Green Cleaning - The Path Forward for Hotel Housekeeping

By Prashanti Jaykumar

Green housekeeping is an evolving trend of today’s times which is of great importance and has a definite role to play in the hotel’s efforts towards sustainability. Read all you need to know about green housekeeping below.

‘Green’ is the buzzword nowadays and the importance of going green cannot be undermined, be it in the global, national, corporate or domestic level. Today, the world is plagued by many environmental issues like global climate change, ozone depletion, pollution, exploitation of resources and increasing amount of solid wastes. Over the years, hotels have been amongst the forerunners of those that used up their various resources indiscriminately, even at the cost of the environment. With the growing understanding of environment preservation and sustainable practices in the hotel industry, terms like green housekeeping, eco-friendly practices, biodegradable wastes and IAQ (Indoor Air Quality) are no more mere jargons used by the intellectuals or the elites. These are key terms of great importance and value and have a definite role to play in the hotel’s efforts towards sustainability – towards resource efficiency, efficient water management, judicious use of energy, green housekeeping and cleaning etc. The 3 R’s of Sustainability – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – are concepts on which the hotel industry is framing guidelines for environment-friendly practices and procedures so as to reduce carbon footprint and strive for sustainable development.

What is Green Housekeeping?

So what exactly do we understand by ‘Green Housekeeping’? Green housekeeping is an important aspect of sustainable practices, an evolving trend of today’s times. Housekeepers across the globe are making conscious efforts to move towards ‘green cleaning’. This is a comparatively new concept and the term is used for employing cleaning methods and products which are environment-friendly i.e. which have ingredients and processes that inherently safeguard human health and environment quality. It has now become a norm for all the hotels to have a ‘green cleaning policy’. This involves, amongst other aspects, a re-evaluation of cleaning products and practices being used currently to improve the indoor air quality, to be environment-sensitive and responsible. In fact, in the US, LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) has made such a policy mandatory for environmental certification of hotels/ buildings.

Need for Green Housekeeping

Taking a step backward, let us understand why we need to do away with the traditional cleaning products and methods, what are the problems associated with them. There is a misconception that effective cleaning is only possible when the product is full of chemicals! Research has given us evidences to prove that the health hazards associated with those products and processes are many and varied. The IAQ of the hotel is adversely affected due to these products, strong chemicals, issues related to HVAC and activities like smoking etc. These strong cleaning chemicals used in housekeeping operations are associated with some serious health problems in humans like eye-throat irritation, head ache, nausea, damage to organs like liver and kidney, even cancer! To top it all, these effects of toxic chemicals may remain in guestrooms for hours even days after use, thereby causing harm to guests too!

So to eliminate these negative effects of the chemicals and other products used, the hotels are switching to green-certified cleaning products, practices & equipment. These products have certain redeeming and resilient qualities like low toxicity, they are not carcinogenic, do not contain harmful chemicals causing health issues and harm to human organs. They are milder i.e. they do not emit fumes and gases as much as their counter-parts. Housekeeping supplies like toilet rolls and tissue paper are also made eco-friendly as they are unbleached and made from recycled materials. Certain housekeeping practices like using certified equipment, microfiber cleaning, entryway matting and water saving devices also add credit to the green cleaning movement. The cleaning equipment in this new range work on the principle of using less harmful chemicals and concentrate more on their mechanical action, time (spent on cleaning) and temperature (of water used). The vacuum cleaners make less noise and capture almost 99.9% dust and air conditioners use less energy!

Testing Requirement for Green Cleaning Products

Before deciding to go with these much-hyped green cleaning products, one needs to know whether they are effective, efficient, safe and economic to use, in the long run. It has been reinforced by the housekeepers world-wide that the effectiveness of the green cleaning products must be tested in one’s own hotel. But they are unanimous in their opinion that these green products are quite effective in use. The certifying agencies in United States like Green Seal, not only test these products for human health and environment friendliness but also for effectiveness on various surfaces of the hotel. But just the third-party certification of these products, does not guarantee efficiency or effectiveness in their performances. Stringent testing of these chemicals is essential. Some of the key terms associated with these green cleaning chemicals are Biodegradable, Low VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds) content, Low impact on IAQ, Non-irritant to users and guests, Concentrated, Multi-use etc. The MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) of all new green cleaning products under consideration, should be thoroughly evaluated and some of the above key terms could be looked for before making it a part of hotel housekeeping green cleaning movement. Always ensure that the products and equipment are certified by authorized and well-known agencies. Such products are invariably safe for use and meet a very high standard. For example, the Diversey products are certified by Green Seal, Environmental Choice, Greenguard etc. The green chemicals are cost-effective too, in the long run, as most of them have a very low dilution ratio as compared to their traditional counterparts and also enjoy low indirect cost by improving productivity and reducing absenteeism of hotel staff.

Thus, we see that the concept of Green Cleaning has put down strong roots in the Indian hotel industry and housekeepers are implementing it and reconstructing their existing cleaning systems to incorporate sustainable products and practices into their daily cleaning routine. FHRAI (Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association of India) has plans for establishing an accreditation committee to certify hotels implementing eco-friendly practices. Many top Indian hotels follow US Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Certification to show their commitment to the Green cause. Many companies like Diversey & Ecolab have brought to the market a range of chemicals that are green and sustainable in nature. The Indian Government has been encouraging sustainability more & more and has made certification vital and necessary over the last few years.

Now, the government should motivate organizations by offering incentives and benefits like tax deductions etc. and acknowledge their efforts towards sustainability and commitment to the Green cause. At the hotel level, employee training is very essential for a truly convincing & committed approach to sustainable & green cleaning programme. Selling ‘Hybrid rooms’ would be a great idea – where guests take active participation in deciding towel and linen usage, thermostat setting etc, possible for a discounted room rate! Finally, this movement could be taken to the guests staying in the hotels, encouraging them to participate in it, increasing their awareness of the programme through interactions, posters, tentcards etc, ensuring their enthusiastic involvement by awarding points, vouchers and so on, so that they also do their bit towards making this planet a better place to live in, towards ‘Green Earth’!

About the Author:

Prashanti Jaykumar

Prashanti Jaykumar is Assistant Professor at Vedatya Institute. She has over six years of working experience in five star hotels. She started her career with The Taj Mahal Hotel, where she was not only responsible for the Housekeeping Department of the hotel, but was also in-charge of in-house training for the students of IHM Aurangabad (The Taj Group of Hotels).

Prashanti has also worked in the capacity of Executive Housekeeper in Hotel Fortune Landmark, Indore. She has also held the position of Reader and HOD, Housekeeping Department in Mashal College of Hotel Management, IPS Academy, Indore.

Prashanti has completed her diploma in Hotel Management from IHM Mumbai where she emerged as one of the toppers at all-India level. Apart from this, she has also completed her bachelors in Travel and Tourism Management from IGNOU and obtained certificate of teaching in higher education from Vedatya Institute.