The limited availability of natural resources and the picture presented by climate change show that the issue of sustainability must be urgently embraced and acted upon by everyone, from individuals to society. The tourism sector, which accounts for 8-10% of the world’s carbon footprint, has important responsibilities at this point. Especially hotels, which are the largest stakeholders in the sector, can play a critical role in achieving sustainable tourism goals by implementing innovative solutions in areas such as energy saving, waste management, and increasing the economic contribution of local resources.
Where to Start?
It is necessary to identify the departments in the hotel that generate carbon emissions, and to calculate and analyze the carbon emissions caused by each business process. Free applications such as the “Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative (HCMI)” can be utilized for calculating carbon emissions, or certification can be obtained according to the ISO 14064-18 standard. This way, targeted carbon footprints and energy consumption figures per guest, per room, or per square meter can be tracked and improved. By preferring renewable energy sources, it can be aimed that these sources have a larger share of total energy consumption.
Thanks to the integration of heating and cooling systems with front office management software, heating and cooling operations can be started just before the guest enters the room and automatically turned off by the system when they leave. Targeted and process-oriented tracking can be done for swimming pool, garden, and cleaning chemicals; toiletry products; food and food waste management; textile waste; and greywater and wastewater recovery. Certifications prepared for hotels such as Green Key can be used as guides.
What Does Technology Provide?
Sustainability is not only about protecting nature but also crucial for creating efficient businesses with a competitive advantage. At this point, technology—and especially artificial intelligence—comes into play. The identification of multiple parameters creating the carbon footprint, defining the relationships among these parameters, detecting anomalies, and modeling interdepartmental parameter relations allow for meaningful data interpretation. By analyzing the large amounts of generated data, future consumption can be forecasted and optimized. Thus, hotels can make environmentally conscious purchases based on predicted consumption. The result: less consumption and less waste.
For increasing efficiency in waste management for textile waste, food waste, and wastewater, the classification of waste quantities and recycling processes can be tracked via software. Digital sensors, smart trash bins, and electric vehicle charging stations are becoming increasingly common technologies in our lives.
Awareness Comes First
According to the sustainability report published by Booking.com in 2022, the majority of travelers think that sustainable tourism means sacrificing luxury or having to visit less attractive destinations. Nevertheless, 54% of travelers say they would choose sustainable travel options if information about these options were more accessible. In summary, it is the responsibility of all tourism sector stakeholders to raise awareness and educate guests.
SUSTAINABLE GREEN HOTELS WITH ELEKTRAWEB
There are many applications related to Sustainable Tourism Criteria in the Elektraweb Hotel Program. We can summarize them by topic as follows:
Energy Saving: Thanks to the integration of building heating and cooling systems with the front office program, heating and cooling operations are started just before the guest enters the room and automatically turned off by the system when they leave. This prevents unnecessary heating and cooling, resulting in energy savings.
Paperless Hotel Management through Digitalization: All business processes in departments from housekeeping to spa, from CRM to personnel management can be tracked via software. All software systems work integrated with each other, and the system can also be used on mobile devices.
Waste Management: With the implementation of our new project starting in November 2023, monitoring of food, water, and textile waste will be possible through software. Classification of waste by type and tracking of recycling processes through the program will be possible.
Additionally, with the support of machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies, past data will be analyzed according to various parameters to generate forecasts related to consumer behaviors and upcoming usages, enabling purchases to be made based on these forecasts so that hotels operate with minimal waste.
Environmentally Conscious Purchasing: It is important for each facility to prioritize firms/products located in their region for sustainability. Elektraweb scores and categorizes the firms from which the hotel makes purchases according to their production conditions, location, and adaptation to sustainability practices, and recommends these firms to the hotel's purchasing department to enable environmentally conscious purchasing.
