug, the GC decided to replace the individual coffee brewing system. We had used Green Mountain Coffee’s K-Cups® for years and had thrown away literally hundreds of thousands of the non-recyclable plastic containers used in the K-Cup. Everyone on the GC thought switching our coffee vendor made sense but we quickly learned a valuable lesson:

Do Not Mess With People’s Coffee

To Make a Coffee

We initially replaced the plastic cup system with a product that looked similar to a tea packet. These new “pods” contained no packaging, making them entirely compostable, and appeared to be exactly the solution for which we were searching. Each user could still select his or her own flavor and enjoy unlimited cups of coffee, tea, or cocoa. After making the switch, we learned that many employees felt the replacement coffee was not the same quality as what they were used to with the K-Cups. The Green Committee received several emails from people who were very upset with the change. While some complained that the new flavored coffees were not as good as the previous brand, one person went so far as to say, “This new coffee tastes like a used charcoal briquette.” Not the reaction we were expecting.

Knowing that we could not make all 200 of our colleagues happy, yet understanding the Green Committee’s future would be much smoother if we sought majority support, we decided to try another hot beverage vendor. The new system also offered a variety of drink options but used packets which left behind a plastic sheath. Not ready to admit defeat, we did some research and found a “clean energy” power plant operated byWheelabrator Technologies that would take the empty packets for free and burn them to make electricity for New Hampshire homes.

This appeared to be a fantastic solution and the GC was proud to say it listened to employees and found a creative option that satisfied everyone. What we did not count on was that a fair amount of people enjoyed the pod coffee and this change to packets now upset another contingent of employees. The Green Committee felt stuck between two angry mobs of caffeinated people. The step toward sustainability we felt so positive about a few weeks before seemed to be moving our team backward instead of ahead

Not willing to return to K-Cups, we decided to pull our employees even more into the process of change by asking them to vote for their favorite coffee system. We gave people one week to make their decision and when the results were tallied, employees chose the system with some disposable packaging.

After three years, we are still enjoying single-brew coffee and feel the switch was a great learning experience for our entire organization. The Green Committee makes a conscious effort to engage employees and believes this commitment to the people of our organization has created a strong partnership between the sustainability team and the rest of the company.

1 comment » | Green, Green Committee, Sustainability

Employees Are More Than Just Labor

15
November

This article is cross-posted on Triple Pundit.

I have to wonder if Andrew O’Connell’s recent piece, Respect Employees: Be Tough on Them, in the Harvard Business Review blog was intentionally meant to incite a strong negative response from as many people as possible. The entire thrust of the article can be summarized in these few outrageous sentences: “…it’s not fine to pretend that employees come to work in order to have fun and be fulfilled. That fiction does them a disservice. They’re here to do unremitting work, maybe for years on end, and the labor is going to take something out of them. And they may get laid off for their trouble.” No doubt this has historically been true, but we are in a new age of business in which the contract between workers and employers is rapidly moving beyond sweat for money. Simply put, today’s employees are more than just labor.

61 faces

O’Connell focuses on recent research out of Germany that compares two groups of people involved with complex problem solving (CPS) projects. The group from the “nice environment” found results came easily and was praised for its good performance. The group from the “nasty environment” found results came very slowly, or not at all, and received negative feedback.

The findings show that, “nasty environments influenced CPS by leading to a higher information retrieval and a better CPS performance.” This is not surprising at all. Humans have developed coping strategies that allow us to survive when situations become unpleasant, but nature only intended for people to be put into difficult situations every so often. The increased daily stress levels commonly seen today are known to lead to a variety of physical problems as well as compromised relationships at work and at home. Yet it appears that as our “civilization” moves forward, we are making it harder to fulfill our needs and increasingly find ourselves in “nasty” environments.

ages apart

The hunter/gatherer lifestyle practiced for thousands of years around the world gave people a 60-40% balance between work and leisure. Our modern world leaves us with far less time to enjoy life, yet articles like O’Connell’s are suggesting that on top of already busy work schedules, people should be given negative feedback to help them see how a company needs its operations to run. I realize that O’Connell did not perform the research but he is reporting it as business news and I find the implications irresponsible.

