Benefit the Community While Improving Your Eco-Rating With Soap for Hope
One of the things guests love the most about hotels is the convenience they provide. Guests never have to worry about forgetting your soap or shampoo while travelling because your room is always stocked with everything you need. But what happens to the rest of that bar of soap once that guest has checked out?
Soap for Hope Canada, is a non-profit, Canadian registered charity that began on Vancouver Island in 2015 to help Community Facilities (including shelters, food banks, people fleeing fire & flood, refugees, Indigenous Nations, schools, and seniors) in the community with hygiene and linen needs.
Many shelters have little to no budget for hygiene products. This means that if they need to buy soap, then this money must be diverted from food or other essential programs. Soap for Hope Canada donates hygiene products from hotels to help solve this problem without shelters having to sacrifice budget from other important areas. In 2021, they diverted over 53,000 pounds of used products from the landfill and distributed 1.2 million products to local Community Facilities in need. They can do this because of hotels like yours.
Green Key Global is proud to represent Soap for Hope Canada as one of their vendors. Partnering with Soap for Hope will help you improve your eco-rating and help those in need. By diverting hygiene products such as shampoos, bar soaps and lotions that would normally be thrown into the trash, Soap for Hope have been able to help homeless individuals regain their dignity and health while protecting the environment. This initiative will improve your performance in Solid Waste Management and Community Outreach areas of your assessment, improving your overall eco-rating. This also directly aligns with the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as laid out by the United Nations, Climate Action and Partnerships for the Goals.
Initiatives like these are something that should be shared with your guests, bring them along on your sustainability journey. Not only will they love the convenience of the bar of soap in their room, but they will also appreciate the impact it will have on the community. Contact us at Green Key Global for help in marketing your sustainability efforts and attracting guests with sustainability.
Key Benefits:
- Rapidly boost your eco-rating – they provide clear annual data for your ESG, Green Key Global and CSR goals.
- Provides a differentiating factor in a competitive marketplace to serve discerning guests (80% indicate they choose accommodation with environment in mind).
- Support local hygiene and linen needs in your community – they serve where they collect.
- Increase staff morale and job satisfaction – staff are proud to throw less waste away and be part of the solution.
- Lost & found items are redirected in a socially conscious way.
- Reduce waste collection costs.
- Reduce staff time in determining where these valuable amenities can go (hygiene, linen, lost & found).
- Positive social impact.
- They provide bins and staff training.
- Rapid response time – You call, they pickup.
- Recognition of your contribution on Soap for Hope Canada media.
How the Program Works:
Soap for Hope Canada collects gently used and unused soap, hygiene products, linens, and lost & found items from the hotel industry that would otherwise be discarded. Their volunteers reprocess these items and redistribute to those in need. The program diverts hundreds of thousands of pounds of waste from landfills and meets urgent local community needs for hygiene and linen products.
Your hotel is provided with Soap for Hope Canada bins. You fill them with your hygiene amenities, linens, and lost & found items. When those bins are full, you call them to schedule a pick-up. They take your full bins and give you new replacement bins. They send you an annual report on the quantity of waste you diverted from landfill. You make a lasting local difference in your community.
Partnering with Soap for Hope can also have a direct impact on your eco-rating at Green Key Global as it aligns with some of our main areas of performance, including Community Outreach and Solid Waste Management. This means that simply partnering with Soap for Hope you are improving your eco-rating by helping the community, as well as reducing waste at your hotel.
Donations Accepted
- Hygiene Amenities: They accept empty, full, and partially used shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and body lotion bottles. They also accept used and unused bars of soap.
- Linens: They collect your “retired” linens including slippers, bath robes, pillows, pillowcases, sheets, duvets, duvet covers, bathmats, mattress covers, towels, blankets, and face cloths. They kindly ask that you wash and fold these linens before donating them.
- Lost & Found Items: They collect all your lost & found items including clothing, water bottles, shoes, hair products and suitcases – if it is left behind and unclaimed, they will repurpose it for you.
- Other Items: If your hotel has items that are no longer useful but still has plenty of life, we will take them off your hands. This includes TVs, lamps, and some furnishings (just call to confirm).
Pricing:
The Soap for Hope Canada program is $1 per room per month (billed monthly) or $8 per room per year (billed annually). The annual cost of your hotel becoming a Caring Community Partner is $8 x your number of rooms.
“The Wickaninnish Inn team is proud to be a Soap For Hope Canada hotel partner as it helps us repurpose unused soaps, shampoos, conditioners and linen while helping improve the quality of life for vulnerable communities worldwide.”
Izabela Elias – Marketing and Sales Manager of Wickaninnish Inn
More information on Soap for Hope can be found here.
Follow Soap for Hope on social media
Instagram @soapforhopecanadayyj