Thirty-four hotels to go green

Harshini Perera

The Greening Sri Lanka Hotels program will commence this week with 34 hotels in various districts. The program will be implemented to reduce energy, water and waste in the hotel sector, said chairman, Responsible Tourism Partnership, Hiran Cooray at the launch of the Greening Sri Lanka Hotels program at the Cinnamon Grand yesterday.

The program initiated by the Responsible Tourism Partnership (RTP) was funded by Travel Foundation UK. It is a joint collaboration supported by the Ministry of Tourism (MoT), Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA) and Tourist Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL).

“The hospitality sector in any country is considered to be more energy consuming and this affects the environment.

The situation is no different in Sri Lanka and we decided to implement a strategy to reduce the cost of energy while supporting the climate change measures. Some of these measures include using lighting and equipment efficiently and introducing energy efficient lamps and reducing waste of tap water,” he said.

Engineer Consultant, Wijitha Perera said that the Greening Sri Lanka Hotels program is not only a need at present but can also be used as a marketing strategy to make Sri Lanka a tourist destination.

During the first phase of the program Hotels will receive assistance to measure their position with regard to energy, water and waste. Thereafter, they will be provided with tools and technical instructions to implement a plan to reduce consumption and save cost.

He said that the Greening Sri Lanka Hotels program will also carry out benchmarking and developing standards for new and existing hotels.

Apart from the cost saving and the green image and consumer acceptance, the end result of the project would address the carbon trading as well.

Therefore, hotels should enlist with the project for implementation that in return would give them many benefits.