Has it occurred to you that all of the festivity, relaxing and romancing you get in the candles you utilize might be harming your health as well as the health of people who frequent your hotel or B&B? The wax on most candles is manufactured out of petroleum, so burning it is like having a tiny diesel engine running right in beside you. And also the wicks on standard candles often contain lead cores — wii thing to breathe while your candle burns. Scents utilized in most perfumed candles have impacts on health too. Sorry to take you down like that, however, I do involve some healthy options to suggest.

Eco-friendly candles are generally a proper candle alternative. The 3 choices to consider are beeswax candles, 100 percent soy candles, and palm oil candles. You may love these candles for many reasons including:

* they burn clean(er)

* when they drip of spill, the wax is simpler to completely clean up

* burn time is longer

* brighter flames

* renewable resources

Candles have provided light for over five thousand years. Originally these were produced from animal fat and produced plenty of smoke and order (stench by today’s standards). Beeswax candles have been in existence for a long period. Beeswax candles made their entrance on the scene in the centre Ages and stayed popular until electric light took within the job of lighting the way in which in early 1900s. It’s interesting to see how candles have evolved through the years.

There’ve for ages been issues around burning candles, not counting the open flame hazards. Eco-friendly candles have their particular issues of some type or another. There are many issues that are crucial in this discussion.

1. GM (Genetically Modified) crops: It is important to take into account the consequences of genetically modified crops’ effects about the environment and agriculture. This is mostly associated with soy candles.

2. Distillation Process: Are chemicals used, or steam?

3. Plantation Crops: Plantation crops can threaten rain forests because they eliminate biodiversity, degrade soil, as well as bringing up issues of land rights and local peoples’ rights. Palm oil plantations may be culprits here.

4. Chemicals: Are pesticides or herbicides used?

So that it seems you change one issue for an additional — health of people versus potential environmental harm. Appears like a poor trade in a lot of ways, right? For me, no it’s not as bad as it looks if you make the right changes.

Beeswax candles are expensive enough that many hospitality venues probably will not get them, so I’m going to ignore them in the balance with this discussion. That leaves plantation (palm oil) and GM (soy) issues.

I really believe that GM crops are a serious threat to agriculture and future food sources. When seeds of GM crops are sterile, unable to supply for future crops, this forces us to count on the companies that created those plants, creating food monopolies and potential advantages for more strife. So I see GM being an important and simple issue to prevent — do not buy things that are produced from GM crops.

Most soy is a GM crop. I’m able to reduce, a small bit, the interest in that GM crop by not buying they. And because most they certainly are a mixture of petroleum and soy, it is really an even better reason to add they to my list of products to prevent buying. I urge you to do exactly the same. Palm oil, not a GM crop, makes sense here.

Then you have the distillation issue. Choosing steam distillation over chemical distillation may seem like a no-brainer if you ask me. Both cost and damage are increased by counting on chemical distillation, leaving steam distillation the clear winner i believe. That again points to palm oil as the preferred ingredient for candles. Soy requires chemical distillation, rendering it again a less than desirable option.

What about plantations and also the problems they cause? Indeed, this can be a major problem. But it’s getting better to support programs that don’t put pressure on individuals to reduce jungles to monocrop plants which they think is likely to make them more money. Saving the rainforests is essential for many reasons. Just how can we avoid encouraging more damage?

In the case of palm oil plantations, it’s carried out by the Green Palm Sustainability program. This can be a certificate trading program made to tackle the environmental and social problems produced by producing palm oil, a lot like Carbon Credits reduce carbon damage in the world. It’s depending on the principle that the simplest way to encourage people to operate in the sustainable strategy is to give them a break for doing this. The Green Palm Sustainability program is endorsed through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil.

Another plus to using palm oils is they certainly are a highly efficient oil producer. About Fifty percent of a palm fruit is oil, which means it takes less land (significantly less according to some sources I just read) than other oil-producing crops. With soy and palm oils creating about 60 percent with the world’s production of oil crops, properly managed palm plantations can increase the supply of healthy candles without harming the environment and ecosystems where they’re grown.

Pesticide and herbicide me is another anxiety about some oil crop production. Soy is really a heavy user of these chemicals. Oil palms are not.

My studies have lead me to believe that buying palm oil candles of certified sustainable palm oil are environmentally friendly. Certified sustainable palm oil is produced at palm oil plantations that have been independently audited, and found to comply with the globally decided environmental standards devised through the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). Their standards have stringent sustainability criteria that include good social, environmental, and economic practices. The proceeds from Green Palm certificate sales encourage plantations to continually strive for improvements that ultimately cause a rise in producing sustainable palm oil with social, environmental and economic benefits in their mind and their communities.

Section of as a green hospitality business is paying attention to the 3Ps (People, Profit, Planet) of sustainability, at your property and also the suppliers you employ and the products you get. Buying palm oil candles from companies who have the Green Palm Sustainability seal is an additional easy step you are able to take toward your time and effort of sustainability.

Get greener when you purchase unscented, palm oil candles and improve your health which of your guests. Use dinner candles, and candles for almost any situation which you as well as your guests desire to be more special.

* Sage Blossom Consulting *

Sustainable Hospitality Is Our Business

Kit Cassingham