Starting the Environmental Conversation

Today I looked at the definition of a “Green Hotel” and here is what google sent back to me from Wikipedia:

“An eco-hotel, or a green hotel, is an environmentally sustainable hotel or accommodation that has made important environmental improvements to its structure in order to minimise its impact on the natural environment.”

“Making environmental improvements to its structure”? It’s a bit much isn’t it? If I was a business owner, curious about greening my business, I would close the page and forget about greening my business straight away.

Improvements to a structure evoke to me SPENDING MONEY. Not just money, a small fortune more than likely.

I have always wondered, why does the Environmental conversation always start so big? Why does it keep asking regular people in the ground to insulate their homes, or buy solar panels, or invest thousands of €€€ in structural reforms in order to comply with Green living?

Big Environmental Actions

A couple of weeks ago I was delighted that the Sunday Independent Newspaper in Ireland published a full page article with the title “The cost of cutting your carbon footprint – and the payback”. Once I delve into the article I got quite annoyed. The actions mentioned were:

• Get solar panels
• Insulate your home
• Buy an electric car
• Cycle everywhere

Ok I agree on the cycling bit, but the rest? Do they think people have €100,000 stashed under their mattresses? As far as I know, nobody in middle class Ireland would be able to afford those “Greening” measures. I consider myself middle class and I surely can not afford any of the above at the moment.

I am not saying that all those actions are not valid, and that the corruption of our planet’s natural resources is so big, that big measures are needed. However, what about writing articles and promoting actions that will allow NORMAL people, reduce their use of Energy and Water and reduce their Waste production without having to spend their live savings? How about teaching people to start looking at the resources they use at home, and at work, and take small steps towards reducing their Carbon?

I am a firm believer that small actions, taken by many, can be as successful in reducing Carbon, as the top ten rich people in the country installing their solar panels and geothermal heating systems.

Realistic Environmental Actions

So why does the conversation never start with THE PEOPLE in mind? The masses, the middle class and those that struggle financially, we all can do something about out carbon. But it does not have to be installing expensive technology.

How about small actions like….only boiling enough water in the kettle for the tea you need? This is a sore point in our home, my very Irish husband is one of those that fills the kettle to the top just to make himself 1 cup of tea. It drives me insane!!

Yesterday I installed a Hippo bag in my toilet cistern, it cost me €4 and from the moment I placed it in the cistern my toilet is using 2 litres of water less every time is flushed. Now that is a do-able action for everyone isn’t it? Let’s do the maths:

I work from home so I can easily use my toilet 8 times a day lets say. My husband might use it 4 times a day, as an average I am saying! That is 12 toilet flushes a day. So with my €4 hippo bag I have managed to reduce our water usage by 24 litres of water per day, in any normal day.

24 litres x 365 days a year = 8,760 litres of water saved in one year, every year from now on, out of a €4 bag inside my cistern. Come on!! That is a good result, right? Now let's imagine 1000 households did the same? Or 10,000 households? You get where I am going.

If you are running a hospitality business, the savings can be MAJOR!!! Think how many people use your toilets every day! And the best part of it? Commercial businesses pay for the water they use, so taking control of their resources, even at a small level, will not only reduce their Carbon it will also save them money.

So that is my two cents for this week, STOP scaring PEOPLE with large grandiose projects, and start teaching solutions that the masses can get behind.  

Fifty Shades Greener wants to serve as many Hospitality Businesses as possible so we can make a real difference in the industry. That's why we invite you to check out the full range of our courses.