Winning Project: Living the Suite Life: The Implementation of Environmental Technologies in the Hotel Industry

This paper explores what techniques can be incorporated into everyday functions of hotel management to create a sustainable environment. Sustainability has become an important objective for businesses to consider and implement in their day-to-day processes. The types of sustainable practices in environmental technologies that are currently being experimented with in the hotel industry that this paper evaluates include LED lights, key-card systems, water restrictors, and paperless systems. LED lights, as well as key-card systems assist in the reduction of energy in guest’ rooms. Water restrictors have also been inserted into the faucets and water heads in guests’ rooms to decrease the amount of water being used. Finally, iPads and other electronic devices are used as substitutes to reduce the amount of paper printed in many hotel functions. In addition, reward programs are used to incentivize guests to participate in ecofriendly efforts. While these programs may cost hotels additional funds up front, they will be able to see the benefits and reap the rewards by putting the initial cost in. By practicing sustainability, hotels will not only have an improved image, in turn attracting more customers but also are considering future generations and the limited resources that we have available to us on the Earth