Greenwashing vs What We Do For The Planet

 First of all… what is greenwashing?

According to Earth.org greenwashing is essentially when a company or organization spends more time and money on marketing themselves as being sustainable than on actually minimizing their environmental impact. 

It’s a deceitful advertising method to gain favor with consumers who choose to support businesses that care about bettering the planet. Greenwashing takes up valuable space in the fight against environmental issues, like climate change, plastic ocean pollution, air pollution, and global species extinctions. 

Our mission in Eco Hotels & Resorts (EHR) is to fight against greenwashing and make sustainable travel as real and accessible for travelers worldwide as possible. 

How to tell if it’s greenwashing or not

To make this easier for travelers, we made an easy checklist to find green and red flags:

Real sustainable practices - Green flags:

• Hotels offer more recycling and composting options.
• The resort serves more plant-based and local/seasonal foods
• Environmentally friendly heating and cooling systems are installed or use alternative energy sources. 
• In bathrooms, water-saving measures such as low-flow shower heads and faucet aerators are telltale signs that a property is serious about helping the environment.
• Corporate culture - employees are strongly committed and live according to the hotel’s green values
• Volunteer programs and activities to support local communities

Greenwashing - Red flags:

• Don’t trust the stickers on the door that say the hotel or tour operator is environmentally certified. Instead, look at their corporate disclosure documents on their websites
• The excessive use of plastic
• Recycled slogans about sustainability
• Focusing their efforts only on towel cards in the bathroom - it’s more an economic saving than an environmentally responsible action and most times housekeeping changes the towels anyway.

Now that you’ve seen the rights and wrongs check out what our member hotels do for the environment

At Eco Hotels & Resorts sustainability is based on 12 different pillars. Every hotel or resort in our collection is committed to each of these pillars focusing not only on not damaging the environment but on regenerating it.

When visiting any of our member hotels, don’t forget to ask for the sustainability tour! Here you will be able to see with your own eyes all the efforts and best practices our hotels do in order to become more sustainable.

Here’s a glance at some of our member hotel’s best practices:

Environment 

Hotels are designed to live in harmony with nature, built with minimal impact on the surrounding environment and respect for local communities. Buying materials from local and eco-friendly suppliers.

Most of the hotels are in privileged locations which actually are protected natural reserves, focusing their efforts on the conservation and preservation of local flora and fauna.

Community:

Boosting the local economy by purchasing and hiring only locals, building tourism around cultural attractions, and building awareness with their team and customers, inviting them to take part in environmental activities such as reef and beach cleaning and tree planting.

Local produce:

They strive to fill their menus with fresh products, most of which arrive at the table directly from their own gardens.

Energy

Solar panels are used to heat the water and to get electricity, eco-friendly air-conditioning, and heating.

Water

Biofilter systems treat water and use it for irrigation, rainwater collection, and reuse, plus having their own wells or source of water. Using cutting-edge technology to optimize efficiency.  Plus the basic towel and sheet reuse program. 

Waste

Our member hotels are all about recycling, reusing  & reducing. Minimizing waste, giving a second life, or finding another purpose to get the most out of things. Also, composting organic waste and buying biodegradable products. 

By booking with us, you have the guarantee that you’re genuinely booking a sustainable vacation, supporting eco-traveling, and making a positive impact on the world. 

Click here to start your eco-traveling journey     https://ecohotelsandresorts.com/