UNWTO Launches Energy Efficiency Project
UNWTO has launched a new project leading to at least 20% overall energy savings and increasing renewable energy use by 10% in hotels. It targets particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which represent the vast majority of hotel rooms in the accommodation sector and who can benefit from best practice trends and technology advances. The project brings together partners from the hotel, environment and renewable energy communities and is supported by the European Union (EU).
Over half of the world’s 5.9 million hotel rooms are located in Europe. 90% of these are in small and medium sized hotels, while the remaining 10% belong to major groups.
Energy efficiency and the enhanced use of renewable energies will have a special place in hotel management, considering that today small businesses are only marginal users of renewable energy resources and outdated technology makes them less competitive.
The project will
create a toolkit to assist investment decisions;
improve access to new technologies; and
build support networks.
It will target savings from heating, cooling, lighting, washing, drying in pilot hotels by
at least 20% overall energy savings and
increase of renewable energies production by 10%.
As well as small and medium hotels, beneficiaries will include hotel associations, national tourism bodies, destinations and tour operators, as well as green technology suppliers and manufactures. The project outcomes will be extended around the world and demonstrated on www.ClimateSolutions.travel.
Launching the project at World Travel Market, UNWTO Assistant Secretary-General Professor Geoffrey Lipman said “In our Davos Declaration Process on Climate Change we established a way forward for the tourism sector to become climate neutral in the front ranks of the global community. We have to start now and this project is exactly the kind of collaborative public private initiative we shall be seeking around the world.”
UNWTO’s partners in this endeavour are the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP), the International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IHRA), the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC).
The total value of the project is 1,148,092€, with the bulk of 75% provided by the Intelligent Energy-Europe Programme, which recognizes the role of the tourism industry regarding energy efficiency policies in Europe. The remaining 25% is secured by the partner agencies.
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