Hospitality is an industry that has a low entry budget, but a high potential for profit. This is an industry that is represented by hotels as small as a handful of rooms in a bed and breakfast, or as large as multi-national chains. In order to represent the industry as best as possible, it’s becoming more and more popular to show that your location is focused on eco-friendly practices.

Not every hospitality location can dedicate the same resources to environmentally friendly practices, but it’s not necessary to make massive changes. If you can, there are high-level options available that could make a big difference in your operational carbon footprint. But for every budget, even the smallest of changes can make the biggest difference.

Read on for a few of the best low and high-budget options for creating an eco-friendly hotel.

Low Budget

• Cut down on plastic water bottle use by offering bio-degradable and/or reusable bottle options
• Add at least one water-bottle filling station in the lobby or elsewhere
• Encourage the re-use of guest towels in order to cut back on cleaning water usage.
• Ensure recycling bins are clearly marked and available near high-traffic areas.
• Reduce food waste at events by cutting back the number of trash receptacles, encouraging guests to be thoughtful of their consumption.
• Compost and/or donate unused food from your kitchen. This also represents possible partnership opportunities with local gardens and farms who could use composting material.

High Budget

• Offer electric bike or scooter rentals (With helmets!) for local transportation
• Smart showers can reduce water usage by alerting guests to how much water has been consumed.
• Smart thermostats can be used to reduce energy consumption in unoccupied areas, or recognize full rooms that are in less need of heating.
• Add electric vehicle charging stations for guests with electric and hybrid vehicles

Being aware of how much water, energy, and food is consumed by your location is critical to making green changes. Know where your biggest weaknesses are before you make a big dedication to any one of these methods. If you are a high-budget hospitality location, you should also recognize that some of these methods will scale in price rather quickly – new showers or thermostats are relatively inexpensive for a handful of rooms, but very pricy if you renovate hundreds of rooms at once.

But ultimately, these are methods that can be tailored to your own individual needs. Take the plunge and dedicate yourself to improving the ecological footprint of your business – the world will thank you.