“The use of digital chemical dispensers for the laundry and kitchen equipment has contributed to savings in the chemical consumptions,” explains Celiloglu. “Also, dispensers for shampoo and body gel are increasingly used in the guest bathrooms instead of using small plastic bottles to store them,” he adds. Such steps have reduced waste volumes and their resultant disposal costs.
Rezidor is now considering further technologies. “The deployment of solar energy in domestic water heating has been considered in many of our properties; in addition, grey water systems based on re-using the waste water coming from the guest bathrooms are being strongly considered in our ongoing hotel projects,” reports Celiloglu.
The benefits of solar power are already being gained at Six Senses Hideaway Zighy Bay in Oman, where a solar thermal system is used to produce hot water. “It is a very cost-effective exercise, which gives great savings from hot water products,” explains Zighy Bay social and environmental conscience officer Arnfinn Oines. “We are now more and more looking into creating electricity [from solar sources] as well — the ROI is great, though it varies from destination to destination depending on electricity prices,” reports Oines.
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The firm has taken several approaches to water conservation including conventional waste water treatment plants using gravel filtration, aeration systems and aerobic digesters, and more natural measures such as wet land and reed beds. At Six Senses Zighy Bay the waste water treatment system has been combined with a reed bed to provide irrigation water.
RETROFITTING
Not all hotels are in the fortunate position of Zighy Bay, which was built around Six Senses environmental conscience from the start. But existing hotels have plenty of options to improve their energy efficiency through retrofitting.
Efforts to optimise energy use at Dubai’s Hyatt Regency Hotel have been ongoing since the hotel opened nearly 30 years ago. “Energy consumption at the hotel from 1981 to today has dropped despite the addition of new and additional equipment and technologies,” reports Shakoor. “This has been achieved by installing a BMS; automated control of the air conditioning systems; and sometimes by the [updating of] equipment, for example 50W halogen lamps have been replaced by 5W LED lamps; these give 30,000 hrs instead of 3000 hours operation and the labour cost for maintenance is reduced,” Shakoor explains.
The installation of a reverse osmosis plant at the firm’s sister hotel Park Hyatt has been so successful that it will now be emulated at the Regency. As well as water savings, low maintenance is one of the major benefits of this system, according to Shakoor: “It doesn’t need much attention and the suppliers give back-up,” he explains.
Future plans for the hotel include the application of heat reflecting films to the windows. With extensive areas of glazing on the Hyatt Regency, minimising solar gain is one way in which air conditioning loads can be greatly reduced. A trial period involved applying different films to five different rooms and monitoring the effect of each, explains Shakoor. With the results now analysed, the final film has been chosen and is due to be applied throughout the hotel.
“Last year we saved 14% of our total energy use by fine-tuning equipment throughout the hotel, which equates to AED 1.4 million,” reports Shakoor. “We are targeting a further 5% saving this year, with 3% achieved so far, and are looking for a further 10% next year if we put in the water plant,” he adds. To ensure this is achieved, a staff member is employed full-time to monitor energy and water use on a daily basis. “By monitoring daily, if the water use suddenly shoots up due to a leak it can be found immediately; if we don’t monitor use then it may not show up until the next bill arrives, by which time the damage is done,” stresses Shakoor.
The efforts of the FM and engineering teams at the Hyatt properties have seen them receive several awards including Emirates Environmental Group Glass Recycling Awards and Recognition for Electricity and Water Conservation by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA). The latest accolade came from the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, which recently announced the Park Hyatt as winner of the Dubai Green Tourism Award for 2009.
The engineering team at sister hotel, the Grand Hyatt Dubai has successfully applied a large number of sustainable engineering systems throughout the hotel and has yet more planned for the future. Existing solutions include a system of treating Municipality effluent water for cooling tower make-up that provides cost savings of 75% and a reduction of 50,000 gallons a day of potable water consumption. A solar thermal system is used to provide heating for hot water boilers, reducing the amount of time that the hotel’s diesel-fired boilers must run. This saves 250,000 gallons of diesel a year reports Grand Hyatt Dubai property manager Philip Barnett.
Further savings include 22% power achieved by kvar motor optimisation; 12-15% savings by use of an Enerkeeper hybrid trafo power saver; and the replacement of 60W incandescent bulbs with 18W energy saving alternatives.
A solar bollard installation is currently at the testing stage and condensate recovery system is in progress, says Barnett. The later is expected to produce savings of 20,000 gallons/day by recycling water collected from the large air handling units for reuse as cooling tower make-up. A laundry water recycling system; grey water treatment for toilet flush; chiller optimisation unit; and water-to-water heat pump for the pool heating are all planned.
Meanwhile, in Oman, Park Inn Muscat regards sustainability as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR). As such it has a CSR committee that meets monthly to drive initatives such as energy conservation methods. The second hotel in the Middle East to win the Green Globe award (after The Palace — The Old Town in Dubai) it undertakes a number of initiatives according to Rezidor policies.
“The benefits [gained] are saving electricity with less than two years payback on investment; saving on water consumption with less than a year payback on investment; and saving on waste management by organising the waste collection trips as per the requirement,” says chief engineer Pawar.
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