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The manufacturers and users of PCs must adapt manage the three key areas; the ‘triple fundamental concerns’ of how the equipment is made and shipped, how the equipment is used and maintained and finally how it is disposed and processed

operational areas and sustainable practices, including community outreach efforts.

1-5 Green Key rating based on a comprehensive evaluation

Four Seasons Hotel Vancouver is one of only 30 distinguished hotels worldwide to be recognized as a Five Green Key Hotel.

Sempa Hybrid Heating System, which reduces the hotel's green house gas emissions by 20% to 50% per month

comprehensive recycling program and by newly installing energy-efficient, LED lighting sources designed to last up to 40 years.

Eco-Luxury program, which allows them to choose how often their bed linens and towels are refresh

sustainable dining options, from catered group functions to private dining in YEW restaurant + bar.

donates food, shampoos, soaps, bedding and linens to local social assistance organizations and charities.

A data centre is a facility used to house computer systems and their components, and it can be far and away the biggest contributor to an organisation’s carbon footprint. A data centre’s life expectancy is relatively long so it is imperative it is built to the highest standards in terms of efficiency as any excess energy use will lead to significant cost implications over the years.

1. Build the most energy-efficient data centre possible. This will save energy and costs over its lifespan. 2. Only get the data storage capacity that is currently required and forecast for the lifespan. Many data centres have excess capacity that burns energy (and therefore costs) unnecessarily. Don’t have servers or equipment that will not be used. 3. Cooling data centres. Traditionally cooling has been done by air circulation, which is very inefficient. Larger data centres already use other technologies to cool more efficiently, such as water cooling. 4. Virtualisation technology. Improve your system’s resource utilisation through virtualisation technology. Virtualisation is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as an operating system, server, network, etc. and allows a single user to access several physical devices on one terminal. A computing device dedicated to an individual member of staff or allocated for one software application is highly inefficient and expensive. Virtualisation consolidates resources, requiring less power and cooling. 5. Consider cloud computing. This is a location-independent IT service, typically available over the internet, where shared servers provide resources, software and data to computers and other devices on demand, increasing IT capacity and capabilities without an organisation having to invest in new infrastructure. Keeping data virtually, or “in the clouds”, means less information stored on IT systems and therefore less energy being used to run the systems. Systems such as BT’s Virtual Data Centre, a hosted data centre that enables businesses to create, deploy, monitor and manage their own service through a self-service portal, claim to offer savings of up to 40% of the total cost of running one’s own data centre as well as reducing the space required, the level of emissions produced and the power consumed.

6. Measure and monitor power usage. Once you know what’s using the power, focus on why and whether it’s possible to reduce consumption.

1. Upgrade. Before buying new, investigate options to upgrade with the latest energy-efficient components to extend appliances’ working life and efficiency. 2. Green labels. Look out for the certification labels denoting more energy-efficient equipment, from Blue Angel in Germany to TCO in Sweden and Energy Star in the US (see below). 3. Screens. Opt for flat screen monitors, which reduce energy use by over two-thirds. 4. Get the right equipment. Consider your information technology needs against the tasks required. For example, laptops may be a better option in some circumstances because they have been developed to be energy-efficient and generally match the computer to the task required. Remember: not all staff have the same needs. 5. Consider running costs. Look at the life cycle costs, not just the purchase cost. Take note of running and standby costs of equipment. These can vary enormously.

Top 10 Tips to reduce running costs of office equipment (source: Carbon Trust) 1. Computers. Activate energy-saving features. In fact, most office equipment will have these features, so make sure they’re activated. 2. Standby features. Introduce a policy to activate standby features, don’t assume employees will do it. 3. Turn it off. Buy seven-day timers. These can save up to 70% on energy costs. 4. Monitor and manage the equipment that is peripheral to computers, such as speakers, printers, etc. and consider installing intelligent switch-off solutions. Printers can consume 30%-40% of their peak power demand when idling between printing and standby modes, so minimising this can produce cost savings, reduce heat output and increase its operating life. 5. Educate your staff. Consider a screen saver with an energy-saving message. 6. Rationalise your equipment via networking to reduce the number of printers (for example) in any office area. 7. Printers Use only black and white for internal documents and colour only when absolutely necessary. Consider the benefits of inkjet printers v laser printers. Inkjet energy use is much lower than that of a laser printer. Encourage staff to use print preview functions. Set default printing mode to double-sided. Use lower-specification printers, such as inkjets, for internal documents and encourage staff to use these for day-to-day use.

