Is your commitment to caring for your staff, your community, your building(s) and your guests really any different to the level of care and commitment you should have toward the planet? Isn’t commitment to an environmental program a natural extension of the care you already provide on a daily basis? Do your other commitments lag or lapse for economic reasons?

Where does commitment within an organization come from? I subscribe to the theory it can develop at just about any level, but it can only be maintained consistently if the “top” leaders in the company walk it, live it and breathe it. Are you a leader in your community or company?

Change is challenging, but Ghandi said, “We must be the change we wish to see in the world.” Yes, you will have to train, educate, operate, purchase and communicate in different ways both internally and externally. You will have to insert an imaginary “green” filter in your brain for future decisions to pass through.

Communication is a key component of the green continuum. Start by establishing a baseline by counting. What are we currently doing that we can measure?

How many KwH do we consume per occupied guestroom? How many gallons of water are consumed per room? How many pounds of trash do we dispose of per month? If you recycle, what is your diversion rate? If you don’t recycle, why not? How can you communicate effectively without measuring (counting) your results?

Communicate via your website, your guestroom entertainment programming, your marketing collateral, email and via public relations efforts. Kimpton Hotels, Marriott Hotels and Fairmont Hotels & Resorts are good examples of companies that do this well. Examples of individual hotels are the Proximity Hotel, Greensboro, NC; the Gaia Hotels in Napa Valley and Anderson, CA; the Saybrook Point Inn & Spa, Old Saybrook, CT, the Ambrose, Santa Monica, CA, the Habitat Suites, Austin, TX; the Orchard Garden San Francisco and The Seaport Hotel, Boston.

Creativity and Community can be combined for effective public relations opportunities. Find a local environmental group and/or event to help. Sponsor an Earth Day event. Participate in a beach, park or river cleanup. Help build a trail.

As an example of creative community involvement, I present Exhibit A: The Inn by the Sea in Cape Elizabeth, ME holds a beach-cleaning event every year for guests and the community. “It is a great family day and we remove piles of winter trash from Crescent Beach,” says Rauni Kew, the PR director there. 

After the cleanup, parents and children are invited to an ice cream sundae party on the lawn and children are given milkweed seeds to plant at home to support the endangered Monarch butterfly. The butterflies need milkweed to survive. 

The Inn also plants two trees in support of the Earth Day Global Releaf campaign, whose goal is to replant a billion trees worldwide. The trees are usually named to recognize a guest, staff or community member.

Another excellent example is the Golden Arrow Lakeside Resort in Lake Placid, NY. It holds an annual Earth Day event for children that features painting, creating pinwheels from recycled paper and magazine holders from used cereal boxes.

If you like to collaborate, you may want to reach out to your colleagues and community leaders for ideas. You will find a collegial spirit exists even among competitors because everyone realizes this is a human challenge and not an adversarial challenge.

Criteria and Certification are very important. Build your checklist from the certification programs (approximately 300 and counting worldwide) that already exist. If your state has a certification program (16 already do), then get involved. It is either free or inexpensive and most have excellent criteria and checklists to use as a guideline. In addition to state programs, there are many other certifications available. They can lend credibility to your message and commitment. Certification programs should have criteria, an audit/inspection component and a coherent marketing plan.

If you have progressed down the Green Continuum then continue to build upon your commitment. If you have not begun, then consider the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: “You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

Ray Burger, founder and president of Pineapple Hospitality Inc., has over thirty years of experience in hospitality. He’s been providing green products, marketing programs and consulting services for the hospitality industry for the past 15 years. You can reach him at ray@pineapplehospitality.net or (636) 922-2285. To get a taste of Pineapple's planet-friendly solutions check out www.pineapplehospitality.net.