Hospitality students need the right tools to do better in the future

May 26, 2020
 

I studied Hotel Management back in the late 90’s and early 2000. It was 4 years of my life when I had the most fun, and met what would become my best friends for life. During my time in college they taught us how to do a business budget, how to forecast, how to control staff wages and dealing with a team of people. But the funny thing is, nobody told us, that when we became Hotel Managers, we would also have to manage a building.

A building, that comes with really high running costs on energy, water and waste. These utility bills, can amount to be, after staff wages, the second largest cost to your business. Yet, learning how to control, monitor and reduce them, never came into play during my years as a trainee manager.

I have worked in the hospitality industry for 20 years, but the first time I learned about an Environmental management system, was in 2012. And today, having worked as a Green consultant for nearly 3 years, I still meet hotel and restaurant managers every week that have no idea how much energy, or water their business consumes, or how much waste they produce.

Why are WE so reluctant to take control, and reduce our utilities?

Fear to change

The first thing that comes to my mind is not to know how. Fear of something new is a real thing. To continue to operate our business, as we have done all of our couriers, is the easiest way out.

I personally felt that fear back in 2012 when my General Manager told me to start looking into becoming a Green Hotel, and reduce our Carbon Footprint by reducing our energy, waste and water.

My first thought was: “Wait, what?? How the hell am I suppose to do that??”

But when I started looking into it, my fear was unfounded. It was actually easier than I first thought. And what I learned, changed my courier forever, so much so, that 5 years later, I left the hotel industry to become a Green consultant and help other managers just like me, start their own Green Journeys.

Why can’t we teach our future hospitality managers right from the Start?

I could be wrong here, if I am, I would love to hear from teachers or current hospitality students. But even knowing what we now know, the industry is still not taking the necessary steps to teach our young hotel managers how to manage their buildings, and control their energy, water and waste.

Yet, this year, the EPA released a research report where they stated the Hospitality industry in Ireland discard €180 million every year, of edible food.

This is an average of €200,000 per hotel. I am sure as an ex hotel manager, if the owner or investors in the businesses I worked, identified this kind of loss of profit in any other area of the business, I would have been fired.

Imagine if you were told you had over paid €200,000 on staff wages, that was not necessary? Would you then take the time to really take control of your next months budget?

So why don’t we do the same with energy, waste and water utilities?

Further more, why don’t we start educating the young before they actually come out on to the work force?

It seems logical to me, that if we want changes in the industry, we should embed Environmental Management Systems into our studies, and our professional development. So that our hotel managers of the future, have the right tools to control their utilities, reduce their Carbon Footprint, and run a Greener Hospitality Industry.  

 

To find out what you can do right now, to change your business, reduce your Carbon Footprint by reducing your utilities, and run a greener business, check out our Online Training Courses

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