Room for Savings: Optimizing Hotel Spend - Carlson

Seven steps to optimize hotel spend > Optimize the preferred hotel program
undergone “green” certification, but a single,
internationally recognized standard is still lacking.
To fill the gap, some companies are integrating
environmental questions into their requests for
proposal. Such questions may include:
Do you participate in a carbon offsetting
program?
Is your property located within walking
distance of our offices or easily reached by
public transportation?
Do you have energy-efficient and/or waterefficient
fixtures in your rooms?
Do you have a water conservation program
for linens, food service, landscaping, etc.?
Are your employees trained in environmentally
friendly practices?
Does your property recycle materials such as
paper, cans, glass and plastic?
Do you use local and/or organic food?
The answers can provide a useful indication of
how environmentally committed a hotel is.
Ideally each property would provide figures on
the average carbon footprint per room night. As
a guideline, CWT considers that a room night
generates on average 28 kilograms (61.7
pounds) of carbon, roughly the equivalent of a
150-kilometer (93-mile) car trip. (See Figure 71
for the average carbon emissions for long-haul
and medium-haul trips.) Although hotels
represent only a fraction of corporate travelers’
carbon footprint, they cannot be neglected by
companies wishing to manage the
environmental impact of their travel.
Figure 71: Hotels represent on average 3-18% of carbon emissions per business trip
Car/taxi
Hotel
Air transportation
Assumptions:
Air: Paris-Los Angeles round trip
(long-haul) or Paris-Rome round trip
(medium-haul)
Hotel: two nights (28 kg CO 2
per room
night based on CWT estimates)
Car/taxi: office-airport-hotel round
trip in a mid-size car
Source: CWT Travel Management Institute
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