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  3. Hotels eager to satisfy the growing desire of business travelers for eco-fri

Hotels eager to satisfy the growing desire of business travelers for eco-fri

游客2024-05-16  54
问题     Hotels eager to satisfy the growing desire of business travelers for eco-friendly lodging are finding that their environmental ambitions have run headlong into the harsh realities of the recession.
    When the economy was thriving, developers were promoting environmental flourishes like roof gardens, floors of reclaimed wood and solar panels. When the Orchard Garden Hotel opened in San Francisco in 2006, it featured furniture made from sustainably grown wood. But now, with reduced operating budgets, hotel owners are putting off the kind of sweeping projects that were common during the bull market and instead focusing on smaller environmental initiatives that don’t cost as much and may even save money at the same time.
    The lodging industry is still working its way through a prolonged slump. Hotel occupancy rates have recovered a bit from the trough (低谷) of 2009, especially at business hotels in big cities. But they remain depressed over all, and average occupancy for all domestic hotels in the second quarter was 60.7 percent, compared with the 69.3 percent the industry enjoyed in the third quarter of 2000, according to STR Global. This makes it extraordinarily difficult for hotels to pay for big-ticket green renovations, especially with a tight credit market. This curb on green projects comes even as a growing number of corporations are reviewing a hotel’s green credentials when they try to obtain bids for contracts. In a business climate where trips and meetings are subject to greater scrutiny, companies are "really trying to look like good corporate citizens," said Nancy J. Wilson, principal of MeetGreen, a company that plans events along eco-friendly guidelines.
    The technology company Cisco asks hotels about several areas of environmental awareness, like recycling protocol (协议), the use of eco-friendly housecleaning products and water conservation. Those with programs addressing at least five categories are identified on the company’s in-house travel booking tool with a green leaf symbol, said Pam Honeycutt, Cisco’s travel manager for the Americas and Europe.
    Evaluating a hotel’s operational impact on the environment is difficult given the lack of an industry standard, she said. "There’s not one definition of what a green hotel would be," she said. To address this demand without going into the red, hotels are looking at what Mr. Faulstick calls "low-hanging fruit". Lacking the capital to sink into big expensive retrofits (翻新), hotels are turning to small-scale conservation programs that will satisfy corporate buyers. As a bonus, many of these programs also reduce their energy and water bills. [br] If a company has higher environmental awareness, it will be allowed to paste on its travel booking tool with______.
选项
答案 a green leaf symbol
解析 细节归纳题。本题考查具有较高环保意识的企业可能获得的奖励。第四段第二句指出，那些积极参与至少五个类别项目的公司将被获准在该公司的内部旅行预订工具上张贴绿叶标志。积极参与至少五个类别项目的公司已经算得上是环保意识较高的企业，他们就可以获准在内部旅行预订工具上张贴绿叶标志，由此确定答案为a green leaf symbol。
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