What does Budget 2020 mean to your Hospitality business?

The Irish Government’s Budget 2020 was released last Tuesday, so it is not surprising that this week we are all trying to analyse what it means for us, and for our business.

The new Carbon Tax implications will affect not only individuals, but also businesses, in terms of the Gas & Oil they require to run their operations. For the Hospitality sector, oil & gas consumption can be a huge cost, and it is only going to get worse.

Maurice Bergin, founder and CEO of The Green Hospitality Programme is estimating a price hike of between 2.5 to 3.5% on your current cost of Oil or Gas. For a hotel, where their current Oil bill could be up to €100,000 annually, this could mean an extra €3,000 increase on their annual bill.

Sadly, there is a small minority of Hotels taking the right steps to reduce their Energy consumption and their Energy costs. The general perception is that running a Greener business is going to cost you a lot of money, but this is far from the truth. Reducing your Energy consumption will result directly into a reduction of your businesses Carbon Footprint, plus a reduction of your annual costs.

Yet, the industry is reluctant to change. Is it fear of change? Is it easier to absorb the extra cost and just continue operating as we always have? Some will say “I just don’t have the time” and this can be very true, I have been a Hotel Manager myself for 20 years and I truly understand how little spare time there is.

But, when small changes to your team’s daily activities can actually result in a reduction of all your Energy costs by 30 to 50%, is it not worth it to MAKE THE TIME to implement those changes? As a past Hotel Manager, I know the answer is YES.

How to control your Energy consumption

The very first steps towards controlling your businesses Energy consumption is to learn to read and understand all your Energy bills with clarity. These can include your electricity, gas and oil bills.

Do you know with clarity what you are paying for?

Do you know what your average unit price of Energy is?

This is important information about the Energy you use and pay for. 

The second item in your checklist to start controlling your Energy is to monitor your consumption on a daily, weekly or at the very least monthly basis.

Sit down, once a month, once your bills have arrived, and enter them into Energy Benchmarking Charts. If you do not have those charts in place already, pop me an email on [email protected] and I will send you easy to use excel charts at no cost at all.

Compare your consumption figures month by month, and ensure there are no strange hikes in usage at any stage. You will soon identify what your average Kwh consumption per customer is, and you need to ensure it either stays at the same level month by month, or that it actually decreases.

Monitoring your consumption and understanding your bills are the very first steps towards a journey of Energy reduction at your business.

There are many simple actions you can then apply to start reducing your businesses Energy consumption:  lighting, equipment charts, refrigeration leaks, boiler temperatures… None of them will require any large capital investment, they just require YOUR TIME and staff training. THAT’S ALL!

The Energy Utopia

Very recently, Hotel Doolin, where I started my Green Courier, has announced they are the first Carbon Neutral Hotel in the country.

WOW! Their journey has been unbelievable, and I am proud to have helped them get started and now see where they are.

Carbon Neutrality in the Hospitality Industry is achievable, Doolin has proved that. So whatever excuses we might make, whatever reasons we might find to say “I can’t do that”, they are just simply excuses. You might as well just say “I DO NOT WANT TO DO IT” at least that is an honest answer.

If you do want to get started, put an hour aside today, ask your accounts team to give you all your electricity, gas and oil bills for the year 2018. Add them all up, find out what the real cost of energy to your business is, and then imagine if you could save 30 to 50% of that cost. If you want to use the 50 Shades Greener Energy charts to start monitoring your Energy every month, pop me an email and I will send them on at no cost or commitment at all.

Raquel

[email protected]