Zero waste policy at Broken Shaker
"To be continue". Thus ended this article from September 2018 on how we would travel this year and, perhaps, the next.
It pointed out the importance of traveling with values inside the suitcase, of trying to leave the least harmful trail on the Planet, thinking about the future more than the past. We warned that it was a topic too important to settle with four lines at the end of an article that took about 10 minutes to read. That's why it appeared "To be continue".
This is the continuation. It is one of several possible, and has a protagonist: the plastic . In recent years, more and more hotels are working to eliminate single-use plastic, to contribute to the reduction of the carbon footprint and prevent its invasion into the oceans.
Small amenities, an endangered species
Eliminate plastic straws, small amenities and water bottles are the most visible changes of this activism. We have written wrong verbs because it is not about "eliminating" or "suppressing", but about substitute and look for alternatives. We will see later.
Many hotels are already carrying out these more obvious aspects. At this point there are always voices that accuse greenwashing, of being face-washing strategies to position themselves as ecological. And here comes another voice, the one who writes this who says yes, that the ideal is that it is framed in a core policy, but every action that is carried out is welcome. Cynicism is a terrible traveling companion.
Removing plastic from a hotel is difficult, time consuming and expensive. That's the bad new. The good is very good: contributes to a clean planet. What a small thing: almost nothing. It is also ethereal and long-term. These two adjectives do not dazzle the managers, who have to try to make each meter of hotel profitable in reasonable time.
They should have heard in the last edition of MATTER, a series of conferences that takes place in Marrakech every year on post-luxury travel trends, talk about this topic.
Plastic straws are no longer an option
There it was explained how, in markets aware of sustainability, that a hotel is free of plastics is a push to book it. Certain people do not conceive that a good modern hotel offers you a plastic bottle of water every night on the bedside table.
Today, modern brands, that is, connected with their time, do not consider whether they should have a purpose; they assume they must have it. The challenge is how they carry it out. A recent study by Edelman (Edelman Earned Brand 2018) concludes that 2 out of 3 consumers around the world will buy or boycott a brand solely because of its position on a certain social or political issue. Attention: the purpose is profitable.
This is known by some (still few but increasingly) brands. **A model example is Iberostar **. For this Majorcan brand, sustainability is its business philosophy and the elimination of plastic is one of the pillars of a movement called Wave of Change and that affects all its hotels.
An interesting fact: has eliminated all single-use plastics in the rooms of its hotels in Spain, which has made it the first chain to do so. This action has meant stop generating 300 tons of these materials and this year it will extend it to the 120 hotels of the chain in the world.
And in the rest of the hotel spaces, lobbies, bars and restaurants? Slowly. Reach. The commitment of this chain is such that it has just appointed Megan Morikawa, Ph.D. in coral genetics from Stanford University, as the new Director of her Office of Sustainability. This woman leads the Wave of Change movement. This appointment is an example of how private initiative is contributing to the conservation of the planet.
Another interesting appointment (and another woman) is that of Rebeca Ávila, the Spaniard who has just been appointed VP Sustainable Development and CSR of ** AccorHotels for Europe.** The commitment in this chain to the progressive elimination of plastic is serious and, like in Iberostar, there is no going back.
Avila acknowledges that Her clients "are increasingly sensitive to the environmental actions that we implement in hotels in favor of sustainability" and she affirms that “progressively, these sustainable initiatives will be a determining factor when staying in one hotel or another”.
If you live the whole year according to certain values, why should you leave them at home when you settle in a hotel? María García, CEO of Innuba, a consulting firm specializing in social innovation, sums it up like this "It is the opportunity to prolong a new lifestyle that begins before and after the trip and that is not interrupted because it is already part of our lives."
These are two powerful cases of two chains that are willing and able to address the issue of plastics elimination in a comprehensive way. The challenge is to look for alternatives.
Marriott has made it a point to eliminate plastic straws and stirrers
The most common example is the plastic reeds, one of the warhorses. This harmless contraption ends up in the ocean, where fish and turtles mistake it for food. It is a product that is used for about ten or twenty minutes and that it never completely breaks down.
