Hotel Sustainability Practices

Making some changes to ensure your hotel is eco friendly can save you money, offer your guests better efficiencies and more. Change up the experience you offer and learn new hotel sustainability trends with our helpful guide.

Put Together a Green Team

Get your staff together and find a few volunteers in each department that will take the lead on finding and implementing new eco-friendly practices. Have them keep an eye on current trends and be sure to acknowledge their efforts with gift cards or a small stipend.

Start Small

If you don’t want to start a full-on eco-friendly program right off the bat, you can start with small things like:

• Cutting down the use of plastics by offering a reusable option


• Encouraging guests to reuse towels by installing a towel rack


• Placing recycling bins in easy-to-spot areas and replacing worn signs


• Offer guests the option to opt out of daily housekeeping to cut down on laundry and trash bags

Be Efficiency-Focused

Going green doesn’t mean sacrificing efficiency. In fact, adopting eco-friendly practices can enhance overall efficiency in your hotel. Here are a few services you can offer:

• Remote check in/check out


• Add electric vehicle charging stations


• Consider eBike rentals


• Provide shuttle services


• Digital communication and documents

Make Conservation Automatic

It’s easier for guests to help in your conservation efforts when they don’t have to think about it. In addition to encouraging guests to reuse towels and turning off the AC when they leave the room, make a few technology changes to each room to ensure some of these efforts are automatic:

• Use room sensors to detect light levels so that the system can reduce the brightness of the light bulbs when needed.


• Try adding in energy-efficient light bulbs to help lights use less energy while they run.


• Install thermostats with occupancy sensors that can adjust the heating and cooling temperatures when guests are in and out of the room.


• Consider smart showers that limit the length of showers to a pre-set time, sending an alert when the time is almost up.


• Provide reusable coffee mugs and glasses instead of plastic or paper options.


• Set up the bathroom with green manufactured soaps and shampoos with biodegradable packaging.

Reduce Food Service Waste

Food waste can build up fast especially after an event. To cut down on the amount of food waste in your hotel, follow these tips:

• When hosting an event, place less trash bins around the venue and place more recycling signs around to ensure guests are more thoughtful about how they dispose of their trash.


• Provide reusable dishes, flatware, glasses and more to cut down on the use of disposable plasticware, straws and paper plates.


• Change out disposable, single serve food options with glass self-serving containers to minimize waste.


• Compost or donate leftover food to food banks or programs that will compost it.

Invest in Going Green

If you’re interested in long-term sustainability for your eco-friendly hotel, there are a few big-ticket items you’ll want to look into. These include:

• Water recovery and recycling systems


• Energy Star-rated AC systems


• Geothermal cooling towers


• Solar panels

Choose Sustainable Appliances

 Adjusting hotel sustainability practices can be a long process, but you can start by making some easy appliance changes to help like:

• Offering water bottle refill stations in the lobby and by the ice machines


• Removing microwaves from each room and having one by the ice machine per floor


• Using high-efficiency laundry units, faucets, shower heads and more

Check out our other helpful guides to learn about interior design, menu ideas and more. Also, browse our inventory of eco-friendly hotel supplies to ensure you give your guests a great experience.