Water Conservation And Waste Management Practices At Aqua Resort Busselton

Water-saving Management Plan

Discuss About The Practices Related Water Consumption Some.

Aqua Resort Busselton is one of the luxury hotels in Australia located near the Geographe Bay in the beautiful South West of Western Australia. It offers stunning landscape view and luxury beachfront accommodation to meet the needs and requirements of the service users who come to visit the hotel. The hotel offers infinity lap pool, a well-equipped gym, spa, resort facilities along with tennis court and other facilities that can make the customers satisfied during their stay at the hotel (Theaquaresort.com.au 2018). As the hotel is surrounded by water in its swimming pool and beach nearby, the hotel has managed to preserve water properly and maintain sustainable measures too.

Water saving management plan is created by Aqua Resort Busselton by setting goals and measure the water consumption daily. Installation of multiple counters has helped in recording the amount of water consumed along with transformation of the measurement into economic terms too. This would create ease in saving more water as investment than the obligation. Shower flow should not be more than 10 liters per minute while the leakage in toilets have been prevented so that no water is wasted. The swimming pool is checked regularly to prevent leakage and installation of the push button showers by the pool has reduce water usage too. The hotel authorities to analyze the water costs and identify areas where savings can be made carry out regular water audit (Sirakaya-Turk, Baloglu and Mercado 2014).

The three Rs, i.e., reduce, reuse and recycle are important practices for managing wastes at Aqua Resort Busselton. This has not only helped n managing sustainable practices properly, but has also allowed for reducing the costs of business operations to a certain extent. Training the staffs could be important for making them maintain the equipments to manage optimum energy efficiency and at the same time, conserve a lot of water with ease. The development of a monitoring and targeting system at the hotel has helped in reporting progress related to the water conservation and even motivate them through feedback obtained (Xu and Gursoy 2015). This would make them recycle the wastes and dispose those properly, so that those could never create an unhealthy atmosphere within the hotel. Landfills could reduce the amounts of wastes while the green packaging techniques could reduce the harmful environmental impact. While packing any food within the hotel, plastic bags and cling wraps must not be used. The stock management and food delivery process for the food items must be monitored and the stocks should be stored at the right temperature with proper labeling and packaging (Baechler, DeVuono and Pearce 2013).

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle approach

Recycling could be done through composting where the organic wastes could be turned into valuable fertilizers in gardens. The energy recovery from food wastes should be possible through anaerobic digestion. The biodegradable wastes should be broken down into smaller particles and could be used as sources of renewable energy or to generate electricity. The plastic bottles should be disposed properly and recycled for other purposes. The data and information about how much wastes are going to landfill and how much are recycled can be monitored as well (Hsiao et al. 2014).

Greener approaches were not followed and there was increased consumption of goods, water and energy and water. There was absence of responsible behavior by the hotel authorities like disposal of wastes sometimes in the nearby areas, which created land and water pollution. The water and energy was not saved along with reduced management of solid wastes, which further were against the environment friendly practices at Aqua Resort Busselton. Due to changes in the climatic conditions as well, the hotel failed to comply with the environment laws, rules and regulations, which further contributed to the lack of maintaining the environmental standards.

The staff-training program could be implemented to minimize the wastes and improve the existing practices of recycling, reusing and reducing the wastes. Training could motivate the staffs and allow them to learn about the hazardous wastes and its impacts and even how to handle those properly. This would allow them to conduct the waste audit and determine the methods of disposal, cost that might be incurred along with the quantities of wastes disposed. Their participation in the recycling program would allow them to improve the business efficiency through proper management and disposal of wastes (Zaman and Lehmann 2013).

The staff training was managed to make them know about the things that should be considered for keeping the environment clean as well as create a greener environment through which the business could maintain sustainability. They should be trained about how to dispose wastes and even support greener infrastructure for maintaining an ecological balance in nature. The staffs should be informed about the green lodging certification programs for creating green hotel rating system too and ensure lesser consumption of energy all throughout.

Step 1: Determine organizational structure and process for implementing, evaluating and communicating the work

Step 2: Review and refine your action plan

Step 3: Prepare for implementation- Keeping contacts with the organizations or individuals for the development of strategy to ensure that the activities are staying on track and any barriers are being addressed.

Step 4: Prepare for evaluation- Evaluating the outcomes to check the feasibility.

Step 5: Make mid-course corrections based on evaluation results – Understanding the issue and making any necessary improvements to carry out sustainable practices within the hotel.

