Over the last many years one of the important and detrimental goals in the global political landscape has been to improve upon efficiencies in managing Water Resources that are made available to humanity at this juncture. Needless to say therefore that the 6th Objective (is that of Guaranteeing Water Availability and its effective and sustainable Management and Sanitation for everyone) included in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals ( SDGs) of universal application of the 2030 Agenda that was agreed by more than 150 heads of state and governments in 2015.
Tourism and its negative impact on water resources cannot be dismissed outrightly but at the same time the amount of economic and social growth that the industry generates also needs to be acknowledged. We all know many regions /countries thrive single handedly on tourism and its allied businesses.
The hotel fraternity on its part have been doing their bit though. As a part of Hilton’s Travel With Purpose 2030 Goals, they are committed to reduce the environmental footprint to half and also doubling their social impact investment. Last year teams across their 28 hotels on the occasion of world water day apart from their Water Stewardship program rolled out initiatives such as installation of separate piping systems for leftover water bottles in their hotel, community help in fixing leaking pipes, one year of clean water to one person for every bottle sold.
These are the few simple yet practical ways to conserve water in the hospitality industry:
Install Water Aerators Systems in front and back of the house
Minimise or restrict swimming pool usage timings
Use Recycled Water for Hotel Landscaping
Install Rainwater Harvesting Systems
Establish a Water Management Plan/Audit
Closer home in sync on the overall ESG initiatives and Leed Certifications, India has the 3rd largest number of LEED Certified Hotels and largest number of LEED Platinum hotel projects in the world.
Various Water Efficiency Strategies on a macro level such as Low Flow Tap, Metering of Water, Periodic Audit of Water, Green Building system etc can be put in place. Lemon Tree Hotels ’ initiatives at the customer facing level , such as 3rd day linen change and half half filled water glass are simple yet effective ways to contain and drive water sustainability at the elementary level.
One of the better ways to manage Water conservation on a broader landscape would be to develop a Sustainable Balanced Scorecard for the industry. This would entail initiatives undertaken by hotels across the board with 6th Objective being the Pivot for the same and that would to begin with achieving the international standard of 140L per guest night.
