Greening Sri Lanka Hotels Project:

Switch-Asia goes to Cultural Triangle

The third seminar of the Switch-Asia Greening Sri Lanka Hotels Project, funded by the European Commission was held at Hotel Sigiriya recently.

Tourism Hotels Association of Sri Lanka (THASL) Regional President Marias Perera, made the welcome speech. At the seminar, CCC Project Director Srilal Miththapala, and his team of experts outlined the details of the project and the benefits which could be derived through energy, water and waste management practices.

The half-day seminar had an active participation of a wide range of hospitality establishments representing Small, Medium and key players in the industry.

The three introductory seminars conducted so far, in Negombo and Southern region and the most recent one at the Cultural Triangle had the presence of enthusiastic participants who were keen to enhance their environmental performance through improvement of energy, water and waste management systems and thereby reducing the cost of operations.

The Switch-Asia Team of experts of the project on Water Energy and Waste are now in the process of collecting baseline data from the hotels who have already registered with the project.

Individual guidance will also be provided to the smaller hotels to fill-up the questionnaire.

The team will then start working with the registered hotels in conducting audits and planning interventions to reduce their water, waste and energy usage.

As at present, a total of 94 hotels have participated at these awareness seminars and many of them have already signed-up with the project.

The next awareness seminar is scheduled to be held at the Light House Hotel, Galle on September 3, for the hoteliers in and around Deep South area.

The project is also working closely with reputed local banks and other agencies to work out some form of preferential financial assistance for those who have registered with the Switch-Asia Greening Sri Lanka Hotels Project, and develop a worthwhile energy conservative project for implementation.