Source: Lighting wattage and consumption (Zaman and Lehmann 2013)

Environmental hazards could be caused from inappropriate disposal of wastes and hazardous substances within the hotel, leakage of water, electricity failures and emissions of harmful gases like carbon monoxide. Throwing oil in sinks and leaving highly heated ovens without any person nearby could cause serious accidents too. Identification and management of key performance indicators are essential for reducing the harmful environmental impact as well. Reduced management and recycling of wastes along with lesser use of renewable resources were few of the environmental concerns for the hotel. The wastes were disposed in open areas, which created land and water pollution too. The hazardous substances were not kept in containers or closed areas, because of which it might have hindered the safety and health of the individuals. The ovens were managed with high temperature, which was not needed actually for the cooking purposes always.

The NABERS energy and water rating system could help in maintaining the environmental and industry standards, furthermore measure and benchmark the environmental performance of Aqua Resort Busselton (Theaquaresort.com.au 2018). The accommodation based waste and sewage materials were even dumped into the nearby water bodies without any proper processing. This created health related hazards for people living nearby and resulted in an aesthetically unpleasant and unhealthy environment. Different types of taps including single level and aerating taps were used to reduce the flow of water and splashing (Melissen 2013). The electronic taps in the hotel have saved a lot of water by turning the tap off automatically as soon as the cleaning or washing purpose is finished. By connecting the dishwasher with the cold tap, the water consumption is much economical.

The areas of concerns were related to the increased pollution through the liquid and solid wastes, along with higher energy consumption and increased emission of greenhouse gases. The recycling, reusing and reduction of wastes were managed along with supply of clean air through proper ventilation to manage clean water and even save both energy and water. The environmental education and purchasing policy were provided to the staffs where they were trained about the greener approaches that should be followed. The hotel also adopted the principles of sustainable development to focus on the concerns of the customers and minimize the energy consumption, furthermore maintain minor approaches related to the reuse of linen and towels. The greener approaches also include conducting an environmental survey or audit to assess the environmental costs related to the consumption of water, energy and management of wastes. Based on the demands by the Government, the hotel should adopt greener approaches for creating less impact on the environment and at the same time, include sustainable management of water conservation, energy and ensure managing good quality of air through spreading environmental awareness too. Necessary changes and improvements should be made to manage water efficiency such as installation of WELS mixer taps to maintain a water flow rate of 6l per minute. The hot water temperature must not be set high while the cleaning practices of the staffs must be reviewed and should be kept to minimum for reducing water wastage. The Jacuzzi and swimming pool should be covered whenever not in use at Aqua Resort and the sprinklers in gardens should be set on a timer with consistent updating seasonally (Miao and Wei 2013).

The Sustainability advantage program could mitigate the risks related to the increase in costs of energy consumption and furthermore prevent green house gases to create imbalance in the environment. Minimizing the opening of oven doors and utilization of maximum heat only when necessary are mandatory to maintain thermostat accuracy and save lot of energy and electricity too. The waste bins should be replaced with recycling bins for creating lesser environment impact. The eco tourism facilities at the hotel has allowed the visitors to travel to the natural areas that conserve the environment and has improved the health and well being of people. This has not only allowed the hotel to mange sustainability measures but has also conserved the local ecosystems through maintenance of rich cultural diversity (Melissen 2013). The customers should be made aware of the hazardous substances and stay away from those, which might create harmful impacts on their health. The staff training further promoted enhancing their skills and facilitated their skills to manage greener approaches and maintain environmental sustainability too.

References

Baechler, C., DeVuono, M. and Pearce, J.M., 2013. Distributed recycling of waste polymer into RepRap feedstock. Rapid Prototyping Journal, 19(2), pp.118-125.

Hsiao, T.Y., Chuang, C.M., Kuo, N.W. and Yu, S.M.F., 2014. Establishing attributes of an environmental management system for green hotel evaluation. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 36, pp.197-208.

Melissen, F., 2013. Sustainable hospitality: a meaningful notion?. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 21(6), pp.810-824.

Sirakaya-Turk, E., Baloglu, S. and Mercado, H.U., 2014. The efficacy of sustainability values in predicting travelers’ choices for sustainable hospitality businesses. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 55(1), pp.115-126.

Theaquaresort.com.au. (2018). Luxury Accommodation Busselton | Aqua Resort. [online] Available at: https://www.theaquaresort.com.au [Accessed 25 Mar. 2018].

Xu, X. and Gursoy, D., 2015. Influence of sustainable hospitality supply chain management on customers’ attitudes and behaviors. International journal of hospitality management, 49, pp.105-116.

Zaman, A.U. and Lehmann, S., 2013. The zero waste index: a performance measurement tool for waste management systems in a ‘zero waste city’. Journal of Cleaner Production, 50, pp.123-132.

Miao, L. and Wei, W., 2013. Consumers’ pro-environmental behavior and the underlying motivations: A comparison between household and hotel settings. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 32, pp.102-112.