[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.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Felicity11 whilst this is all very laudable it is swamped by the emissions guests will create by travelling to your listing especially if they come from overseas. I don't think any greenwashing can make tourism environmentally friendly I am afraid.

[Felicity11]

Hi @Mike-And-Jane0 

Thanks for reading my post.

There are many every day activities in our every day lives that create emissions and many people do what they can to lower these emissions.  We are seeing here in Australia and New Zealand that both our national airlines are now trying to promote the work they are doing to lower the emissions they can with flying and they know that this is going to be a long journey to fix. I think the airlines industry knows it needs to act fast and work to lower its emissions as many people are aware of the emissions that are created when they travel. 

This is why I think it's important that when we do travel we try and seek out ways that help lower our emissions and renting an airbnb where the hosts have taken the time to set up there listing so it can have the lowest emissions that they can offer for there property or country is a great choice to stay in.  Taking the hard work out of simple every day things like providing reusable coffee cups and water bottles, pointing our where the nearest EV charger is and so on all make it easier for guests to make these changes. 

Some of the choices we as hosts make for our listings can have a significant impact on the emissions created for guests.   In Australia we know that by simply switching our power provider from a coal fired power company to a renewable power company we can roughly halve the emissions produced by the average home.  This also sends a clear message to the power companies that we do not want to buy power from coal powered sites.  This action in Australia has gained momentum over the past few years and we now have some coal fired power stations due to retire sooner rather than later.  There are small things we can do and if my small effort and your small effort and the next persons small effort and so on are combined it does add up to a significant effort and it helps to create change. 

We also know that is some parts of the world renewable energy is not available to many homes or is slowly being introduced. When these networks are introduced if we support them they will grow.

[Robin4]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

Mike, are you sure you don't want to rethink that comment?

@Felicity11  put forward  a sensible list of options to help leave less of a carbon footprint with her property, her business and her lifestyle. 

It's what we do with our own lives, how we stop guests from being environmental vandals, reducing their waste that Felicity is trying to address and good on her.

She has absolutely no control over how far Sydney Australia is from England, the USA, Greenland or Outer Mongolia!

Sorry Mike but I don't find that comment particularly relevant or helpful to what Felicity is trying to, and advising others to do. Sure tourism involves transport costs which involves the use of emission producing energy, but what is our alternative? Shut ourselves away in our own little bubble, we can't do anything about distance!

We can't stop China from opening up coal fired power stations, We can't stop Russia, Japan or Korea from leaving nothing behind in the oceans from their trawling fishing. We can't stop Brazil, Malaysia or Indonesia from systematically destroying the worlds last great rainforests.

All we can individually do is look to ourselves to walk as softly on the planet as we can, Good on you Felicity, that's a great list.

I go even further, I have 'doctored' the guest cottage airconditioning so it will only operate in the 4c temperature bandwidth. If a guest wants to be hotter than 24c (76f) in the winter, or cooler than 20c (68f) in the summer.......they aren't going to do it at my (or the planets) expense!

Cheers.........Rob

[Felicity11]

Hi Rob

Thank you for your comments.

We as hosts can not do much to lower the emissions associated with air travel but what we can do is lower the emissions of our homes that we offer on airbnb so that the emissions associated with accomodation are as low as we can make them.   

There are many things we can do to reduce waste and minimise our plastics but to make a significant impact on the emissions we create by switching to a renewable energy provider or generating your own power you can drastically cut the emissions associated with your home, it is currently estimated that in Australia this relatively simple action that we as hosts can take will cut the average homes emissions by 50% - and it can easily be done on line after a bit of research.  This is the latest report from Greenpeace on the "green " energy providers in Australia. 

 If you plan to rent a car when you travel by renting a electric car you can further reduce your emissions.. There are ways we as hosts can help our guests to travel with a smaller carbon footprint.    

Please note that not all these options are available around the world and sometimes what is considered best practice in one country may not necessarily be best practice in another country.  

