Research Tips with Dr. Juliana

  Sustainability starts with reducing everyday waste When we talk about living sustainably, our minds often go straight to the things we should buy —bamboo toothbrushes, reusable bottles, organic clothing, energy-efficient appliances or solar panels. Those choices can certainly help. But sustainability also begins with something much simpler: what we choose not to waste. Every day, households generate food waste, plastic packaging, unused water, unnecessary energy consumption and other forms of waste. Globally, about 2.56 billion tonnes of municipal solid waste were generated in 2022 , according to the World Bank. Behind every item we throw away are resources that were used to produce it—land, water, energy, raw materials, labour and transportation. That means reducing waste is not simply about having a cleaner home or a tidier environment. It is also about using the resources we already have more responsibly. ...

  Hotel sustainability initiatives including solar energy, LED lighting and recycling A hotel can fit every guest room with energy-efficient LED bulbs, install solar water heaters, place recycling bins in the lobby, and ask guests to reuse their towels—and still not know whether its environmental footprint actually improved. That is the gap between doing something green and being able to demonstrate measurable sustainability performance . A hotel may genuinely invest money, time and staff effort in environmental initiatives. These actions matter. But if management cannot track energy, water, waste or greenhouse-gas emissions consistently, it becomes difficult to determine whether those initiatives are producing meaningful operational improvements. In sustainable hospitality, the question is therefore not simply, “What green initiatives do you have?” A better question is: “What does your data show?” Looking Green vs. Being Measurably Sustainable Visible sustainability initi...

By Dr. Juliana Philip Ndalnamu Walk into almost any hotel today and you'll find the same laminated card propped against the bathroom mirror: "Help us save the planet, reuse your towel." It's a familiar ritual of modern travel, repeated in thousands of properties across the world. And it feels good. Guests nod along, hotels print it on their websites and everyone leaves believing something meaningful just happened for the environment. But here's the uncomfortable truth I've arrived at after years of researching sustainable hospitality: towel reuse is not sustainability. It's theatre. What My Research Has Revealed Over the past few years, my research has focused on understanding and estimating the environmental impacts of hospitality operations within the Nigerian context. Through my work on carbon footprint assessments in hotels, one finding has consistently emerged: The greatest environmental impacts are rarely the most visible ones. While many ho...