Exclusive: New Rotana Earth to be rolled out

Rotana Hotels has launched a new sustainability programme set to be rolled out across all 47 of its Middle East properties.

Called Rotana Earth, the programme sets targets for reduction of energy in all areas, from laundries and lighting through to waste management and printing.

Speaking at a Hotelier Middle East roundtable, area GM Northen Emirates Thomas Tapken said: “We are rolling out a corporate strategy... we are in the process. We are setting the guidelines and they are now finalised. We are monitored by an outside company and we are rolling it out now to the properties.

“All Rotana hotels are being fitted out step by step at the moment with LED lights, which has a major impact on electricity consumption,” he added.

At corporate level, the head quarters in Abu Dhabi have already implemented several sustainable practices, while all hotels now have an environment, health and safety manager to help drive the success of Rotana Earth.

Major savings have already been made at Beach Rotana Abu Dhabi, which has entirely changed how it manages waste and uses printers.

General manger Jorg A. Hauri said: “We have a monthly saving from AED 15,000 to AED 20,000 with laundry as an example. If you talk about utilities, we had a saving of over AED 800,000 and this year it is anticipated to be AED 1.5 million savings…there is no sacrifice to the customer; only looking after waste.

“Another example is a project we started last year – we changed the printing solution, we combined departments. We have 560 computers in the hotel, so that is quite a lot of computers. Over the last six months, now on paper and cartridges alone we have a saving of AED350,000. Of course, we had to invest AED650,000 for new printers. Now no one has their own individual printers anymore, they all use stations... and it works, it’s an amazing thing and in less than two years we have the return on investment back in our pockets,” said Hauri.