Thank you for reading my post and continuing the conversation. 

[Felicity11]

Hi Robyn

I forgot to say thanks for raising the point about the setting the temperatures in our homes.

Many people do not realise that by making our home just a couple of degrees cooler or warmer we actually use a significant amount of extra power. 

[Robin4]

@Felicity11 

Hey Felicity, it's Robin with 'I', not Robin with a Y.

Back in 2016 I had that great creative jeweler Andrea Wagner  @Andrea9 from Amsterdam fooled for more than a year. Andrea was quite convinced she was talking with a female Robyn rather than a male Robin and for many moths I played along with her. 

I remember when Ade and I started dating back in 1969 we both had asexual names! When we were introduced to people we hadn't met before we would be introduced as...."Hey, I want you to meet Robin and Adrienne"! Whoever we were introduced to would look puzzled and we would play along with it......we would deliberately refer to each other in conversation as,  'honey', 'sweetheart', 'possum' or something similar! It gave them a devil of a time trying to work out who was who until in the end curiosity got the better of them, and one would say...."Which one are you, Robyn or Adrian"!

So flick, it's Robin with an I........not Robyn with a Y........

And on the air/con temperature thing, guests are paying to use your space, they want to make the most of the experience. 

To go to both ends of the scale, I would have them come in here at 1.00pm on a 10c afternoon and say as soon as they walked in the door......'Oh it's lovely and warm in here', and they would put their bags down and go out for the afternoon and evening......but not before they wound the thermostat up to 30c so they would have a nice toasty environment to come back to!

At the other end of the scale I had a couple from Singapore, it was a nice typical spring night, temp around 17-18c but this couple  wound the thermostat down as far as it would go all night because they wanted to feel what it felt like to sleep with a doona (quilt) on the bed......something they never did in Singapore. 

Guests are environmental vandals and you need to take these decisions out of their hands.....if they can abuse it, they will. 

Cheers........Rob

[Felicity11]

Hello Robin 

My profuse apologies for spelling your name wrong I am truly sorry.   I love your story and your good sense of humour  !  

Thank you for reading my post.  It is interesting to hear other hosts views.  There are many types of guests that we meet, and some are more understanding of the challenges in different climates and others are not. All we can as hosts do is to do our best and try to explain the way we do things in our countries and the reasons for this but as you say when it is not second nature to a guest there will be challenges.    I hope we can help educate our guests about how they can travel with a lighter climate footprint and why this is important.  

Thank you for reading my post and for your comments - great points that you raised!

[Huma0]

@Mike-And-Jane0 

While I agree with you that the emissions from air travel (and other forms of transport) cannot necessarily be mitigated by making the kinds of changes that @Felicity11 describes, I find this a rather defeatist attitude.

I used to work for an environmental agency that was specifically focused on reducing CO2. Whilst a lot of our efforts were centred on working with governments and corporations on reducing emissions from transport etc. a lot of the work was also to do with changing consumer behaviour. What we ran up against time and time again was this attitude that, "It's the governments/big corporations/airlines responsibility. What I do in my own home won't really make a difference, so why should I bother?"

Okay, but multiply those small changes in a few thousand homes, and then a few hundred thousands, a few million and, who knows... maybe one day billions? I understand of course that this is easier in developed, rather than developing, countries. Does it make a difference? Of course it does. It's not necessarily about how you consume energy in an Airbnb. It's about how you consume energy in a household, or in general. And then of course there are all the other lifestyle choices around consumption of food, plastics clothing, how you recycle or dispose of food waste. The more and more we adopt energy saving and other environmentally sound practices into our daily lives, to the point that it becomes 'the norm', the better chance we have of at least going part way to tackling the problem.

Look, I'm not unrealistic. I fear we are already past the tipping point, but that doesn't mean we should give up. We owe it to future generations to at least try.

[Felicity11]

HI @Mike-And-Jane0 

Thanks for reading this post and for your comments. 

