Special report: Green cleaning

Alma Beasenburg of the InterContinental San Francisco

From improvements in staff health and serious cash savings to enhanced marketing edge and profitability, sustainable cleaning practices are proving to be good for the bottom line as well as the environment.

From a hands-on perspective, Alma Beasenburg, director of housekeeping for the InterContinental San Francisco, said that while the green cleaning products used by household staff may not be initially cheaper, they definitely benefit workers’ health.

“These are products they constantly use, every day they work,” she said. “That’s much more exposure than someone who periodically spends an hour cleaning his or her home. Therefore, I am certain that reduced exposure to harsh chemicals can be a real benefit to those who use them every day they work.”
 

First line of defense

InterContinental San Francisco workers also benefit from vacuum cleaners with HEPA filters, units that retain much more of the dust they pick up while limiting what inadvertently is sent back.

“These vacuum cleaners are much quieter than those we formerly used,” Beasenburg said. “Obviously, less noise in the workplace is another plus for our staff.”

And forget about disposable cleaning wipes when your hotel is trying to go green. Hoteliers who have implemented sustainability practices at their properties say effective and efficient cleaning is possible using reusable materials.

Beasenburg uses microfiber cleaning cloths, fabrics that are much more efficient than traditional feather dusters that just recirculate the dust. That means there is less dust stirred up into the air, something neither employees nor guests want to breathe.

At the 125-room Moonrise Hotel, part of the Desires Hotel group and located in the Delmar Loop section of St. Louis, GM Steve Butcher’s team uses color-coded microfiber cloths. These color-coded rags for toilet cleaning, glass cleaning and all-purpose cleaning ensure any cleaning task is accomplished with the most appropriate cloth.
 

Pure rooms

With more and more hotels converting rooms to hypoallergenic spaces, cleaning with minimal chemical impact is more important than ever.

At the 1,400-room Hilton Orlando, GM Doug Gehret said his new batch of 65 hypoallergenic PURE Rooms get the same intensive green cleaning effort as the balance of his property. That’s critical, he said, because planners who choose properties for the groups he needs to draw to fill his sizable room complement are increasingly demanding the greenest possible choice for their clients.

Hyatt launched its Respire by Hyatt hypoallergenic guestroom concept by Pure in October, and Kevin Maciulewicz, director of rooms operations for Hyatt’s 134 full-service North American hotels, said green cleaning is a must in these spaces.

“Being known for green operations keeps us ahead of the curve when customers choose a hotel,” he said. “Going green is a win-win situation for those who occupy guestrooms and those who clean them.”
 

Marketing Advantages

Bob Habeeb, president of First Hospitality Group, a Rosemont, Ill., company that owns 45 hotels in nine states, said he follows green policies set by flags FHG flies, primarily Hiltons and Marriotts.

“Each property operates individually so we don’t purchase cleaning products or other goods en masse for our hotels,” he said. “However, we know there is going to be more green concern in a hip and contemporary urban setting such as our DoubleTree ‘theWit’ hotel in downtown Chicago than at an Indiana roadside Hampton Inn.”

Habeeb also points to greater guest flexibility in terms of replacement towels and sheets.

“People are surprisingly receptive to reusing these items,” he said. “Demand for daily replacement is definitely declining.”

Asked about the economic impact of green operations, Habeeb said, “consumers as well as groups planning meetings and functions are increasingly leaning toward green hotels. And that’s particularly the case with government agencies as well as many corporations that will definitely give preference toward booking green properties.”

“We have seven hotels that have achieved state green designation There, we see a definite advantage when they compete for state business.”

Jason Parsons, GM of the 317-room Naples Beach Resort and Golf Club, underlined that point.

“Particularly here in Florida, if you aren’t a green hotel you are almost certainly losing business,” he said.

For example, Florida state associations are not permitted to go to hotels that aren’t green. And that holds true with corporate conferences and the meeting planners who book them.

“I’m certain that trend extends to individual travelers as well,” Parsons said.

Global Soap Project takes green to a new level

If you ever thought the tiny bar of hotel soap you only used a couple times was a waste, you’re not alone.

The Global Soap Project recovers discarded soap from hotels, reprocesses it into new bars and distributes it to third-world countries.

At the 125-room Moonrise Hotel in St. Louis, housekeepers don’t just toss those unwrapped-and-used-once soap bars—they collect them. GM Steve Butcher said the hotel recognizes many benefits from participating in the project. Each month, the hotel ships a surprisingly large quantity of the soap to Global Soap Project’s Atlanta distribution center. Moonrise soap is added to soap from many other properties, reprocessed into new bars, and forwarded to populations where soap is scarce.

According to the Global Soap Project, bringing soap to these populations helps people wash their hands more frequently, reducing the spread of disease.

Butcher estimates Moonrise annually spends about $20,000 to ship the soap via Federal Express.

Nearly 200 hotels across the country participate in the program. For more information, visit www.globalsoap.org.