While it is not possible to include an in-depth discussion on the many socio-economic questions this new research raises, it is important to take an optimistic view of the shift in workplace culture that is gaining momentum. Many leading companies are creating positive environments for their employees and doing much more than organizing a few outings or offering games tables in their break rooms. Organizations are responding to an increasing demand for business to be socially and environmentally conscious and to fit into employees’ pursuit of a good work-life balance. Adobe has bicycle mechanicsat many of its locations so people who bike to work can get a tune up or repair without eating into their personal time. Google’s 20-percent program allows people working for their company to spend one-fifth of their week researching topics that interest them but are not related to a current project. Patagonia let’s their employees leave work when there is a good swell so they can enjoy surfing near the company’s California headquarters.

These programs are certainly not 100% altruistic. Google claims that many of the applications that make it into their test lab were envisioned during the 20-percent time. Overall, these situations do not sound like “nasty” work environments to me. To say that a negative environment leads to higher and better outcomes is externalizing the true costs of the system, such as the decreased mental and physical heath of the workers being put into these consistently difficult environments. O’Connell writes that he, “takes no pleasure in reporting” about the benefits of oppressive working situations and claims, “I wish it were not so;” however, he provides personal examples to show that a negative work environment can provide management with the best that people have to offer. Again, this is no surprise. What is surprising is that the Harvard Business Review would publish an article that deals with such a short-sighted view when a new age of organizational management based on social responsibility, environmental sustainability, and financial viability is rapidly growing.

Two hundred and fifty years after the new technologies of the Industrial Revolution first began to change the world, the global business community is discovering it needs to change the world once again. The money-making model which fueled the revolution did not fully account for the well-being of society and paid little attention to the health of the environment. May the sun shine warm upon your face.The results of this flawed paradigm are seen today as the human population and global temperature increase while natural resources and economic stability continue to decline. Companies now have a tremendous opportunity to incorporate the triple bottom line – an interest in people, planet, and profits – into the heart of their organization. Businesses like Stonyfield Farm and Timberland are taking the lead by protecting the Earth and offering employees an outstanding environment where they are encouraged to provide more than just labor.

Comment » | Sustainability

Developing An Award Winning Sustainability Program

2
October

@ Business NH Magazine

This article is cross-posted on Triple Pundit.

On September 14, I was presented with the 2010 Lean and Green Large Process Award. The honor was given by Business NH Magazine for the sustainability programs I lead at a software firm in New Hampshire. I founded the company’s Green Committee (GC) in 2007 and have since worked with a wonderful team of colleagues to develop and implement a variety of sustainability projects. This is the first of several posts that will highlight the development of the GC along with several of its most effective and innovative programs.

I chose to announce the formation of the GC at an off-site quarterly meeting when the entire office was in attendance. I made arrangements for the CEO to provide an introduction and express his personal commitment to the GC’ s sustainability efforts. He was truly interested in protecting the environment and shared a heartfelt story that I believe helped employees put a personal face on the company’s new sustainability focus.

I then took the floor and defined the concept of a triple bottom line, shared the GC’s environmental mission statement, and told the group that starting the following day Styrofoam cups, paper plates, and plastic utensils would no longer be available in the company kitchens. Instead re-usable kitchen items would take their place. I then asked everyone to look in the cloth shopping bag they received when they entered the room, inside of which was a ceramic mug and a water bottle. These items were all adorned with the GC logo,  a badge similar to the images used for our software applications, which created an immediate visual presence for the GC within our company.