Yes I agree that a few small changes by some individuals do add up when many others join in we can make significant changes happen.

I remember 10 years ago finding out about the emissions associated with Beef so we chose to give up beef.  At the time friends and family could not understand why we would do this however now we see many people in the world are more aware of the emissions associated not only with beef but with many different foods and choose not to eat these foods and to eat more local in season produce. In Australia I see more and more options in the supermarket for meat substitutes and this is going on to become a huge industry as many people choose to eat less meat - for many reasons.  The awareness of our emissions is growing.  Some impacts like changing your power provider are small simple and relatively quick to implement.  Other changes like remembering to take your keep cup with you require a bit of practice and changes to our every day habits.   Some people will try these and others will not.

I also remember talking with friends about buying renewable power rather than power from a coal fired power station and our power company not understanding why we would change. Today there are many people who choose to buy renewable power and many councils and local businesses are choosing to also do this. As awareness grows and individuals make changes they all add up to significant changes. 

I also remember when I first introduced compost to our airbnb.  Initially the uptake was slow but then it caught on and I now have guests who tell me they are so happy they can continue to compost their waste when they are on holiday as this is part of there every day routine.  When I started out I never thought I would have guests who would comment on my compost bin and give me gardening tips but then that is hosting .. full of surprises.. 

[Helen744]

Felicity11 . I have to say that the facts about not eating beef are not as cut and dried as people have assumed, as the use and growing of various vegetable matters are not one for one This is a furphy Felicity  . We as you say all do our best . Green peace lists are lovely but also do not tell the whole truth. I paid for green energy for years but,This did not mean that even one iota of renewables were added to the Countries ssytem by the company. Instead these extra contributions went ? who knows where? H

[Helen744]

Also different providers trade under different names but in Vic there are only two actual companies. No great choice . Monopolies and bad business models and private companies making decisions on behalf of shareholders without a conscience or in fact a sense of responsibility supported by a toothless tiger government are the problem. Political will must move in the right direction.H

[Helen744]

@Huma0 i think the point here is we do what we do but guests are often,especially when travelling the ones who have obviously either given up or never took up any changes in the first place.

Waste plastic and no attempt to remove rings from bottles is my bugbear. fifty bottles in a week . not one with the rings cut off . there are scissors but, is it our place to educate the ignorant when the community around them have failed to do so. It makes me despair when I check the bins . One of my house rules is 'try and recycle". In Victoria for many years we were lead to believe that our waste bins contents were being recycled. but we found out just before covid that most of our garbage was being shipped to third world countries just to add to the oceans problems and those countries problems. those countries eventually said , we  wont take this anymore. Then the Australian public had a massive wake up call ,or at least some of it did .Are we as Airbnb owners responsible for our guests consience? H

[Huma0]

@Helen744 

Nom we're not responsible for our guests' consciences, but the way I see it, "my house, my rules". So, as long as they stay with me, they are expected to sort their rubbish, recycling and food waste. 

This is all explained to them during the house tour and there is also a flyer on the fridge they can refer to if they are unsure what can and can't be recycled. I find that these days, most guests will make an effort to recycle, even if they are not used to it. They will often ask me if they are unsure, but I'm not by their side 24/7, so I do still have to move things from one bin to another. It's not too stressful, as I'm an onsite host.

The other thing I noticed is that very few guests go through lots of plastic water bottles. Mot have refillable bottles and use the tap water, which is perfectly safe here. That was not the case when I started hosting in 2016. I don't know if it's a societal change or simply that I now host long term guests, so their habits are different and they rely less on 'disposables'.

[Helen744]

@Huma0 I am not onsite with guests but I must say they are still over using plastics that Ido sort ,and as generally they have bought all supplies before they arrive or during 

While I am not there . Then I must put some of the blame at the feet of manufacturers . I supply re usabale shopping bags which are used and then washed. So that seems to be working. and enough bins with signs and the local recycling information but I think guests simply feel its not their issue H