Iberostar has eliminated 90% of theirs (10 million units), thus encouraging them not to be used (we really don't know how to drink without them??) and has replaced them with biodegradable ones. AccorHotels works to eliminate plastic straws and stirrers , which will only be given if necessary and must be ecological. They propose as substitutes one of paper (FSC or PEFC) , reusable (steel, glass, bamboo) or biodegradable and without individual packaging. In hotels like the Ibis in Getafe they are made from natural wheat.
Let's review other examples, now from foreign chains. ** Marriott is committed to eliminating plastic straws and stirrers** from its more than 6,500 properties across its 30 brands around the world. And a date has been imposed: July this year. Once fully implemented, it is estimated that this will mean the elimination of over a billion straws and nearly 250 million stirrers.
chains like Soneva were pioneers in sustainability and in 1998 he banned plastic straws Y in 2008 the importation of bottled water and began to mineralize and bottle its own water in glass. So has eliminated more than 1,500,000 plastic bottles. You won't see them at any of their Thailand and Maldives resorts.
Here the plastic is not and is not expected
This brand is almost two decades ahead of the rest in eliminating single-use plastic. Soneva's role is very important, not only as champions of sustainability as part of their reason for being, but for having united it with luxury.
Another brand that cultivates this alliance is Six Senses . It features an Earth Lab at each resort, a place where each property showcases its sustainability efforts to reduce consumption, produce locally and support communities and ecosystems. This space is open to all guests to reconnect with the natural world and learn some simple tasks that we can incorporate into our lives.
The idea of the new luxury as something that transforms is behind these initiatives. This new luxury or post-luxury proposes inner journeys because it is presupposed respect for the environment and the will to have a positive impact on it. After all, as stated in Innuba, which accompanies organizations to introduce social impact into the DNA of the business, "The best trip is the improvement of the future of Planet".
In a hotel there is plastic everywhere. There is a lot, for example, in the bathroom wrapping cotton pads, soaps, in the wastebasket... All this tends to disappear. More and more hotels are betting on using large sizes in the amenities versus packaging that needs to be replaced daily.
Here, the amenities are 'senior' size
The Edition has an initiative called Stay Plastic Free and that not only focuses on its hotels, but on the entire sector. For example, they will provide a library of companies and contacts that sell alternatives to plastic from products minibar, cups, straws, bottles, amenities and food containers. These hotels, epitomes of so-called contemporary luxury, also understand that their theme is non-negotiable.
soho-house is another good example and takes this initiative to the extreme: offers large sizes and encourages you to use what you need, as if you want to finish it. Of course, he asks you, please, not to take him.
There is also plastic in polyester and there is polyester in many hotel uniforms. Iberostar has also become the first hotel company in Spain to replace the traditional polyester of its uniforms with a material made from 100% recycled plastic. Thus, it stops consuming 28,000 meters of more polluting traditional polyester.
And it is that activism takes place on many fronts. Here too a 'To be continued' would proceed. This is an article that asks for several 'To be continued'.
Sustainability is not only fed by macro chains. Independent initiatives like that of the Freehand They are also indicative that there is no going back on this issue. Its bars, the wonderful Broken Shaker , have a zero waste policy. There, if we ask for a cocktail we will drink it with straws made with compost and we will see that the packaging used in food is made with bamboo and other safe materials; If we order the food to go, we will also receive it that way. This has been going on for two years.
Another place where we will drink our Moscow Mule with a biodegradable straw is the Hotel Henriette , of London, which, as part of the Experimental Group's policy, It has been since June 2017 without using plastic in its spaces in London, Ibiza, France and New York.
In Madrid, the hotel 7 Islands It has amenities in large sizes that invite you to control spending. In this hotel in Malasaña all drinks are bottled in glass and both the large bottles of water that we see on the tables of the 7 Craft Bar like those of macerated, are recycled.
The examples are, fortunately, more and more abundant. Not a day goes by that the news doesn't appear that (write here the name of a hotel or seal X) is committed to eliminating plastic and will start with (write here water bottles, straws or amenities) .
Plastic-free hotels are not a trend, they are a path. Sustainability is like democracy: every vote counts and every action counts. To be continue.
Everything is bottled in glass