Saving the environment with low-cost solution

Summary
It is important to ensure that corporate environmental protection programs are
followed to the letter and spirit by customers, employees and suppliers. In the
hospitality industry, hotels, motels and resorts consume a lot of energy, water, food
and produce large amounts of trash every day. To save money, it has become an
industry trend to encourage guests to reuse towels. However, how many guests comply
with the request, assuming that hoteliers take note of that? To improve the notice to
secure the highest form of cooperation from guests, the author posted the bathroom
sign and asked for comments from their social media connections.

One commenter suggested installing an electric towel warmer cum disinfectant

that would cost from $37 to $137 a piece. The additional investment would be around
$30,000 assuming that the hotel intended to spend a volume-discounted $100 per.
However, the author failed to indicate that they were looking for a zero-cost solution
that is their kaizen and lean thinking trademark. The most important details are that
kaizen and lean thinking (or what I refer to as the Thinking People System) is all about
solving problems without spending money, and that one low-cost solution is to rewrite
the sign by requesting hotel guests to place their used towels near the ceramic wash
basin. This is based on the idea of Taiichi Ohno, a famous Japanese industrial engineer,
businessman and consultant who told people to use their brain, not the company's
money.

Problem-solving is not progress if you'll spend money for the solution, but rather
if there are low-cost and common-sense options that can be discovered with the help of
an army of problem-solvers. This is the same message that I use in my seminars on
kaizen problem-solving and decision-making.

Source and date

Elbo, R. (2023). Saving the enviroment. The Manila Times.
https://www.manilatimes.net/2023/02/07/business/top-business/saving-the-
environment-with-low-cost-solutions/1877522
Reaction

In the article “saving the environment with low-cost solution” by Rey Elbo is all
about the solution we are contributing to society’s effectiveness in business with the
cooperation of the consumers. In other terms achieving a low-cost solution wherein we
don’t have to spend big money.