Hotels are increasingly turning green across the globe.  They’re responding not only to customers who want environmentally-friendly sleeping quarters, but also accountants who see profits in more sustainable properties.

Each year one billion room stays are registered in the United States.  The energy cost of each of those rooms is $2,196 annually.  One reason is that guests away from home are less likely to conserve resources - they use 218 gallons of water each day, more than three times the national average per capita, according to Mother Jones.

To see how Klean Industries is developing environmentally friendly, cost effective waste disposal systems for Hotels of all sizes please click here.

The industry also is expected to shower guests with amenities.  The American Automobile Association (AAA), for instance, recommends that hotel inspectors give a higher mark to properties that provide at least "two bottled" items in their bathrooms. This slows down industry incentives to protect the environment.

The same energy expenditure holds true for conferences held in major hotels.  The average three-day meeting attended by 1,000 people, according to Marriott International, produces more than 12 tons of trash, uses 200,000 kilowatts of power and consumes 100,000 gallons of water.

To reduce this gluttonous consumption, the Maryland-based chain has introduced "eco-friendly" meeting products.  Along with other large hotel companies, meeting rooms now have water service in pitchers rather than plastic bottles.  Boxed lunch containers are made of recycled content, including biodegradable forks and knives.  It even has signed an agreement with BIC to develop pens made of 75 percent recycled material.

"This is just the beginning of an evolving program that continues to add "green" products and services as they become available," says Bruno Lunghi, Marriott’s vice president for event management.

Sometimes hotels focus on their overall operations.  Fairmont Hotels & Resorts partnered with a non-profit organization to purchase enough wind power since 2006 to offset greenhouse gas emissions generated by all of its 837 front desk check-in and corporate office computers across North America.   The InterContinental Chicago O’Hare built a green roof covered with a reflective coating that cuts down on cooling costs.  Its lighting bills also dropped 40 percent after it installed compact fluorescent light bulbs, dimmable fluorescent bulbs and LED lights on its property.

Since a universally accepted green certification program does not exist for the moment, hotels forge ahead with environmentally-friendly changes on their own.  Many turn to the Green Hotels Association to help them move in the right direction.  The site helps the hospitality industry gain a green consciousness and provides a catalog of accessories that will reduce hotels’ carbon imprint.  For sale are guestroom recycling bins, low-flow spray valves and even printed cards that urge guests to not change their sheets every day.

Too few hotels have earned the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification to compare their financial performance against traditional establishments, says Henry Bose, managing director with PKF Capital in San Francisco. On the other hand, large green commercial buildings, those the size of hotels, recorded a 50 percent drop in water use and up to 90 percent less waste once they converted to a green program structure, says Bose.  Savings for hotels would likely be larger since they operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

As for customers, they increasingly knock on the door for sustainable hotels.  TripAdvisor, which oversees a large online travel community, surveyed 3,000 travelers. It found that 34 percent of those living in the United States planned on staying at an environmentally-friendly hotel in 2009 - a four point increase from last year.  Many will go to online for advice.  A free British-based guide, Eco Hotels of the World, provides them with about 100 properties in places as faraway as Brazil and Tanzania.

The tide for greener hotels seems to have turned in the right direction.  The change is taking place as two fronts are moving forward together.  On the one hand hotels want to save money in a world of ever-higher energy costs and at the same time travelers want to sleep somewhere without feeling guilty about their carbon imprint.  Overtime, the environmental relationship between hotels and customers will grow stronger as the world becomes increasingly aware of the planet’s limited resources.

How they rate:

For More Information: Green Hotels Association