8. Photocopiers High volume copiers use more energy so should be used sparingly. Use low melting point inks (available from stationery suppliers). Encourage staff to copy in batches to increase standby time. Stick to black and white copiers and only use colour when absolutely necessary. Set default copying to double-sided. 9. Invest to save and purchase only what you need. 10. Don’t forget to motivate staff. Keep repeating the message of the importance of energy saving in ways that they can understand (for example, a computer monitor switched off overnight saves enough energy to microwave six dinners).

WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), or e-waste, is the term used for old or disposed electronic equipment. It covers both the toxic and valuable materials found in appliances. The most important lesson is to reuse, not recycle. With so much e-waste, and electrical devices such as computers and flat screens often being replaced well before the end of their shelf life and ending up in landfill, it’s imperative that the most is made of these materials by reusing them productively.

Options to investigate when trying to reduce e-waste are: 1. Can you upgrade your equipment with new energy efficient components? 2. Can it be used by someone else in the company? 3. Can it be given to a charity? (Note: charities must be registered to take WEEE.) 4. Will the manufacturer take back the old equipment and reuse parts in new products?

Developments on the horizon include: 1. Smaller, more efficient processors. The continuing development of microprocessors means a mobile phone can have around the same computational power as the average desktop computer back in 2000. 2. Memristors. Electronics giant HP is in the process of developing “memristors” (see photo above), which have greater memory storage capacity while requiring less energy and space. They are due to be on the shelf in about three years. 3. Specialist data centre design. Siemens recently launched its transformational Data Centre Solution, a groundbreaking strategy in data centre energy-efficient design and operation. It claims the system, which uses virtualization and efficient power and cooling, offers many benefits for businesses, including up to 50% energy savings through ground water cooling and IT costs reduced by 30%. 4. Outsourcing. Hotels of all sizes are starting to view IT outsourcing as a viable option to gain flexibility and reduce short-term costs and increase transparency of cost structures and processes. 5. Optimisation of resources. This will become a necessity either through virtualisation, networking or cloud computing. 6. Water cooling. IBM is currently working on a supercomputer that is cooled by water (a given volume of water can hold 4,000 times more waste than air), which claims to be 50% more energy efficient than the world’s leading systems. The Aquasar stacks many computer processors on top of each other with cooling water flowing between each one. IBM’s Dr Bruno Michel told the BBC in November 2010: “We plan that 10 to 15 years from now, we can collapse such a system into one sugar cube — we’re going to have a supercomputer in a sugar cube.”

This technology, called Prediction, maximizes fuel and power consumption, which effectively reduces carbon emissions

Google has made its environmentally-conscious initiatives well-known

French authorities have used Google’s mapping services to determine agricultural regions that should face water restrictions.

Google would be nowhere without its data centers.

managing to half their data center energy use through practical thinking, using the excess energy to power office complexes, Google has effectively cut down on its environmental impact.

Google is now providing information to indigenous tribes on deforestation, giving them the ability to track and prevent the atrocity from taking place.

cutting down on the emissions of data farms or having goats roam Google’s campus to eliminate the need for fertilizer and lawn mowers, the company has always strived to cut down on greenhouse gases.

Google’s long-term goal of running entirely on renewable energy is growing closer and closer.

Google is constantly searching for ways to ensure that it never consumes excessive gas.

Instead of trying to purge carbon from its systems, Google invests in “off-setting” its carbon emissions by investing in green initiatives that would not have the funding to survive otherwise.

From central operations such as boilers to lighting systems, kitchen equipment, and automated energy management systems, hotels globally are working to reduce energy use while sustaining

Efforts include the linen and towel reuse programs that are now an industry standard to installation of low-flow faucets, showerheads, and other fixtures.

