It’s no secret that going green is a good thing, but too many companies discard the opportunity or simply fail to inform their publics of their actions, which is an essential element in a company’s success.
Take Marriott for example. The organization has been doing an excellent job in both going green and informing their publics. A lot of major companies, particularly within the travel industry, should take notes.
Most hotel efforts don’t stretch beyond installing energy saving light bulbs and requesting customers to reuse towels.
Marriott has discovered the growing niche of environmentally concerned tourists and is catering to their concerns.
The hotel chain uses two-flush toilets, solar panel roofs, organic paint and fluorescent lighting. They have even gone as far as to request their pen supplier Bic, manufacture Marriott pens with recycled materials.
All this is great, but the area Marriott truly excels is in alerting their customers of their efforts. Green cards with details explaining the hotel’s efforts are given to guests as they check in. The company understands that in order for their actions to truly have an impact, they must let people know. This is where their actions have the most effect.
As concern for the environment has almost doubled among consumers within the past few years, it is essential to inform them of you efforts. You can recycle all you want, but it won’t mean anything unless you make it known.
Keep it up Marriott!
I think that it's great that you're putting the spotlight on Marriot like this! I love the hotlinks to their web site, and the initiative is really something they're excelling at. I didn't know about Marriot's use of two-flush toilets, solar panel roofs, organic paint, and fluorescent lighting, but now that I do, I'll be more inclined to encourage others to plan their hotel stay with Marriot!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point that if hotels, like any other business, want to benefit from going green, they need to let customers, and their publics, know about their efforts. One danger, though, is that customers, grown weary from green marketing claims, will resent it or view it with skepticism. The trick to avoiding the appearance of opportunism and hollow self-congratulations, is making claims authentic by backing them up with some facts. See this Time article on "greenwashing": http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1840562,00.html
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