Glass half full: A sustainability lesson from Saul the waiter

One of the highlights from last week’s Fortune Brainstorm Green was during a morning breakout session titled “The Business of Water,” which was led by Jib Ellison of Blu Skye Consulting. While the panel participants were qualified and interesting, it’s almost impossible to have that big of a conversation in just an hour unless it has a defined focus.   

The conversation flowed (sorry) around big topics such as innovation and investment opportunities, the likelihood of water crises in the US, the dependence upon water for energy production, and the need to ozonate rather than chlorinate.

But it quickly became quite real-world, when Saul (not his real name) from the Ritz Carlton wait staff, who had been quietly picking up plates of cold scrambled eggs, interrupted the conversation and asked if he could say something to the group. Saul praised his employer’s absolute dedication to customer service, and recognized that full water glasses at every place setting are the “proper” way to lay a table. But he also pointed out the hotel’s waste of water – especially at breakfast when the majority of people drink coffee or orange juice, not water.  He talked about the irony of dumping the water out and then using more water to wash the unused glass.  Saul said he has raised this issue repeatedly, but protocol and service seem to consistently trump environmental concerns.

(image via theowl84 on Flickr)

This is not to bash the Ritz Carlton, which has a promising program called Community Footprints dedicated to environmental and social responsibility.  And certainly, we’ve all witnessed this practice across many respected hotel groups.  Instead, the point is that after Saul presented his case, and the conversation returned to the formal agenda, the participants in the room started not one, but two hand-written petitions to the Ritz management asking them to change the water policy to be “on demand.” Almost everyone in the room signed one of them.

Three hours later at the lunch service, the water glasses were empty and filled only upon request. Imagine if we were at a point in time where a social contract could be constructed so easily and guilelessly, and the immediacy of group action could produce such swift resource-saving results. Granted it’s not always as easy as filling a water glass, but it’s not always that hard either.