How to create a lean, green hotel machine

Is green the new black in the world of hospitality and can hotels push the boundaries of sustainability while keeping costs low? Kathi Everden assesses the extent of environmental measures underway in the Middle East hotel sector

As a snapshot of commitment to the environment of the region’s hospitality sector, look at the number of Middle East hotels registered with the UN-backed EarthCheck, designed to benchmark and certify green properties — there are four Gulf members, all in Dubai, plus a further 21 in Egypt.

This compares with the figures from five years ago, when only one hotel in Dubai qualified as well as 14 in Egypt.

It’s a poor showing, although perhaps indicative of fewer moves towards certification than actual commitment to the environment — and omits corporate strategy of the global groups.

Indeed, there is great confusion regarding benchmarking, with several different systems in play, including Green Key, EarthCheck and Green Globe, and even at official levels there is still need for more clarification, with the International Tourism Partnership and World Travel & Tourism Council last month announcing a new initiative to standardise calculations on carbon measurements to help boost efforts to reduce the much publicised carbon footprint of travelling.

“Many hotel chains globally have set carbon reduction targets,” said WTTC president, David Scowsill. “Through this initiative the industry is furthering its commitment to corporate and individual consumers by helping them to understand their carbon footprint.”

And, while not located locally, it is heartening that the first carbon neutral hotel worldwide is the Emirates’ owned and operated Wolgan Valley Resort & Spa in Australia, certified as such for the second year when it achieved a surplus of carbon credits.

The resort capitalised on sustainability practices at Al Maha in Dubai, arguably the first green hotel in the region, and was nominated by WTTC as an outstanding case study in the blueprint for future eco-friendly tourism.

Overall, however, the regional hospitality sector has been slow to adapt green principles, even down to the very natural conversion to solar power that the climate might have mandated.

“The Middle East does have some catching up to do when compared to more developed markets, and it’s incredibly important that all government and big corporate organisations commit time and resources to improve on the green initiatives in the region … but it is changing, and at Rezidor we hope we are leading the way,” says area VP, Marko Hytönen.

Not only is sustainability a win-win situation — saving both energy and money — but it is increasingly necessary as consumers are demanding proof of sustainability credentials.

A recent survey by TUI Travel in eight major markets revealed that one in two holidaymakers would book a more sustainable holiday if it were readily available, while two in three would change their behaviour while away if it helped the environment.
As a result, TUI UK, for instance, has set a target for 90% of the hotels that are featured in its holiday programmes to be Travelife certified by 2014.

A survey by TripAdvisor in the US, meanwhile, revealed that nearly half of respondents would take eco-friendly factors in to consideration when making travel plans and a MindClick SGM survey of members of the Association of Corporate Travel Planners revealed that 65% were in various stages of implementing green business travel guidelines.

Global initiatives
For the global hotel community, this impetus has fuelled a plethora of worthy initiatives, many of which are gravitating towards the Middle East.

One of the leaders in the field, Banyan Tree, has a wider agenda, with a wildlife relocation programme at the Banyan Tree Al Wadi, as well as involvement in a wetland facility, employment of an environmental scientist to run educational initiatives, water recycling and desert irrigation, as well as a programme that has reduced solid waste disposal by 65% in as little as nine months.

Hyatt, meanwhile, has its Hyatt Earth programme to measure environmental performance and enable the introduction of goals to reduce water and energy use, and reduction in waste and gas emissions by 2015 by between 20 and 25%, via the EcoTrack web-based tracking tool — the Grand Hyatt Dubai uses condensation from air-conditioning units in cooling towers to save 30,000 gallons of water per day, for instance.

Four Seasons, to celebrate its 50th year, has announced a global commitment to plant 10 million trees (including helping enlarging the Cedars of Lebanon forests).

The group also offers environment-friendly options for meetings and events, including local printing and seasonal local menus, and among regional initiatives, the Four Seasons Riyadh has installed water savers, recycled old towels and sheets and installed new hot boilers and steam boilers to reduce carbon emissions, while the Amman hotel has planted 2000 trees, regionalised purchasing where possible, recycled leftover baked goods for animal feed and vegetable frying oil for detergent manufacturing.

The Sharm-El-Sheikh resort has introduced a light dimming system, an on-site sewage treatment plant for recycling waste water for irrigation and is to switch from diesel and LPG to natural gas next year.

Fairmont, too, has a green focus with its Green Partnership that includes Eco-Meet programmes covering food, accommodation and services, plus a new move to Green Key certify all group hotels and a sustainable design policy bringing in LEED principles for new hotels.

It also has a carbon management strategy in place to monitor emissions, and individual hotels such as the Fairmont Nile City arrange grease recycling, charity redistribution of household goods and food and elimination of disposable items.

Green is now in the DNA of Marriott, and director of engineering and green guru, Wael Farouk, a past winner of the Hotelier Middle East Green Hotelier Award, is bringing the company’s ‘ECHO’ principles on conservation to Dubai in the UAE.