Many hotels are making a statement by offering guests custom formulated amenities.

Many hotel companies are shifting to card options made from paper, wood, and bioplastic that are better for the environment but equally as durable.

Recognizing the importance of safer products for guests and employees as well as the natural environment, many hotels have shifted to cleaning products that are made with bio-based oils and other natural cleaners.

A shift to more sustainable and healthier cuisine offers travelers unique opportunities to experience a greater connection to the locations they are visiting in a more sustainable way

Hotels and resorts are integrating more and more selections in menus of all types that integrate organic produce, hormone free meats and dairy, and other natural products that offer guests healthier food selections.

A growing trend with all types of spas is the integration of treatments that feature local and indigenous ingredients as well as natural and organic products.

successful sustainability initiatives in energy reduction, waste management solutions, carbon footprint measurement, and an outline of sustainable certifications being recognised around the world.

Low-flow toilets, faucets and shower heads

employ a building energy management system

smart thermostats

that will not only reduce energy, but will actually produce it

green appliances that use about 30% less energy and water needed to run a traditional appliance

sustainable equipment

35. Offer guests bicycles for short trips instead of driving.

40. Plant a garden and harvest organically-grown vegetables for your restaurant.

LEED certifications from the U.S. Green Building Council, the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings, have become a hot commodity for hotels.

Hoteliers should look for modern, wireless solutions that pay for themselves. In addition, as no one knows what the industry’s problems will be in five or ten years, it’s crucial to invest in a scalable system that upgrades itself to address the problems of the future.

With the advent of the “Internet of Things” (IoT), hotels can leverage technology that tracks temperature, room occupancy and more from any web based device and adjust as needed in real time. This translates into a huge win for properties. Due to IoT, energy controls, like thermostats and sensors that have typically been commoditized are now interconnected with other systems and provide valuable data back to the hotelier.

With effective, modern technology, hotels – and guests – can supervise and implement eco-friendly efforts with little more than the tap of a tablet – incredibly easy for staff, perfectly unnoticeable for guests.

BYOD allows the guest to download an application on their personal mobile device and control their room for the duration of their stay.

Another component driving the trend is the increased adoption of “smart home” technologies. If consumers can turn down their home’s lights or thermostat with a flick of their smartphone, they expect to be able to do the same when they travel.

Guests at luxury hotels have higher expectations, and for many, energy management has become a social motivator. Often, these consumers make “green” choices at home, so they value an “eco-friendly” hotel.

hotels consume an enormous amount of energy; 50 percent more than similar sized residential buildings, despite having only about a 65 percent occupancy rate on average.

The four leading technologies which have showed a high adoption rate from the industry and have received attention from academia are: self-service, wireless, green, and security technologies. The advantages of these technologies for hoteliers include enhanced customer services and operational efficiency (Doyle, 2007), decreased guest wait times, more efficient methods to settle bills (Singh & Kasavana, 2005), reduction of energy costs (Meeroff & Scarlatos, 2007), and protection of sensitive customer data and credit card numbers

In addition, exploring the influential factors of security system usage will provide greater depth of knowledge with respect to why some hotels have adopted more security systems than others.

there is still a lack of understanding of the nature of risk associated with inadequate IT security, especially among operators of hotels that do not have their own IT departments.

Self-service technologies are commonly defined as devices or applications which permit users to produce a service independent from the direct involvement of the service provider (Meuter, Ostrom, Roundtree, & Bitner, 2000). The use of self-service technologies in the hotel industry has grown considerably, especially in the areas of self check-in, in-room check-out, and foodservice kiosks

IT systems refer to general support systems such as mainframe computer, mid-range computer, and local area network.

Some of the most significant wireless technology applications involve the use of mobile handheld devices, such as personal digital assistants (PDA), tablet PCs, and cellular phones, or RFID (radio frequency identification). RFID utilizes computer chips and antennas, allowing the chips to wirelessly communicate with a receiver.

