Housekeeping Activities
Discuss about the Sustainable Hotel Environment.
Housekeeping is one of the essential functions of a hotel establishment. Without proper housekeeping, the foods, drinks and other amenities might just as well not exist as no one will risk his life to consume them. The sensitivity of housekeeping leads to hotel management and owner spending colossal sums of money to buys the latest and top of the range germ-free and smelling sweet. The chemicals coupled with the other food and hotel wastes end up in the air, in the waterways, and the soil causing environmental pollution. The increase in the number of tourists visiting different parts of the world has led to the development of more hotels to accommodate them and consequently increased levels of environmental pollution. Sustainability concept has gained currency in the last few decades on the realization that environmental pollution is more than a mere eyesore. Ecological pollution threatens the livelihood of the current generation and one of the future generations as well (Theodore and Theodore 2010). It is of utmost importance that the hotels find a lasting solution to the pollution menace occasioned by the housekeeping processes. Green hotels will be expensive at first, but gradually as the green products come to the market they will get cheaper (Shaw 2009).
There are many activities within a hotel that fall under the ambit of housekeeping. Cleaning the rooms, utensils, washrooms, washing the linen, spraying the rooms, fumigating are just a sampling of the many indoor housekeeping activities. Regarding outdoor housekeeping, swimming pools maintenance, gardening, and washing cars rank top. Housekeeping is not a choice such that the hotels can opt out of and hope to survive: it is an absolute necessity. Failure for hotels to do housekeeping would spell a death knell as they would quickly run out of patrons. There is no sane person in the in the whole world who would dare patronize a hotel where he or she is likely to contract an infection or parasite infestation due to poor housekeeping. In the age of healthy living, patrons are looking for hotels that have adopted the green movement of sustainability. The Hotels, therefore face a dilemma: on the one hand they have to ensure the safety of their patrons and employees, and on the other hand, they have to be careful not to harm the environment and put the lives of generations at stake.
The relationship between Housekeeping and Environmental Pollution
Most of the housekeeping activities, both indoors and outdoors have wastes that end up in the environment thus polluting it. Detergents in water used for cleaning and washing during housekeeping end up in the drainage systems that drain into water bodies such as rivers and dams. Also, the sprays perfumes contain CFCs which end up in the air destroying the ozone layer. Lighting and warming the rooms especially during the cold seasons contribute to unsustainability in the hospitality industry. Many hotels not only spend a lot of money on the electricity bills but they also put a strain on the available non-renewable sources of energy.
Sustainability or sustainable development is a concept that has gained prominence in the last few years, and it is applied to the use of resources in such a way that one satisfies the needs of the current generation without jeopardizing the ability of the future generation to eke out a living. The hospitality industry, especially in Australia, is leading the way in ensuring that they reduce their carbon footprint even as they endeavor to provide high-quality services to their patrons.
Education is the first step to sustainability. Hospitality staff who are aware of the impacts of their actions readily pick up appropriate behaviors which would go a long way in ensuring that the hotel’s housekeeping activities are sustainable. The staff, therefore need to be kept abreast of all the necessary information on sustainability and their part in ensuring the success of the programs. Without the requisite information, the staff will do their minimum as they will not be able to mentally to relate how their insignificant actions can contribute to the overall sustainability program (Pirani and Arafat 2016). The dissemination of the information can be accomplished in various ways including organizing seminars for the stuff, placing signage in prominent places and even celebrating the world environment day. Once the staff is aware that their seemingly insignificant actions can contribute in a big way in affecting the environment either negatively or positively, it will influence their attitudes and consequently their behavior and actions.
Cleaning surfaces and floors require that the staff use harsh chemicals to make sure the environment is germ-free. These harsh chemicals not only put the lives of the employees in jeopardy, but they threaten to pollute the environment with the attendant negative impacts on the plants and animals that come into contact with the chemicals (Jones, Comfort, and Hillier, 2014). To solve this problem, most hotels in Australia have embarked on using green products which are less harmful to the staff and the environment. Green products degrade easily and within a short time-span ensuring that by the time they get to the environment they are harmless substances. Going green on cleaning products is, therefore, one of the most significant steps in the direction of making housecleaning sustainable.
