Environmental sustainability specialist, Greengage Solutions, has found that hotels and meeting venues are “accelerating” their sustainability efforts in response to customer demand.
Greengage has analysed searches conducted on its ECOsmart database of accredited venues and compared them to searches in 2022. It found significantly more searches for venues with a sustainability policy or plan. It also discovered that bookers will not even shortlist venues without established sustainability policies or plans.
Key trends
This demand is driving hotels and meeting venues to accelerate their sustainability efforts. Greengage has identified key trends from analysing the searches made on its ECOsmart database:
1) Energy and water monitoring – over 80% of ECOsmart venues are actively monitoring their energy usage and devising plans to reduce usage wherever possible. They are also looking at how they can reduce their water usage without affecting customer satisfaction.
2) More EV chargers – with 17% of vehicles now being electric, Greengage has seen a marked increase in enquiries for venues with 20 or more EV chargers. While it can take time to put in the infrastructure to facilitate onsite charging, venues can help bookers by providing details of charging points nearby. To mitigate the costs, venues are entering into partnerships with charger providers.
3) Social welfare – bookers are interested in how well venues look after their staff and contribute to their local community. For example, many venues are reducing food waste by offering excess food to staff to take home or donating it to local good causes.
4) Customer involvement– venues are now encouraging customers to participate in their sustainability efforts by: choosing dishes made using healthy and locally sourced ingredients, bringing their own water bottles to meetings and participating in schemes such as having a tree planted locally on their behalf when they choose not to have their room cleaned.
Andrew Perolls, CEO of Greengage, commented: “Our research reveals that sustainability is now a top priority for hotel and venue bookers. Our partners report that many bookers won’t even consider a venue if it can’t show that sustainability is at the heart of its operations.”
