Greenbacks and green travel
For hotels the grass has never been greener as costly luxury perks are brazenly excised to "save the planet" and to ease traveller guilt. But do eco-travellers really exist?
HAVE you ever wondered why your 500-thread count linen is not getting changed daily? Or why that bespoke spa menu is just a solitary if heroic leaf of lettuce? Or why your unwashed soggy towels still lie in wait to enjoy the comforting camaraderie of your expanding waist? It's because hotels are trying to save the world. They are also, like Trump's White House and equally anonymously, trying to save you from your worst instincts.
More and more hotels today are subscribing to something called ISO 14001, and if you think it is an inmate registration number from Prison Break you'd better scurry online and figure it all out because it is going to hound you for the rest of your travelling life.
The adoption of ISO 14001 standards have purportedly helped Hilton save over US$550 million since 2009 through reduced water usage, cuts in waste, drop in energy consumption and a shrinking carbon footprint. You get the drift. Hotels are going green. ISO is the new tool of cool and, coolest of all, hotels know that do-gooder customers simply cannot disagree if the only alternative is climate change and the return of Godzilla.
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