Choosing an eco-friendly hotel

Summit, Apr/May 2006 by Osborne, Toby

The Green Leaf Program - a rating system for eco-friendly hotels - is a tool for eco-friendly travellers

The five-star system used to rate a hotel's overall quality and amenities is all too familiar with travelers; examples include ratings of excellence, such as AAA's Diamonds. Today many guests (including government employees), in addition to choosing excellence based on those ratings, are keen to practice environmental responsibility by staying in 'green' accommodations.

THE GREEN LEAF eco-rating program was established in 1998, which works along similar lines to the globally-recognized five-star system, yet it rates a hotel's environmental efficiency and commitment to conserving energy and natural resources.

Audubon Green Leaf Program

TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, an Ottawa-based firm, originally started the Green Leaf program. "We developed it for the hotel Association of Canada, under the auspices of four federal government departments - Environment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Heritage, and Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC),"says Kevin Gallagher, vice-president of TerraChoice. Then, in 2004, Audubon International, a nonprofit environmental education organization, partnered with TerraChoice to present the Audubon Green Leaf program that exists today.

Intended as a resource for the hospitality industry, Green Leaf's graduated rating system aims to provide travelers throughout Canada, the US, and Europe with verified environmentally friendly options, whilst enabling the hotels to concurrently save the planet and reduce costs via ecoefficiency.

"It's voluntary, so hotels can get involved with the program and go as far as they want," says Ron Dodson, CEO and president of Audubon International. "If they have an older hotel, and it's going to take a while to change this and change that, they can go at their own pace... We want forward progress. We don't want people to be afraid and say, 'oh my gosh, I've got to go through all this to get in this program.'"

What makes a hotel 'green'?

With ratings from one leaf right up to five leaves, the scale is based on fulfilling certain criteria in order to gain points that amount to the lodging's current level of environmental performance. One leaf indicates that the hotel has identified and initiated some measures to improve energy use, water conservation and waste reduction. Two leaves means that they have moved beyond an awareness of sound environmental practice. Three relates to excellent progress in achieving improved performance in all areas of facility operations and management. While four leaves indicates that the hotel has demonstrated national industry leadership, and five is reserved for facilities that are world leaders in eco-efficiency.

"Typically we're looking at issues like energy efficiency, water conservation, hazardous waste and toxins, solid waste issues and environmental policy," says TerraChoice's Gallagher. "The simple one that everybody does is the towel program. And that's a 'no-brainer' - you save on water, you save on chemicals, and you save on labour."

Participating hotels

Presently about 150 hotels are taking part in the Green Leaf program, including all Accor properties across Canada, which consists of Sofitel, Novotel, and Motel 6 www.terrachoice.ca/hotelwebsite/indexca nada.htm. Novotel and Sofitel in the US are also participants.

"Accor Canada has been involved with the Green Leaf program for almost four years," says company spokesperson Alicia Johnston. "The Canadian hotels and motels participate at different levels and with various initiatives depending on their specific market, physical structure and community. Yet, all Accor Canada properties are currently given a three or four leaves rating, with an aim of having every one of them earn a rating of four green leaves."

Johnston says that Accor's Green Leaf participation was a natural transition, not only because of consumer expectations and financial savings, but because of Accor's commitment to the environment. "Financial savings because of the Green Leaf program are a difficult thing to measure," she notes. "Although an environmental audit has not been conducted, it can be assumed that to some extent, there have been energy cost savings, especially given the rising energy prices."

Government's hotel directory

For government personnel planning out-of-town trips, PWGSC publishes a directory of hotel accommodations online (www.hcrd.gts.gc.ca), which includes Accor's hotels. The website is used by employees of federal departments and several provincial and territorial governments, too - Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, Yukon, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories.

Reservations can be made directly with the hotel or, if the traveler is from a federal department or agency that participates in the Government Travel Service (GTS), he/she may request accommodation reservations through the offices of the GTS contractor in their region.

"When public servants are going to travel, they look at the website and they get a listing of hotel options in the particular area they will be visiting," explains Margaret Kenny, Director General of the new federal Office of Greening Government Operations. "They get the rates, of course, and the addresses, but as well there's a column that identifies the Green Leaf rating of that particular hotel. So, certainly, employees are encouraged to take that step."