“Around 100 tons of materials are recycled from all Marriott hotels in Dubai every year, and we have achieved our goal of 2% savings of energy annually,” says Farouk.

“Private companies are taking our recycled items paying AED 250 (US $68) per metric tonne for paper and plastic and AED 500 ($136) per metric tonne for cans and metals, so we have a win-win scenario making money out of recycling and saving money by reducing trash — we are proud to have reduced by half the amount of trash removed during the past four years.”

Organic gardens, tree planting, Environmental Awareness months and more are on the agenda, while LEED construction is a priority for new hotels as Marriott became the first group to launch a green hotel prototype pre-approved by the US Green Building Council, with the first Courtyard property opening early next year in the US.

Of the major European chains, Accor claims to be in the forefront of the green movement, winning the WTTC’s 2010 Tourism for Tomorrow Award for its global sustainability strategy as well as a fistful of other recognition following its Earth Guest programme set up five years ago.

“Our Accor Environment Charter is very much part of our commitment to owners and investors in the region, comprising 65 actions that hotels are doing to reduce their environmental impact — we work hand in hand with owners during construction to propose tailor-made tools and eco-friendly solutions which result in huge energy savings — retrocom audits can also improve energy performance and require no investment,” says regional managing director, Christophe Landais.

Accor is also moving to offer green meeting options in its regional hotels, while Landais says it is already able to provide corporate customers with precise results on their carbon footprint when guests are booking a room night or organising a meeting.

Interestingly, the group is also incentivising its GMs to reach green standards: “Those who achieve or surpass set objectives such as energy saving platforms are given additional monetary compensations,” says Olivier Hick, director of operations Accor ME, explaining that all the Pullman and Novotel hotels are aiming to have EarthCheck certification by next year.

Value of certifications
Meanwhile, Rezidor too has green priorities, with nearly half of its hotels globally certified to Green Key or other eco-labels: “We have been monitoring energy, waste and water consumption for 10 years, and last year achieved a 12% waste reduction per guest night at Radisson Blu properties and an 8% decrease for Park Inn hotels,” says director of responsible business, Inge Huijbrechts.

In the region, Rezidor claims to be the first international hotel chain to have all hotels across all brands certified by an independent eco-label: “All of the new hotels will be certified within six months of officially opening,” explains area VP Hytönen.

Another chain majoring on certification is Mövenpick, moving fast in the Middle East with all of its 23 hotels here aiming for Green Globe status by the end of the year.
“Generally, the total cost of certification varies between $8000 to $12,000,” says regional VP operations, Gerard Hotelier.

“The certified properties are definitely benefiting by achieving substantial operational savings, and also will answer needs of both corporate and leisure business.”

Cost savings have been underlined by Farnek Avireal which has a five-year Middle East licensing agreement with Green Globe and is assisting properties to meet the 248 standards set out by them.

“All Mövenpick hotels have access to our energy benchmark auditing system which uses internet-based software ‘hotel optimiser’ to calculate CO2 emissions,” says Farnek Avireal general manager, Markus Oberlin, who pointed out that hotels in the region traditionally produced double the amount of CO2 emissions compared with European properties, while using nearly triple the amount of water per guest.

“We estimate that a hotel such as the Mövenpick Tala Bay, for instance, could reduce its carbon emissions by more than 6,250 tonnes annually, while reduced energy consumption could save an average 250-bedroom hotel around $5 per room-night.”

At the Mövenpick El Gouna — recognised by Kuoni-Apollo as the most ‘sustainability conscious’ hotel in its programme — general manager John Wood says that the attitude of developer Orascom has been instrumental in assisting with green initiatives.

“The destination is setting new benchmark standards with 96% of waste from El Gouna hotels and community being recycled, with the goal of zero landfill — organic waste is fed to animals and processed in compost fields, while plastic is shredded and processed to make plastic hangers and garbage bags,” says Wood.

Home grown solutions
Global groups may have been making the running, but regional chains are getting in on the act too, with Rotana, for instance, installing LED lights, solar panels, motion sensors, room management systems and more.

“We strongly believe sustainability is the future and is certainly a USP for a hotel once operating,” says CEO Selim El Zyr. “We have begun introducing green standards in to our minimum brand specifications that will see energy management technology employed across all new properties — with existing hotels following closely behind.”

With the ECOS green brand under development, HMH too is committed to sustainable principles, according to president and CEO, Michel Noblet: “Upon formation of the company, our first objective was to create environmental standards across all our hotels as well as stimulate employee volunteerism,” he said.

“We have implemented effective water and energy saving schemes in many of the properties including innovative technology to help reduce water usage by 20 to 30% as well as enhanced refrigerant management, solar panels, and automatic lighting shut-off controls.”

Over at Jumeirah, a carbon-footprint baseline was established in 2008, and the group is now working actively to reduce this: “We believe that what cannot be measured, cannot be managed,” says Mike O’Connor, VP technical services. “Ownership of energy consumption has shifted from engineering to individual consumption cost centres.

