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With demand for water set to outstrip suppty by 40% by 2030, hospitality businesses must move quick to start saving..$pd the choice is as financial[y ethically sound. AS Elly Earls reports
ate
Meanwhile, more water than necessary is
itr* use en extre four litres
also used for tasks like washing dishes, dean-
DffiTi[:x3,;Ti*t$yj"*:t*f#'"."i,','3ffi severe water stress by that time. And there's
plenty the hospitality seaor, which currently uses around 4O0 million cubic metres ofwater everyyear - thaf s equivalent to 100,000 Olympic swimming pools -can doto help.
Indeed, according to the Environment
Agency, hotels have the potential to reduce the amount ofwater consumed by up to 50%
if
they have a strong water management programme in place. Not only would this cut their footprint in half, the cost savings would also be signficant, with water accotrnting for 10% of utility bills in many hotels and most properties paying for the waterthey consume twice (first by prucJrasing fresh water and then by disposing Yet, up
ofit
down surfaces. Plus, washing machines caqguse up to 50 litres per wash and
of water per day" things start to improve in recent months. "We noticedthatin a1lthe applications for our awards this year, there was a huge amount of achievement in the recycling and food waste sections, so hotels have really come a long way in that area and I take my hat offto them," says Considerate Hoteliers partner Xenia zu Hohenlohe. "But, they also all said that their priority for the next year was water management; they've understood it's another issue they need to look at."
as waste water.)
until now, water consewationhasn t
been a huge priority across the UK's hospitalif sector, with manyhotels and restaurants paying more attention to issues like food waste and recyding than cutting down theirwater usage. "Although businesses can see what they're
spending on water in black and white, for some, because Britain does not generally stnrggle for water and it is not as expensive as energy, or indeed food, it is not a priority," says Tom Thnner ofthe Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA). Considerate Hoteliers has noticed a simi lar trend, although the team have also seen 28 | The Caterer
ing beer lines, washing floors and wiping
| 18 September 2015
Where is westage heppenirg? So
where is most ofthe wastage taking place)
Unsurprisingly, it's kitchens, bathrooms and deaning that top the list for restaurants, according to the SRA. While the main sources
ofwastage in kitchens are washing-up water (known as 'black water' , as it can t be re-used)
,
a n-urning ta between eight and 12 litres per minute. In hotels, spas and swimming pools are 4so big culprits, with a swimming pool fbtenti$y increasing fresh water consumption ih a f$ige hotel by up to 107o and the average spa guests. using six towels per spa visit. "Those six tow-i els have to be washed, so it's not just thdtvat& you re using as youire having your massage; ' it's also the huge amounts of water needed . to clean everything," zu Hohenlohe explaird;
adding that housekeeping is another area ;_ where"i-prorem"nts cldibemade. : "Often when cleaning a room, the toile' might be flushed up to five times and another common process is to let the shower run on hotto steamtheroom," orplains Fran Hughes,, head ofprogrammes at the Intemational Tourism Partnership (ITP). "Therefore, it could- 'o* oftenbethe case thattherds morewaterbeing. ) ! usedwhenthe guests are outofthe room than when they're acrually in it." ,,
inefficienttaps, dishwashers and steam ovens, and grey water from laundry rinsing dishes and handwashing (which isn t recycled), if s improperly functioning toilets and sinks that waste the most water in bathrooms. Indeed, a tap that leaks one drop every second will use an extra fourlitres ofwater per day.
and uonitor Before doing anything else, finding out how
feter, neasure
much water is being used and where it's being wasted has to be the first step. As Tanner stresses: "Like with al1 environmental efficiency, the three 'Ms' are absolutely key www.thecaterer.com
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NTW YENUE metering, measuring and monitoring so we advise installing a water meter so that
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targets and strategies can be set." Once water use is being measured, there are several tools available to hoteliers and restaurateurs that can help them understand their
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water footprint and, therefore, where they need to make improvements - Considerate Hoteliers' 'Conserve' too1, for example. "Without having concrete data and facts and figures, people are often a bit difficult to convince. But the minute we have hoteliers using the Conserve tool, seeing how much water they are wasting and how that can then be addressed, it's a different story" zu Hohenlohe says. Soon, this will also be aligned with the Hotel Water Measurement Initiative (HWM I), a tooi which will standardise the way the industry measures water consumption. currently being developed by ITP. "We're currently in full planning mode and will be iaunching the new methodology in September next year," Hughes says.
