Green initiatives continue to spearhead sustainable tourism
IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group), the world’s largest hotel company by number of rooms, received the Eco-lodging Award at the China Hotel Investment Summit (CHIS) 2009. The award demonstrates an industry-wide recognition of the company’s pioneering initiatives and long-term commitment to operating and maintaining sustainable hotels across the region.
The CHIS Eco-lodging Award was created to honour operators and owners of existing environmentally friendly hotels and recently completed green hotel projects. As a part of the CHIS tradition, nominees from the Asia Pacific hospitality industry were invited to attend and a selection was subsequently conducted.
“We are deeply honoured that our efforts and initiatives to save energy and protect the environment have being recognised by the industry,” said Tony South, chief development officer, IHG Asia Pacific. “It inspires us to continue focusing our development on ways to better design, build and run our hotels in more intelligent and sustainable ways. In addition, guests have told us that they want to stay in hotels with great environmental credentials and that provide them with a level of well-being.”
IHG has an array of industry-leading initiatives launched throughout its over 4,100 hotels across the globe. They include:
– ‘Green Engage’ – an on-line system which will help hotel general managers measure and manage energy consumption more effectively.
– ‘Innovation Hotel’ – an online example of what a future hotel might look like if it used new green technologies. Guests can provide feedback on which of these they feel are important, allowing IHG to consider how they can be implemented as part of the Green Engage programme.
– Examples of IHG eco-friendly hotel projects include:
– InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa’s building specifications include the world’s deepest underwater pipeline, which feeds cold sea water to an environmentally friendly air-conditioning system. The system reduces the hotel’s electricity consumption for air-conditioning by 90 per cent.
– Crowne Plaza Guangzhou Science City China has an environmentally friendly architectural design that utilises natural lighting and wide glass ceilings, solar panels for outdoor lighting and water heating, as well as a rainwater recycling system.
– Crowne Plaza Changi Airport’s carbon-fiber-mesh exterior naturally cools the structure by blocking 60 per cent of the sun’s rays.
– Crowne Plaza Alice Springs has the largest building mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) system in the Southern Hemisphere.
– 200 newly built Holiday Inn hotel prototypes currently open or under construction globally use 30 per cent fewer materials to build and require 20 percent less energy to operate than earlier version hotels.
“With over 4,100 hotels globally, IHG has a great responsibility and a tremendous opportunity to make a positive difference. Small incremental changes across all of our hotels can make a significant impact.” South added.
Karen
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