How Green Is Green?

This article is spurred on account of a fairly recent fiery dialogue with a self-professed environmental crusader. His contention was that the eco-friendly initiatives that hotels embark on are an eyewash. Whether it’s an upcoming hotel group that has carved a niche for itself in the Indian and international hospitality market through promoting eco-friendly practices and also winning numerous awards for their efforts. Or India’s leading hotel chain that has its own environmental standards.

This got me thinking. Are hotels really trying to pull the wool over our eyes? And is the government also doing the same?

Lets take the past and present Department of Tourism (DoT) - in its fervour to ride the global green wave it propagated the concept of eco-tourism, eco-resorts and even set eco-guidelines which are mandatory for the classification of any hotel. But what are the results of such half-baked initiatives. Areas identified as eco-tourist spots loose their eco-sheen after a few years due to a high influx of tourists and poor ordinance or control by the government. Today even smaller hotel players are choosing the ‘think green’ mantra and developing eco-resorts in green environments, but a mere tree house in an eco-spot doesn’t mean the hotel is eco-friendly - take a look at the waste dumped in the surroundings by some of these so-called eco-friendly hotels. The beaches in North Goa - especially Baga and Calangute, where most hotels (and this includes all hotel categories) have been pumping sewage and waste into the sea and surroundings. This is just a case in point. But I think the initiative that takes the cake is the eco-friendly guidelines stipulated by the DoT, which comes under the supervision of the Hotel and Restaurant Classification Committee (HRACC) has anybody actually read it. It is so vague that it is shocking. It seems like some people scratched their heads to come up with some guidelines, as they had to flow with tide. Whether the norms have any relevance or not, doesn’t really matter. In fact, some individuals on that very same committee have expressed confidentially to us on how they believe that eco-guidelines are mere words that don’t even necessarily need to be implemented. (Read Express Hotelier & Caterer ‘Who Cares About The Environment’ on June 6, 2005)

If we had to take stock of the great ‘eco-crusade’ of our industry, lets face it and accept it, all endeavours are purely marketing gimmicks. Some make a killing on a novel eco-concept, some plant trees or establish vermiculture pits, some build eco-resorts and some clean beaches. But at the end all transcends to ensuring that bottomlines are kept in check.

If there truly needs to be a green revolution in the industry, then I think the success lies in industry players getting together to form an autonomous body that can structure environmental guidelines or norms so that the industry as a whole can benefit from it. Till then make green as you claim to be green...

- Savio Rodrigues <ehc@vsnl.com>