Green Business Travel - Luxury Travel
October 2, 2007
The environmental protesters who camped out near Londonâs Heathrow Airport last week and demonstrated noisily over the weekend had what most business travelers consider a radical agenda: A long-term reduction in flights to offset the carbon footprint of the worldâs airlines.
I think my green credentials are pretty good; the perennially threatened Hudson River is literally at the edge of my backyard, so I have an up close and personal view of how humans mistreat nature. But Iâve never thought much about frequent travel and the environment. As much as I condemn their business practices and financial models, Iâve never thought of airlines as big, bad polluters. Nor have I paid much attention to my own actions on the road and how they might affect the environment.
But I think I get it now. We might want to continue to fly globally, but thereâs no reason not to act locally to reduce business travelâs impact on the planet.
Iâm going to leave the metaphoric elephant in the roomâairlinesâ carbon emissionsâto the experts for now. But here are some small steps we can all take to become greener business travelers.
Soft Goods, Hard Impact
Partially for environmental reasons and partially because it reduces their overhead costs, hotels around the world have instituted in-room conservation efforts. They want you to use your bathroom towels more than once, and they would be thrilled if you took a pass on the daily change of bed linens.
âIn the 30,000 hotels in the United States, there are more than 2 billion sheets washed every year and almost the same number of towels,â says luxury-hotel consultant Michael Matthews. âAnd 99 percent of the water used to do all that washing doesnât get recycled.â
Iâm like most business travelers. I think thereâs something sybaritic about getting crisp new linens each day and having towels changed after every shower. But this sort of profligate use of soft goods is nothing short of ecological suicide. We donât do it at home, so why do on the road?
There is an easy fix. If your hotel has an in-room conservation programâusually explained on a tent card or placard asking you to place your towels back on the towel bars if youâre willing to reuse themâmake sure you play along. If the hotel doesnât, call the front desk and tell them that you donât need a daily change of your bed linens and will happily reuse your towels during your stay.
Lights Out, Please
Almost 20 years ago in Tokyo, I stayed in a hotel with a then-revolutionary in-room lighting system. When you entered your room, you placed your doorâs card key into a master electrical switch. That activated the lights and power outlets in the room. When you left your room, you removed your card key from the master switch. That shut everything off, saving massive amounts of energy while you were gone.
Iâve never understood why this simple and effective system hasnât become a worldwide standard, especially since hoteliers always complain about guests who leave the lights on. But just because hotels arenât smart enough to deploy devices to save energy and cut their operating costs doesnât mean we should continue to be oblivious. Your parents used to nag you about wasting electricity, right? When you leave your guest room, turn out the lights. Itâs an easy and painless way to reduce our carbon footprint on the road. And your parents would be proud.â¦
Fly Fewer Food Miles
Even if we donât want to fly fewer miles in search of the next big deal, maybe we can log fewer âfood miles.â For gastronomic reasons, Iâve always been a big fan of eating locally, but thereâs also a compelling environmental reason to consume whatâs native to wherever youâre working. When in Rome, do as the Romans do: Order Panna or San Pellegrino for the table. Why drink Evian in Maine when Poland Springs will do just fine? Wonât your dinner in Tokyo be just as tasty if you skip the ceremonial snifter of Armagnac flown in from France? And maybe you should eat your New Zealand lamb when youâre entertaining in Auckland, not dining in Athens.
The Battle of the Bottles
If all of this seems like too much of an infringement on your business-travel lifestyle, consider a simple fix: Stop littering the planet with all those empty water bottles. Instead of buying an endless string of single-use bottles of water while traveling, buy a decent refillable container. (They are available for less than $10 from Nalgene and most sports or outdoor shops.) Or reuse a throwaway bottle by refilling it at an airport water fountain or at the bar in your airport club. The battle to preserve the environment may be won one water bottle at a time.
The Fine Print
Jumpjet, the controversial corporate-jet service that I mentioned several months ago (read: The Next Small Thing in the Skies) seems to be ready to launch again. The prices are somewhat higher and the perks have been trimmed, but the general concept remains compelling. I still canât figure out how they can make money, though.
The top-line hotels and restaurants we use around the world are the worst offenders in food-miles follies. Iâll never forget the Italian-born general manager of a London hotel who considered it a badge of honor that his in-house restaurant flew in its buffalo mozzarella from Campagna every day. I couldnât bring myself to tell him that I was ducking out to a nearby pub for shepherdâs pie.
The Battle of the Bottles
If all of this seems like too much of an infringement on your business-travel lifestyle, consider a simple fix: Stop littering the planet with all those empty water bottles. Instead of buying an endless string of single-use bottles of water while traveling, buy a decent refillable container. (They are available for less than $10 from Nalgene and most sports or outdoor shops.) Or reuse a throwaway bottle by refilling it at an airport water fountain or at the bar in your airport club. The battle to preserve the environment may be won one water bottle at a time.
The Fine Print
Jumpjet, the controversial corporate-jet service that I mentioned several months ago (read: The Next Small Thing in the Skies) seems to be ready to launch again. The prices are somewhat higher and the perks have been trimmed, but the general concept remains compelling. I still canât figure out how they can make money, though.
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