InterContinental Hotels Group’s (IHG) Green Engage program, the online sustainability program used by more than 2,700 IHG-branded hotels worldwide, is helping hotels address the drought conditions in California.
IHG is targeting a reduction in water usage in water-stressed areas by 12 percent globally by 2017. To support this global effort on a local scale, IHG Green Engage Water Conservation Kits were sent to 230 IHG hotels in California.
The resources in the kits include details on how hotels can actively participate in conserving water, with tips on IHG Green Engage Green Solutions to implement, as well as examples of how other hotels have been successful in their water conservation efforts. The kits also include aerators to easily install on water faucets, which could save more than 77 million gallons of water per year in California. Guestrooms are the primary source of water usage in hotels (estimated at 30 percent), and aerators can help save water used in guestroom sinks.
“Hotels are an important part of the local communities where we live and work, and many of the 230 California hotels in IHG’s family are already conserving water and playing an active role in the drought solution,” says Paul Snyder, vice president, corporate responsibility, and global lead on sustainability for IHG. “IHG hotels in California have implemented almost 2,000 IHG Green Engage Green Solutions to conserve water, energy, and waste. We are encouraging hotels to take another look at their sustainability journey to discover more opportunities to conserve. That could be installing the aerators and implementing the new IHG Green Engage benchmarking tool to drive results through data.”
IHG Green Engage Green Solutions under water conservation include energy efficient appliances such as washers, dryers, and dishwashers; and low flow showerheads, toilets, and waterless urinals. Others include water zoning for irrigation, rainwater harvesting, treatments, and native plants.
