[FESTIVAL] Lowering Guest Emissions

[Felicity11]

What do we offer as a sustainable listing?

Over the years we have had the privilege of meeting guests from all over the world and many appreciate the little things we do to offer guests a low emissions accommodation option.

Tourism is starting to come back, and many more guests are aware of the emissions they create when they travel and are looking for options to lower their carbon footprint. It’s easy for hosts to make a few changes to their listings that can have a significant impact on the emissions our guests create during their stay. 

What does low emission mean, you might ask? It simply means the emissions created by staying in your listing are the lowest they can be, eg power, water, waste.    

We try to make this easy for guests who stay with us by setting up our listing to have the lowest carbon footprint that we can offer.  Here is a breakdown of what we do in each of the key areas that emissions are created when guests stay with us, I hope it might inspire you. 

Power – we generate over 75% of our electricity through our roof top solar system, we buy the remainder of our power from a renewable electricity provider (if this is not an option for your listing, it is often possible to buy renewable energy certificates). We also use energy efficient lighting and appliances.  Our cottage is fully insulated and has thermal backed curtains to make it more energy efficient.

Waste - to help guests minimise food waste, we provide reusable containers to keep leftover food in, and a compost bin for kitchen scraps. The compost helps keep our garden looking great. To further help guests lower their waste while staying with us we offer reusable metal water bottles and coffee cups. 

Transport - to help guests lower their emissions when getting around Sydney we provide public transport cards and route maps they can use while staying.  While we are not set up for charging electric vehicles, we have rapid car charging stations close by that guests can easily access if needed.   

Recycling - we are lucky to have municipal recycling bins for paper and cardboard, glass plastic and metal containers, and garden clippings. We provide separate labelled bins in the cottage to help guests separate their trash. 

Water - we have water tanks that collect rain that are used for some toilet and garden water. The cottage also has water efficient fittings throughout.  

Linens - inside the cottage we use cotton sheets and towels that are laundered on site and dried on an outside washing line. We minimise the use of synthetic fibres to lessen the amount of microplastics going down the drain. 

Products - all cleaning products and personal use products have minimal harmful chemicals in them.  We order in bulk and refill containers for shampoo, soap, dishwashing liquid and dishwashing powder as needed. 

As hosts there are lots of simple changes that we can all make that will lower our emissions and help attract like minded guests.  Our guests are also a great source of inspiring stories about how others reduce their impact on the planet.

[Felicity11]

Hi @Huma0 

Thanks for reading my post and for commenting. 

Like @Huma0 I agree it is difficult to keep up with the research that is coming out about what is causing the most emissions and the best products and practices we can use to help us lower our emissions.    Best practice also varies from country to country

We also get lead down the garden path by marketing hype and at times local governments may not be particularly helpful in guiding us to make the best choices to lower our emissions. 

It sounds like you are ahead of many people as you are aware of your consumption and the emissions that are associated with these products and your use of them.  Many people are not aware of the emissions they create..  Like you we also did have a diesel car for many years believing that when we bought it the engine did something to make the emissions it created lower or more efficient than other petrol cars.. there are many cons out there. 

In Australia we also have the issue that there is limited access to electric cars for sale, the range of cars is very small and the prices are high and there are limited subsidies and incentives to buy one.  We also do not have access to the more efficient and cleaner burning petrol cars that are available in other parts of the world because we do not sell the higher rated cleaner burning petrol in our country..

It is a tricky area to navigate and there is no one easy solution for the world. But being aware of your emissions and the impact on the world around us is the first step.  Keep going!  I am sure you next attempt will have a positive impact. 

[Laurelle3]

@Felicity11 thank you for your article On Lowering Guest Emmissions. I think as hosts we promote saving our environment the best way we can even if it is in a small way. 

Unfortunately we live in a continent which has a large land mass that isn't always viable to live, farm, or manufacture and where people have to travel long distances to get from one destination to another. Hense travel is one of our weaknesses for emmissions but as Australians we have tried to make up in other ways such as you have suggested ;

Power, we are fortunate that we have been able to take up roof top solar energy for our homes, solar lights with sensors for outside paths or in the garden or LED lights or off peak power for heating water or instant hot water and is only heated when used.

Water, some of us have been able to install water saving devices eg, low flow shower heads, grey water to use on the gardens from washing machines or showers, hand basins, kitchen sinks and new houses have to recycle this water to be reused with flushing toilets.

If we promote environmental sustainability with our Airbnb's we are all working in the right direction. Our children and grandchildren are becomming the voices of the future we have to listen if we aren't already acting we just have to take one step at a time.

[Felicity11]

Hi @Laurelle3 

Lovely to hear from you and thank you for you reading my post and for your comments. 

I think you are right if we all do what we can it does add up to quite a lot. 