I told everyone that these items would allow them to live a more environmentally friendly work life but that simply providing them with the mug, bottle, and bag was not enough. I stressed the important role each person would need to play in moving our organization toward a greener future. Not only could everybody aim to make use of their re-usable items each day, they could also share their sustainability ideas with the GC. To facilitate this process, we created an email address that routes suggestions and comments directly to the GC committee members. In the first month after the official GC kickoff, we received emails from ten percent of our workforce suggesting ways in which employees thought the company could become more environmentally benign.

Three years after I introduced sustainability to this software company, projects and ideas are still pouring in. In future posts I will describe the most successful and the most challenging programs we developed and how we made it this far, even winning an award along the way.

Comment » | Environmental Mission Statement, Green, Green Committee, Hospitality, Sustainability

Environmental Mission Statements: Starwood Shows Their Commitment

19
May

This article is cross-posted on Environmental Leader.

In my last two articles, I summarized a variety of hotel environmental policies and outlined a three-step process for developing a strong environmental mission statement. The following analysis of how one lodging company has chosen to develop their commitment to sustainability will provide guidance on how to incorporate a tangible plan to protect the Earth into your own business.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. has published an excellent Environmental Sustainability Policy on their website.

We, at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., believe that economic growth and the well-being of society are inextricably tied to the health of the environment. Accordingly, we embrace our responsibility for environmental stewardship and are committed to integrating leading environmental practices and sustainability principles into our core business strategy.

Through collaboration with our hotel owners, franchisees, suppliers and business partners, we will actively work to reduce the environmental impact of our business activities and to continually improve and innovate on practices aimed at:

  • conserving natural resources,
  • minimizing waste and pollution,
  • enhancing indoor environmental quality,
  • establishing and reporting on key environmental performance indicators, and
  • raising environmental awareness among our associates, guests and communities.

We acknowledge that, in many ways, we, like the global community we serve, are only in the early stages of developing and implementing the many changes that will be necessary to achieve these vital goals. Nonetheless, we strongly believe that our efforts to support a healthy environment serve the interests of both current and future generations and constitute the foundation for enduring success.

Starwood’s understanding that the planet, people and profits are all inextricably linked is clear in the intialparagraph of their policy. Accepting this “triple bottom line” concept is an essential first step in developing an environmental mission statement, because it answers the question of why sustainability is important to their company. In addition, Starwood acknowledges their accountability and states their commitment to environmental responsibility in their opening sentences, which are strong points that create an impactful introduction to an environmental mission statement. Starwood has been effective in defining why the protection of the natural world is important to their organization.

In the second paragraph of their policy, Starwood’s environmental goals are presented in a clear manner and cover important “green” topics both inside and outside of their hotels. The objectives include an educational component, which is a critical piece in changing business practices and personal habits. They list hotel owners, franchisees, suppliers and business partners as the stakeholders with whom they will work to achieve their environmental objectives. Not including clients in this list of active “green” participants working toward Starwood’s environmental goals may result in their missing an important opportunity. In the past few years, there has been a surge of interest in environmental sustainability. Developing an explicit partnership with guests that goes beyond education is an important way to leverage the energy and commitment to protecting the Earth that an increasing number of clients posses. If invited to become involved, interested guests could help Starwood progress in their sustainability commitments. Those who opt not to participate will simply be aware that Starwood is actively seeking to work with all of its stakeholders to become increasingly “green.”  Not including guests underestimates the role this group can play in making Starwood’s Environmental Sustainability Policy come to life.

Many hotel companies incorporate a generalized statement about endeavoring to protect the natural world that lacks the specificity required to promote measurable change. Others claim they are currently engaged in sustainable practices, which does not provide incentives for them or their stakeholders to do more. Starwood sets itself apart by boldly stating a plan for success that seeks to “continually improve and innovate” their environmental practices. In doing so, they have set a bar they can never fully reach, creating an ideal situation that propels them ahead as they persistently explore new “green” avenues for improvement.

Unexpectedly, Starwood closes their environmental policy by acknowledging the nascent stage of their environmental efforts and admitting they have a lot of work ahead of them. Despite their identification with the many other companies that trail behind in implementing sustainability initiatives, Starwood demonstrates their willingness to take large strides toward a new way of doing business with their public statement about the many changes that are necessary in order to move their company in a “green” direction.

