The hospitality industry is finding that "going green" saves money and prevents pollution. As a step in this direction, a few hotels in the Capital have introduced eco-friendly measures like using recycled paper and herbal soaps, planting trees around the property, non-toxic herbal pest control, noise filters... One of the first hotels in the city to go green was ITC. The hotel chain has always recognised environment management as one of the highest corporate priorities. ITC Hotel The Maurya is equally committed to best environment practices and has made enviable strides since 1993 onwards in providing clean water and air, managing waste through best environment practices, ensuring safety to consumers and employees alike through active involvement. This year the hotel has taken up the cause of making the city cleaner and greener by installing the organic waste converter (OWC). This technology will help reduce the requirement of land for waste disposal thus making the city more environment-friendly. This year too, a three-kilometre trek into the ridge and planting of saplings and inauguration of OWC by Delhi chief minister will mark the World Environment Day at the hotel. The theme for the trek is "Conserve Paper, Preserve Forests" which has been organised in association with Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of NCT Delhi. The objective is to educate the public that it is everyone's responsibility to treasure our resources, save our environment and to promote aforestation. This apart, the hotel uses recycled paper stationery, herbal soaps/ small room-size portion of soaps and shampoos fitted with refillable dispensers, laundry paper bags have been discontinued and baskets lined with re-useable mats being used, coat covers made of special biodegradable plastic, cloth newspaper bags beings used. It also uses environment-friendly cleaning chemicals, noiseless vacuum cleaners, non-toxic herbal pest control, account on natural/ organic food, paperless communication system as far as possible and all hotel taxis that run on CNG. The hotel has also in place a green room concept with the entrance/ bathroom doors made of non-wood fireproof material, window frames changed from wood to metal with double glazing, shelves made of glass and metal combination, luggage racks made of granite displacing wooden ones, noise filters for rooms below 40 dB through double glazing, auto flushes, auto taps, automatic dispenser taps in the kitchen and non-CFC based refrigerators being used. Shangri-La Hotel New Delhi too has eco-friendly practices in place. Among employees, they encourage use of recycle paper, in-house awareness is driven through posters, environmental awareness is reiterated through daily briefings, regular planting of trees/plants in and around the property as per the season, associates have been instructed to undertake afforestation drives around hotel, (adjacent to the property) with the aim of adding natural beauty and greenery in and around the community, practice rainwater harvesting, reusing effluent water for irrigation after treating effluent water through ETP. The hotel claims not to be using halon gases for fighting fire and CFC gases. Bio-degradable garbage bags are used and car pool is advised among associates to reduce global warming.