There is a great quote that I think others may appreciate 

"We don't need a handful of people doing zero waste and emissions perfectly.   We need millions of people doing it imperfectly"

There are many simple things that we can do as hosts that can have a significant impact on the emissions our guests create when they travel.   I find some guests love some of the things we have set up in our Airbnb and go on to try them at home.. guests have loved trying simple things like using metal pegs instead of plastic one, seeing that we refill containers and its pretty easy to remember a drink bottle if there is one there for you to use!  

[Helen744]

@Felicity11 Like you Felicity we use all cotton or wool products on our beds and wash and dry using non toxic washing liquids and dry in the open air. We have to use disinfectants and bleach for toilet areas etcetera. We do not add unnecessary perfumes of any kind . We encourage people to cook rather than collect heaps of takeaway containers,. we have glass recycle containers and always process ,by removing and cutting off rings from water bottles to prevent wildlife deaths. We weed our garden by hand . Use no poisons on our garden and have lots of birds and bees for our reward Our property is not large enough for composting to be practical as it would only attract pests . I am not sure that it is possible to simply choose an electricity provider who only uses renewables at all in our area . but the future of wind power is here now in Victoria . It will be a great bonus soon. As we are a colder state then solar is also not as good as in the warmer states as we have fewer hot days but still the take up of solar panels has been great. the companies and the government who promised the right to feed extra power back thru the grid to customers are now reneging on that promise and are going to charge people to do so. The tesla batteries that operate in South australia are a big breakthru but the technology for individuals still has a way to go .Modern home designs can do a lot to maintain comfortable temperatures without having to overuse airconditioners etcetera. At the moment the government itself is trying to deal with rising costs and adding infrastructure.We are all in a race to the future. Even little things can help. Electric cars in Aus are not such a hit as we travel tremendously long distances every day and charging stations and battery life are limited H

[Felicity11]

Hi @Helen744 

Great to hear from you and thank you for reading my post. 

It is wonderful to hear from you and about all the initiatives you have at your home to help lower your emissions.  You sound to be doing a amazing job and yes in some areas of the world we can not do all these things.    

South Australia is doing very well with the Tesla batteries operating in their state and I hope they will inspire more states and other countries to follow suite.  For those who are not aware of the incredible renewable energy being generated in South Australia you may like to read more about it here. 

https://reneweconomy.com.au/tesla-big-battery-in-south-australia-delivers-stunning-windfall-profits-...

If you are in Australia and are considering switching to renewable energy then you may find the Green Energy Guide from Greenpeace useful to look at the options available to you.  Not everyone can put solar on there rooftops and connect up to a battery but by simply changing to a renewable energy provider the average Australian home can reduce its carbon emissions by 50% - so that is a huge impact on the planet and its relatively easy to implement.  https://greenelectricityguide.org.au

There is a great quote I have on my wall that I hope inspires people to makes choices no matter how small to there day to day lives as it all adds up at the end of the day.

"We don't need a handful of people doing zero waste or renewable energy perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly"

[Robin4]

@Felicity11 

I like your ideas, and you are right, as a country we are catching on.....it's difficult though because, as a nation all we have to sustain ourselves is, grow it, or dig it up out of the ground and market it, each of which adds to our fossil fuel dilemmas!

But across three of our states there are times of the day throughout the year when we actually produce more green energy than as a country we consume. In South Australia we are net exporters to the national grid of renewable energy......more rooftop solar and wind turbine energy is produced than the state as a whole uses. That situation first happened across the 16-17-18th July 2016. And the problem is only going to get worse with the massive uptake here in battery storage. Our need for baseline generation is decreasing all the time with a resultant drop in revenue, but the infrastructure (the poles and wires) need to be maintained, so the tail is starting to wag the dog, Felicity!

On a good day here we produce around 56Kws of electricity which during the summer months is 3 times as much as we need!

In WA they are talking about charging householders to export their surplus energy back to the grid during certain daylight hours.

There needs to be a balance, you can have too much of a good thing!

Cheers........Rob

[Felicity11]

Hi Robin

I love your comments and I think its great that so many people can hear about this first hand from you.

I have been reading and hearing about this issue in parts of Australia where there is an excessive of power being produced for the local grid and not enough people with batteries to store this extra power to use later in the day when the solar is no longer producing or not enough use during the peak times.  I have seen some interesting graphs showing the generation of solar power and then the use of it during the day.  It sounds like there needs to be some work done to the grid to set up how to transfer power around the grid to where it is needed and also incentives for people to use it more during peak times. I have heard about incentives to try and get the power used in peak periods by offering free EV car charging and free power during certain times of the day but this will work if the power can be transferred to the parts of the grid where it is needed.   I too have heard of households and businesses being charged if they produce more power than they can use or store. It seems like madness. I hope some realistic solutions can be set up so this power does not go to waste. 

Solar is great but the current network is not perfect and sounds like it has some way to go and battery storage sounds to be one of the keys to helping with this.