Sustainable Housekeeping/ Measures taken
Guests in hotels expect to find fresh beddings and bathing towels every day which poses a challenge as to keep all the laundry clean, a lot of water and chemicals in the form of detergents are needed. To deal with the laundry problem, many green detergents have come into the market reducing the application of non-biodegradable chemicals in the soaps. Also, there are advanced systems like the Ozone Laundry Systems which reduce the amount of energy used when heating water (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (U.S.), United States., and United States 2014). The system produces ozone through a generator which is then fed into the water system. The Ozone not only reduces the amount of heat needed to heat water, it also reduces the amount of time it takes for drying the garments thus eliminating the need for fabric softeners.
Educating the patrons on reusing their beddings and bathing towels would go a long way in conserving water and reducing detergents’ use. Many guests would never want to hear of such an idea at first, but in due course of time, they would come to accept the idea as a way for them to contribute to the sustainability. The idea is not reusing another person’s towels or linen, but the ones one has already used. In most tourist hotels in Sydney, the staff informs the patrons of the reuse idea and most patrons cooperate (Jang, Zheng and Bosselman 2017). During housekeeping, the team only changes the towels left on the floor but fold neatly the towels that are left hanging if the patron is staying in the hotel for more than one day. However, the linen and towels are changed if the patron request for fresh ones.
Food remains and packaging contributes a lot to the unsustainability of the hospitality industry. The plastic water bottles is a menace in many countries, and the containers can become a burden to dispose off in an environmentally healthy way. Reusing and recycling would solve some of the problems associated with the plastic bottles (Rodri?guez-Anto?n et al. 2012). However, avoiding using plastic packaging will save the hotel a lot of disposal headaches down the road. Food remains are biodegradable. However, the amount of wastes in our countries is enormous and make the hotels spend a lot of money in safely disposing of them.
Energy inefficiencies lead to high expenditures and increase the need for unsustainable sources of energy like fossil fuels and electricity (Hofman et al. 2011). There are various steps a hotel can take to lower the energy consumption. First, upgrade all electronic systems to newer and more energy efficient systems thus saving on the energy consumption. Secondly, the hotel should ensure that it uses renewable sources of energy such as solar energy as much as possible. The third step is educating the staff and patrons on the need and procedures to save energy, including turning on the heater or the fun only when one needs to and turning off the lights when one is heading to sleep or is going out of the room. Also, the hotel are trying to take advantage of natural light during the day for lighting rather than turning on the light bulb. At the same time, during winter, all the doors and windows should be adequately sealed ensuring that no heat escapes to the atmosphere.
Conclusion
Sustainability is everyone’s concern as it not only conserves current living things, but it also guarantees a good heritage for the coming generations. The hospitality industry has been a huge contributor to the global warming due to its massive carbon footprint. However, in recent years, the hospitality industry, primarily in Australia, has made tremendous steps toward addressing the problem of environmental pollution. Housekeeping is the major contributor to the environmental degradation, and the hotels are solving the issue while walking the tightrope between the environment conservation and serving the patrons.
References
Hofman J., Hofman-Caris R., Nederlof M., Frijns J., & Van Loosdrecht M. (2011). Water and energy as inseparable twins for sustainable solutions. Water Science and Technology. 63, 88-92.
Jang, Y. J., Zheng, T., & Bosselman, R. (2017). Top managers’ environmental values, leadership, and stakeholder engagement in promoting environmental sustainability in the restaurant industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 63, 101-111.
Jones P., Comfort D., & Hillier D. (2014). Sustainability in the global hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 26, 5-17.
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (U.S.), & United States. (2014). Demonstration of Advanced Technologies for Multi-Load Washers in Hospitality and Healthcare – Ozone Based Laundry Systems. Washington, D.C., United States. Dept. of Energy. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1151875/.
Pirani S.I., & Arafat H.A. (2016). Reduction of food waste generation in the hospitality industry. Journal of Cleaner Production. 132, 129-145.
Rodri?guez-Anto?n, J. M., Del Mar Alonso-Almeida, M., Celemi?n, M. S., & Rubio, L. (2012). Use of different sustainability management systems in the hospitality industry. The case of Spanish hotels. Journal of Cleaner Production. 22, 76-84.
Shaw, C. (2009). Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry: The Challenges of Green Hotels and Serviced Apartments. The Journal of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. 46, 26-27.
Theodore, M. K., & Theodore, L. (2010). Introduction to environmental management. Boca Raton, Fla, CRC Press.
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