While the major usage of RFID in the hotel industry was for inventory control purposes, it also has the potential to be utilized in ways that can provide more conveniences for the guests.

Other possible uses include placing RFID tags on items of high value as a means of theft prevention or integrating tags into guest loyalty cards for easy identification

IT investment that lowers environmental impact and IT that manages the environmental impact of other systems are commonly referred to as “green technology”

Many hoteliers might think becoming more environmentally friendly will cost more for their hotels. However, it has been demonstrated that “going green” is not only the right thing to do for the environment but also provides tangible bottom-line benefits for hotels by reducing consumption of energy and water, as well as other related costs.

Some of the risk factors involved include reliability, security, and privacy issues

A hotel with more technologies being utilized will install more security systems than those with fewer technologies.

Many of these attacks involve attempts by thieves to gain access to customer credit card data, and these attempts constitute a major portion of the risk inherent in IT security

if a system is breached and the merchant is not PCI compliant, the merchant then is responsible for all costs associated with improperly used credit card information taken from that system (Kress, 2008). These losses could bankrupt a business if the security breach goes undetected for even a short time.

IT security systems are those measures taken to protect the confidentiality and integrity of proprietary data.

two main paradigms of adoption are believed to occur: bottom-up adoption and top-down adoption.

Thus, it is reasonable to assume that organizational factors (e.g., financial factor, human resource) will influence the implementation stage of security systems at a hotel.

A hotel with sufficient IT budget will install more security systems than those with insufficient IT budget.

That is, if a hotel does not have its own IT department, it will have a negative influence on successfully installing or maintaining necessary security systems.

A hotel with its own IT department will install more security systems than those without.

Overall, the state of IT spending on security continues undiminished because managed security services are required for almost every application (Communications News, 2007).

risk associated with a breach of IT systems security (e.g., network break-ins) is very high. Consequently, no sector of the business community is exempt from attacks on their IT systems, with an attack being defined as a technique used to exploit a system’s vulnerabilities.

Given the importance of security and privacy at a luxury hotel, this study expects luxury properties to have installed more security systems than other segments

Most hotel employees use their property management systems for hotel operations and should be able to check their e-mails.

To justify the low response rate, previous studies which have compared response rates of mail and e-mail for surveys were reviewed.

the large majority of respondent properties do not have their own IT departments. Second, the people making IT decisions generally do not have IT backgrounds or training. Third, the large majority of respondent properties have little more than firewalls or antivirus software to protect their proprietary data, and these systems alone are not adequate to meet PCI standards, as they do not take steps to encrypt and protect cardholder data, maintain a vulnerability management program, implement strong access control measures, regularly monitor and test their networks, and maintain an information security policy as required by the Security Standards Council.

The respondents were asked to select from a total of fourteen securities related systems

The profile of the respondents revealed that they were experienced hoteliers with more than ten years experience in the industry

Fifty-three percent of the respondents reported that they were with chain hotels that would be considered mid-range properties with an average of 175 rooms (median of 107). Over 80% of the respondents reported working in operations, while fewer than 4% reported working in either IT or engineering (Table 1).

Nearly 70% of the respondents’ properties did not have their own IT department (69.2% did not have, and 30.8% had their own IT departments, n = 234, missing data = 10).

Fifty-three percent of them (n = 244) thought the most important goal for hotel technology would be enhancing the customer’s experience.

second identified goal was utilizing technology to help generate revenue (41%)

differentiate properties from their competition (20%), to lower expenses (16%), and to increase security (6%).

Internet kiosks in the lobby represented the most frequently used self-service technology (36.5%, n = 244), followed by kiosks for airline check-in/board pass

With respect to security systems currently in use, antivirus security systems represented the most frequently used security system (92.2%), followed by hardware firewalls, software firewalls, physical security, and encrypted login security systems.

intrusion detection was the most frequently identified system (15.6%), followed by vulnerability assessment scanning (13.5%), Internet scanning (13.1%), antivirus (11.5%), digital ID server (11.5%), and nonreusable passwords (9.8%; Table 2).

