Green Hotel
A green hotel is an environmentally friendly hotel geared toward minimizing its negative impact on the earth and environment while still providing guests with the best services possible. Large and small measures are taken to save water, lower electricity usage, and recycle. Most of the ways in which the hotel goes green are behind the scenes, but sometimes a green hotel needs to rely on the help of the guests as well.
To save on water, many green hotels install features in each room that lower the water consumption of guests without having them do anything differently. Low-flow showerheads and aerators decrease the amount of water used in each shower without shortening the duration, while low-flow toilets use less water per flush than regular toilets. Linen cards give guests the option to reuse their towels if they are staying more than one night, reducing the amount of laundry the hotel has to do.
Hotel restaurants are a major consumer of water, and serving guests water only on request, updating dishwashers, and simply telling the staff not to let water run continuously can drastically cut back on water consumption. Green hotels often feature energy-saving devices such as fluorescent light bulbs, motion sensors for public areas, and heating units that turn off when a room is unoccupied. Some green hotels go so far as to install recycling units for gray water, reusing water that is run through sinks. Others use solar panels for energy generation or heating, and some even collect used oils from their kitchens to donate to local biodiesel vehicles.