$mall ehanges, big Giffererace Once businesses know how much they're wasting andwhere, it's time to put strategies in place to tum things round, and it's often the litt1e things that can make the biggest difference. "Staffeducation is absoiutely key," stresses
Tanner. "Train staffto think about how they use water. It is not enough simply to install www.thecaterer.com
18 September 2015 I The
Caterer | 29
THE RESTAURANT PART
OF
Business
***.*r#"tt'u"r:,l:T
*.ater-efficient technologies - investing in irese technologies will see the biggest retum cn investment ifthey are coupled with effec-
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Park Plaza llllestminster Bridge London
e behaviour change." In hotels, this could involve training house-
ieeping staff on how many times to flush :ne toilet while cleaning or enforcing towel :e'rse programmes, which currently are often :mbracedby guests butignoredbyemployees. \\-hen it comes to water-efficient technolosres, some of the options for businesses are: -,\-3ter aerators for sink faucets, which reduce -le volume of water but maintain the same ::essure; grey-water recycling technologies :::d rain-water harvesting systems, which :an reduce mains water consumption by up .- 1A?/o and 30"2 respectively and dual-flush :.,r.iets. which use signifi cantly les s water than s'-::s1e-flush toilets.
On top ofthis, cleaning can be made much
::,lre emcient by dry-wiping surfaces before cleaning, cleaning floors with a mop -:::p -:i bu&et rather than a hose, and pre-soaking ' :-l--en' in standing water rather than under
=:--:ringtap. {rld.
fina1ly,
::::rers
making sure your supply chain
are acting as responsibly as you are can
:::ake a huge difference. "You can do so much your supply chain and work :.:th companies that care about how water is :r hen vou look at
:eing used," zu Hohenlohe remarks. "Look a: laundry service company Berendsen, for =*rample; they've saved over two billion litres of '.r-ater because they made
...":,"*
theirlar.rndry services
:.nore water efficient, which is the equivalentof -:re alnual water usage of 36,000 people."
As an active member of the ITB Cartson Rezidor Group's
hotels a[[ around the world are fulty committed to water stewardship, and its Park Plaza Westminster Bridge property in London is certainly no exception. Among many other watersaving initiatives, the property has instatled the Waste2water food digester to convert food waste to grey water, which can be safety disposed of via the
mmunicating with guests Parlnering with water charities is another
C
o
eleat u,ay for UK hospitality businesses to save :oth rvater and money, as well as contributing :o campaigns in regions where water is much ::ore of a problem than it is at home. Carlson Rezidor, for example, has recently
:eamed up with water aid charity )ust a Drop a::d now encourages guests to forego daily -:ren changes in exchange for a donation to -jre chariry while members ofwhole World
\\
ater can contribute to those in need by filter-
hotelS drain system. There has
.re. bottling and selling their own water and conating 10% ofproceeds tothe charity, which *iJl then go to approved clean and safe water
also been 1,200 eco shower heads fitted, atong with flow restrictors in guest rooms that
:ro jects around the world. Initiatives like these not only contribute ro solving the world water supply problem, ',i.er-aiso raise awareness ofthe issue among customers - not that it's necessarily an easy
reduce water wastage by over
44,000 cubic litres per year, and CO2 emissions by over 280 tonnes per year. The hotel also has its own on-site water bottting ptant, recycling over one million water bottles each year. lt also harvests waste water from its in-house laundry and swimming poo[, which is used to flush a selection of toilets on site, reducing the need for clean water. But Park Plaza Westminster won't be stopping there. "We
-ask to get guests engaged.
-lt's about being real when you're comwith guests," Hughes advises.
n.Lunicating
-There are different ways of incentivising slests and so it's a matter oflooking at your rr:siness and thinking where are we, what do '.ve do,
who are our customers and what do we
:hink is going to appeal to them. It might be
philanthropic motivation or
it might be
s,ightly more selfish or just the plain facts, Dut ,vou've got to see what wiil resonate; one message doesn't fit a11." 30 | The Caterer
| 18 September 20'15
have a green commitment and ongoing plan to find and
implement ways to mitigate environmental energy impact," explains hotel manager Suai Binkaya. "[Future plans include] tooking into different [aundry washing facitities enabling
us to use less chemicals, again further reducing our impact on the environment, and investigating purchasing
shower timers which could be an option for guests to use at their discretion, to reduce the time spent showering and thus reduce water consumption."
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