Starwood’s environmental mission statement includes all the three pieces of an effective statement: Why is environmental responsibility important to the company? What is the end goal? How will the business measure their success? Starwood logically outlines why they are interested in protecting the Earth, how they plan to lessen their impact on the natural world by listing their “green” goals, and explains that they will deem their efforts successful only if they work to continually improve them.

While well-crafted overall, Starwood’s policy misses a potential opportunity that provides us with another occasion to learn about effective environmental mission statements. I believe that if encouraged to become involved, clients who hunger to do more to help the environment will spend their own time working with brands they value. Some may simply tell friends and family about a new local business in which they believe and that they want to succeed. Others will do much more. Many of Starwood’s clients are meeting planners who might wish to reduce the energy and materials consumed at the events they coordinate. If asked by Starwood to engage their attendees, most planners would be happy to ensure their meeting participants are aware of the ways in which they can help minimize the impact of their conference, such as recycling and turning off lights. Customers who seek more should be offered opportunities to become involved in addition to environmental education, but exactly how companies reach out to their clients will vary depending on the organization’s “green” goals.

4 comments » | Environmental Mission Statement, Green, Hospitality, Triple Bottom Line

Environmental Mission Statements: A List of Hotel Sustainability Policies

15
February

This article is cross-posted on Environmental Leader.

A mission statement can help an organization navigate difficult times. I wonder how many hoteliers used their mission statements to remind them what of mattered most to their company during the past 18 months. As is true with many sectors of the world economy, 2009 was the worst year in recent memory for the hospitality industry. Meeting planners and business travelers moved to on-line conferences whenever possible and overnight vacations became a luxury for many people. Despite these financial problems, hotels and their investors understand the importance of developing a sustainable product and have been investing in green technologies.

This is the first in a series of posts that will investigate environmental mission statements. The articles will focus on how to develop an environmental mission statement, which companies have them, how are they being used, and discussing whether environmental mission statements are necessary. I have started by compiling links to the environmental policies and statements of several well-known hotel organizations.

Fairmont Hotels & Resorts – One of the first hotel companies to incorporate sustainability into their organization, Fairmont’s Environmental Policy outlines  their commitments to protecting the natural world. Mission Statement

Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts – While it is not a true environmental mission statement, the “Supporting Sustainability” paragraph on their Corporate Values page summarizes Four Seasons’ stance on being “green”.

Hilton Worldwide – A Sustainability Statement and an Environmental Policy are both available on Hilton’s Sustainability web page. Measurable goals are documented and ways to achieve them are noted. Mission Statement

InterContinental Hotels Group – Listing eight steps it will take to improve its relationship with the earth, IHG’s Environmental Policy is clear and aggresive. Their Green Engage program is an industry leading environmental initative and shows they are serious about their mission. Mission Statement

Kimpton Hotels and Restaurant Group, LLC – The foundations of the EarthCare program were set almost 30 years ago. Since then, Kimpton has dedicated itself to innovative “green” practices across all of its locations. Mission Statement

Marriott International, Inc. – Spirit to Preserve is the sustainable arm of Marriott’ s Social Responsibility and Community Engagement program. In their Social Responsibility Report, J.D. Marriott says, “An integrated green strategy is a business imperative”. While Marriott has several partnerships with international conservation organizations, I am unable to find an official environmental mission statement.

Omni Hotels and Resorts – Similar to other hotel companies, Omni Hotels does not have a specific environmental mission statement. Instead, they provide information on their Environmental Stewardship practices.

Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. – Their Environmental Sustainability Policy is clear and professional, outlining the five “green” areas on which they are focused. Mission Statement

Wyndham Worldwide Corporation – The Wyndham Green program is well defined on-line. Their Policy Statement defines their thoughts on the environment, provides local and global goals, and lists seven areas of focus. The site also provides links to their Green Scorecard and Core Initiatives. Mission Statement

2 comments » | Environmental Mission Statement, Green, Hospitality, Sustainability

Local Food: Another Piece in the Sustainability Puzzle

3
September

August is New Hampshire Eat Local Month and a great example of the growing push to reorganize our society and economy around environmentally sustainable and socially responsible practices. Eating local foods not only helps combat global warming by reducing the transportation required to get food to our tables, it provides a major boost to the Granite State economy. Increasing the production and consumption of locally grown food and moving away from super-sized supermarkets is an important step in creating a truly sustainable society.

The development of the modern day grocery store did not happen over night; however, more has changed in the way we grow and purchase food during the past 50 years than during any other time in human history. The current model favors rapidly produced items made from ingredients that are increasingly devoid of nutritional value. Food is a multi-billion dollar business in the US and much of what we find in our Hannaford, Shaw’s, and Market Basket stores comes from monstrous manufacturing facilities completely detached from the reality that their products are intended to nourish people.

Instead of providing healthy food choices at honest prices, most of the over 45,000 items found in a typical supermarket reflect the attitude of their makers. Primarily, that food is just another product to sell. Our consumer driven society has let them be successful in marketing this food because we like the promises of fat free ice cream and the sound of exotic spring water. When the marketing efforts are more important than product itself, we have a problem. The recently released movie Food, Inc. likens today’s food industry to the giant cigarette companies that once stood proud and tall as model corporate citizens. Both, it claims, mis-led the public about the effects of their products and both fought vigorously to continue their charade while the health of our country suffered. Phillip- Morris had to change its name, it now goes by Altria,  and its strategy, such as focusing on reducing under age smoking, because of the dubious nature of its business. I wonder if Kraft, and its horrible products like lunchables which have 17 grams of fat and 1100 mg of sodium in a single serving, will one day be forced to do the same.

The wonderful truth about local food in New England is that it can supply most of what we want as consumers. Our farmers’ markets abound with fresh vegetables, ripe fruit, and many locally produced jams, breads, meats, and dairy products. The food tastes better because it was picked recently when it was ripe, not weeks beforehand and then shipped to us from 3000 miles away.  Producing and consuming foods within a local geographical region is a model that thrived for several thousand years. It is time to focus on local food grown within a few hundred miles of our homes and businesses and restoring our communities to fully functioning organisms.

The transition to a new food economy is both incredibly simple and extraordinarily complex. What could be more natural than buying food from your local farmer, to say nothing of growing some yourself. California and Mexico provide examples of where the process becomes more difficult. The San Joaquin Valley produces more than ten percent of our county’s food. Turning off their pipeline of lettuce, raisins, beef, and asparagus may help the farmers in NH but many of those in CA would have to shift into new industries as their national markets are reduced by a growing demand for regional food.

Which brings me back to August being NH Eat Local Month. Initiatives like this start the discussion. Many of us have been speaking about the benefits of local food for years. The Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program to which my family and I belong is an example of what happens when local food becomes important to many residents of the same locale. Together with about 30 other members, we pay the farmers at Brookford Farm in Rollingsford, NH for a share of their harvest. In return we recieve twenty pounds of fresh produce every week as well as milk, yogurt, eggs, a chicken, and some beef. What could be better? Fresh food from local people.

As we close in on 2010, I often find myself excited thinking about the changes taking place here in NH. The University Office of Sustainability (USO) at UNH is doing fantastic work with their Food & Society Initative, which promotes local agriculture and the concept of a Sustainable Food Community. The number of farmers’ markets across the state has risen from less than 20 to over 100 in the past decade. This equates to more local food available to more citizens and less manufactured food required by our population. As individuals, families, and businesses become increasingly involved, momentum is building and another piece in the sustainability puzzle is being put into place.

Comment » | Carbon, Energy, food, Green, Local, Marketing, Sustainability

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