Can the business traveler do their bit for Sustainability? Read on to find out.

When it comes to Sustainability we often think of it as somethings organisations need to do - cut down on consumption, carbon footprint, use less resources, etc. So, we try to cut down on emissions, use more of renewable resources, recycle, etc. However, the business traveler is often left out of this. Either these is a shift to smarter technology dependent options such as teleconferencing or archaic ones such as no travel.

No one focuses on the actual actions of the business traveler – what they do once out of the workplace for business travel – this continues to be out of the purview of the Sustainability team. Rightly so, cause its difficult to calculate and measure. This causes organisations to leave this out. At most, making a business trip Sustainable becomes the responsibility of transport provider – airline, train company, cab company or the hotel and thus gets overlooked since these lie outside the physical control of the organisation.

This is where the business traveler can step in. The individual business traveler has at their disposal immense resources that can be used to increase their own sustainability quotient. While as declared earlier, these might not currently find accounting in his/her organisation, if one is a little careful in using resources then it will make you feel better and contribute to delaying the Earth Overshoot Day by a little bit. Here are 10 tips what the business traveler can do.

1.      Shared Economy: The cab sharing economy has picked up wonderfully well. Most cities across the globe now have some version of it. Uber seems to be omnipresent in most cities. Else the cities have the regular taxis – Black Cabs in London, Yellow in New York and their offspring – the black and yellow cabs in Delhi. If it is possible then avoid using a dedicated cab for the whole day. It’s a wastage of resources and unnecessarily increases the carbon footprint, cause the vehicle and driver wait for you. Using a point to point cab service can help reduce your footprint and increase your sustainability quotient.

 2.      Hit the switch: While most hotel rooms have a lot of lights which get switched on as soon as one inserts the keycard into the slot, most are not needed. Conventionally homes have two lights in the bathroom whereas hotel rooms have many more – couple in the shower, couple of them in the rest of the area, a few next to the mirror – you get the drift. Most are just there for style. Switching off the unnecessary ones can help cut down the electricity consumption of the room.

 3.      Take a little less from the buffet: The breakfast buffet is the most wasted. Since most hotels include it in the room tariff, people tend to pile their plates with food and then waste it. Be conscious while loading your plate. No one was ever refused a second helping. Also using the same plates while taking the next helping will save water needed to wash plates.

 4.      Carry consumables from home: While upscale hotels provide toiletries, most bars of soaps, toothbrushes, toothpastes, etc. get left half used during a business trip. A good practice would be to carry your own toothpaste, brush, comb and other consumables. One it helps keep you using the same items you use at home thus doing away with any surprises, it also reduces wastage once you vacate the room. However, this may need you to check in the luggage which if it’s more than a few days trip you will need to.

 5.      Reuse the towels: Hotels often change towels and linen after a single use. While some hotels have started changing linen every other day, this is not the case for towels. We all know towels can be used a few times more before they need to be laundered. Reusing towels, let’s say evening and morning shower can help reduce the load on water. 

 6.      Take consumables home: Ever wondered what happens to the half empty bottles of lotions, soaps and shower gels that you leave back – they get discarded. A good idea if you have used these consumables and have left over material would be to take them along. Hey, I am not advocating picking up stuff from the shelf and dumping into you bag, just taking the stuff you have used but not finished totally

7.      Use stairs: Hotels promote one to take the elevator. However, most times its just one person using it. Take the starts when coming down to the ground level and if you are on one of the lower floors, take it on the way up as well. The heart could do with a bit of exercise.

 8.      Spend time in the public areas: Spending time in the public areas is a good way to not only cut down on electricity consumption but also aids meeting new people and networking. Simple acts as going down to the restaurant instead of room service can help. 

 9.      Time your bath: Hotels are notorious for one thing – unlimited flow of hot water in the shower, at least in India where most homes have 15 or 25 liter water geysers which take time to heat up. Most people tend to stand under the shower a little longer than normal in their hotel rooms due to both the free availability of hot water and the cooked breakfast awaiting downstairs. Water consumption can be reduced if one keeps a check on the amount of time spent standing in the shower.

 10.  Don’t leave your laptops plugged into the socket: We tend to be a bit careless in hotels – one of the things we do is leave our laptops plugged in for the night while staying. This can use electricity and be detrimental to your battery as well. Unplugging the laptop and other gadgets when not in use will help reduce the consumption.

In case you have more and better tips that can help a business traveler reduce their consumption and increase their Sustainability Quotient, then ping them across or leave a comment. 

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