Thus, the hypothesis was supported that there was a linear relationship between the three factors and the adequacy of security systems.

The positive standardized coefficient (β) of .389 indicates that there was a statistically significant (p < .001) linear relationship between IT usage (the number of wireless, self-service, and green technologies a hotel was using) and the adequacy of security systems

The study revealed certain things of interest, the most significant of which is the need for greater emphasis on IT security among hoteliers.

only about 30% of all respondents reported having their own IT departments. Since budget hotel properties are extremely unlikely to have an IT department, it is highly likely that the very large majority of IT decisions throughout the industry are being made by hotel operators for whom IT is not their primary area of concern.

Furthermore, the focus of hoteliers for future IT implementations is enhancing the guest experience (53%) and generating revenue (41%). Very few respondents (6%) identified increasing security as a 5-year IT goal.

While almost all respondents use information systems as part of their jobs, very few are trained in the development, maintenance, and secure use of these systems.

no correlation was found between the respondents’ perceived adequacy of their IT budgets and the adequacy of installed security systems, as adequacy of IT budget did not appear as a significant term in the regression analysis.

Nearly 10% of respondents do not have so much as anti-virus protection for their systems, and nearly half do not even take simple physical precautions to protect their IT systems.

we note that no correlation exists between the respondents’ perceived adequacy of their IT budgets and the number of installed IT security systems, as the number of installed systems was not a significant factor in the regression analysis.

The sample obtained in this study represented the targeted sample: over 80% of the respondents were working in hotel operations. Furthermore, the purpose of this study was to explore hotel operators’ insight of technology usage, IT budget, and security measures rather than to confirm existing theories or to generalize the results.

it is reasonable to conclude that the respondents did not have an adequate understanding of the nature of the IT security hazards facing them for the average property does not have installed systems adequate to meet PCI standards, yet they reported having adequate budgets.

In order to adequately protect proprietary data, one must have an understanding of network security, which is an understanding apart from software functionality.

Properties with their own IT departments, however, reported that they had a higher number of installed IS security systems than did those properties without their own IT departments.

roperties without their own IT departments, in particular, have a less adequate understanding of their IT security needs than may be necessary.

This study found hoteliers’ lack of attention to security provision, training in IT, and PCI compliance can place hoteliers at great risk. For example, the cost of a single incident at a noncompliant property could result in the loss of the entire business.

It will be useful to examine the reasons why luxury properties are more likely to employ adequate security measures to determine whether this greater use is attributable to better understanding of security issues or some other factor.

The study was limited by the nature of online surveys; the response rate was quite low. Future studies could test the proposed research model via paper-based mail surveys to increase a response rate.

Many brands let guests know about their sustainability efforts, but elect to keep guests from having to actively participate. But in certain niches, such as properties marketing to millennials, it makes sense to put energy savings front and center.

With smart thermostats, "it will save property managers money, but ultimately it creates a better guest experience

City Relay says, as part of its sustainability initiatives, it primarily uses technology to streamline communication channels. "That way, people don't have to congregate in a central space or drive across London to have a face-to-face meeting to get things done," says Helen Skeen, senior brand and content manager.

Having those digital lines of communication [through programs like Slack and Trello] is essential to being able to do the job, but also making sure that in doing that job, we're not wasting resources and increasing pollution

According to Airbnb, 88% of its hosts incorporate some form of green practice into their hosting, with 59% providing recycling, 39% providing information about public transportation, 47% providing bulk toiletries and 40% using green cleaning products.The company says it has seen an “overwhelming desire” from both hosts and guests to take steps to support sustainable travel, and Airbnb provides a toolkit for hosts with environmentally friendly tips.

being aware of the fact that - at least in the short-term - it's going to cost your business more.”

City Relay aims to educate guests and hosts about sustainability efforts with information in house manuals and through marketing materials and in the booking channel

, Airbnb is creating a new program that will offer $100 million to local initiatives around the world over the next 10 years. The grants will “focus on projects that promote cultural heritage, economic vitality and sustainable communities and demonstrate clear local impact