“Jumeirah is in discussions with Green Globe to achieve accreditation and in addition, we have published sustainable guidelines for new developments, in line with LEED guidelines, to be adhered to by developers and owners.”

Pilot projects are also being undertaken with ‘green’ products and once evaluated, these will be implemented across Dubai properties, while Madinat Jumeirah has become the first UAE hotel to implement the Bokashi compost programme, recycling raw food waste using an anaerobic process to provide organic compost for the resort’s gardens.

Jumeirah has also looked to the seas with a turtle rehabilitation programme that has released more than 500 rescued sea turtles back in to the Gulf.

Government support
A variety of tourism boards are now pushing hotels to deliver green credentials. Abu Dhabi has prioritised green standards as a USP for its evolving tourism product, with the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority mandating all hotels and hotel apartments to operate under an over-riding Environment, Health and Safety Management System (EHSMS) with targets for reduction in energy and water consumption (10% and 20%) and the waste sent to landfill (20%).

According to ADTA tourism standards director, Nasser Al Reyami, sustainability is now an essential part of the world-class tourism experience: “Abu Dhabi’s challenging climate coupled with its emergence as a high-end tourism destination provides us with an excellent opportunity to develop our own environmentally-responsible tourism offerings,” he says. “Sustainability is part of our strategic vision.”

As well as an in-house team to supervise development in this area, ADTA has conducted a series of Green Hotel workshops to showcase best practices, assisted with retraining of hotel staff in environmentally-friendly work practices, and will now be looking at other areas including the operations of desert camps.

All hotels will ranked for their green credentials but new properties will be ahead of the game with opportunities to build in sustainable operations.

At the new Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi, general manager Stuart Deeson says architects implemented many features at the design stage so that green standards were naturally part of the hotel: “Through adoption of green building guidelines, we have been able to set benchmarks that only a few existing hotels can meet”.

The hotel is one of the few properties in the final stage of becoming an LEED-certified luxury hotel — among its green features are the use of natural light through skylights in 75% of the building; capture of prevailing winds for ventilation; 50% dry wadi landscaping to reduce water consumption; coated double glazing to cut heating and cooling loads, and solar panels which cut energy costs by 75%.

“These sustainable measures will pay us back in the long-term, not only in reduced water and energy costs but increased interest from today’s discerning travellers — our global accounts are telling us their goal is to find a hotel company with green initiatives in place,” adds Deeson.

Green achievements at a glance
• Grand Hyatt Dubai cut diesel fuel consumption by 33% through the installation of solar panels.

• Jordan Valley Marriott Dead Sea officially switched to solar panel energy in 2009 with 275 roof-top panels which saved 67% on diesel bills in the first week of operation. This system, installed by Millennium Energy Industries, was expected to pay for itself within four years and was commissioned in eight weeks, without disruption to hotel operations during that period.

• Banyan Tree Al Wadi has launched a programme that has reduced solid waste disposal by a massive 65% in just nine months.

• Four Seasons Damascus has added a ‘software switch’ to its Building Management System to reduce A/C energy usage and is focusing on solar energy for the future

• Fairmont Bab Al Bahr has an energy management system and is working on heat recovery and retrofits as well as supporting more locally sourced product purchasing.

• Under Accor’s Plant for the Planet initiative, savings from reduced laundry costs are split between financing employee training schemes and seven reforestation projects around the world — three million trees are planned by next year.

• Last year, Rezidor achieved a 12% waste reduction per guest night at Radisson Blu properties and an 8% decrease for Park Inn hotels.

• All of Mövenpick’s 23 hotels in the Middle East are aiming for Green Globe status by the end of the year.

• Madinat Jumeirah has become the first UAE hotel to implement the Bokashi compost programme, recycling raw food waste using an anaerobic process to provide organic compost for the resort’s gardens.

• Pullman Mall of the Emirates has achieved EarthCheck status, with most energy saving technology installed at the initial construction phase, including efficient chillers, structured cabling for the BMS as well as water circulation controls etc.

• At Dusit Thani Dubai, Earth Check certification helps achieve and maintain good environmental and social practice — a lot of travellers in Western countries are particular about environmentally friendly hotels says Johnny Ding, director of engineering.

More information:
Accor’s Earth Guest Research

Accor has made its guest survey on green expectations available to other industry players — Earth Guest Research is available on www.accor.com and contains the results of research in six markets (Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany and the UK) across various hotel types and segments.

Among the findings: men are more concerned with green issues than women (82% v. 72%), business guests are more concerned with susainability than leisure guests; while reducing water and energy consumption, and waste, were ranked as priorities.

Accor is now planning to share its environmental footprint with its peers — the assessment has included all of the group’s 4200 hotels and this, plus lessons learned from the hotel guest tracking study, will impact on Accor’s new sustainable development strategy, which is being launched this autumn.