HI @Elisa ,
Great topic. Here's some of our initiatives:
- EV charger in the garage - we added in 2020. We don't know who may be selecting our listing based on this criteria, but we do note an increase in electric vehicles at our property over time. Probably very similar to the increase in electric vehicles in general.
- dryer balls! We use dryer balls in every load of house laundry. Since we have 4 bathrooms and nine individual beds, it is a lot of potential laundry at each turnover. Dryer balls are meant to decrease the drying time in general, but I have no idea what we may be saving here, but do it anyway.
- Swedish dish cloth - we provide these with messaging to consider using over the paper towels. And yes, we still provide paper towels, it's one of the few single use items we have and decided the uproar of not providing wasn't worth it. No idea how this is being used in reality as people still have such a strong preference for paper towels, don't seem to yet understand what a swedish dish towel is and so on. I consider regularly to get rid of the papertowels as it seems like a false choice here but just haven't done it yet.
- NEST thermostats - we have 13 individual thermostats. Getting this under control was a priority for us and converting to a wifi enabled thermostat was one of our first projects. We still ask guests to return thermostats to "65" degrees upon check out but in practice this almost NEVER, EVER happens. Being able to control temp is a game changer for us and I would highly recommend. Guests cannot be trusted for this task, it's just so easy to forget.
- LUTRON lighting - wifi enabled lighting has been super helpful in controlling this resources. Like with heating, guests just don't pay attention to what's on. We have 6,000 square feet of space and so A LOT of lights (not all of it is lutron) but enough is to make a difference here. Turning off lights is also a check out request and this also almost never, ever happens properly as someone left lights on somewhere in the home.
- Bulk supplies and reusable dispensers: we've invested in BULK shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and hand soap from Plaine Products. We have a three gallon bulk container of each and a collection of re-fillable containers for each bathroom. It's a chore to manage this but we've learned over time and now have a system that works for our occupancy and turnover management.
- Plaine Products - we use their "Sustainable Body Care Products" and this is one of our core sustainability practices.
- Recycling - standard recycling, nothing special here but available.
- Food waste: we've recently added some messaging about food waste. If you have ever dealt with the garbage after a guest has left your property you may have found an alarming amount of food waste. We are a 4 bedroom, sleep up to 10 and thus the amount of potential food waste is astonishing. An open package and freezer items can't be donated and in reality someone else's favorite foods just aren't appealing to others. Guests think they are doing a favor by leaving stuff but usually it just moves the guilt on to us to have to dispose. We have added a page to our guidebook about food waste and to consider limiting it by bringing a cooler and some food containers to be able to return food to home. Almost all of our guests arrive by vehicle and the ones that did fly in usually have someone in their group who came by car and thus could consider bringing the food back with them.
Thanks for the great tips from the posts so far. Wishing all much success!
