Leisure

Cinnamon Grand gets Green Globe certification

Cinnamon Grand Colombo has obtained Green Globe Certification, the premier global certification for sustainability.

The hotel, the flagship property of the Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts chain, is the largest property in the city with 501 rooms and 13 restaurants.

The hotel was audited and measured on 245 compliance indicators for the Green Globe Certification with key indicators on energy usage, water and waste management, employee training to implementation of customer satisfaction measures, community support and awareness initiatives.

Cinnamon Grand General Manager Rohan Karr said the certification reiterates the hotel’s commitment to infuse the triple bottom line philosophy into the hotel’s daily operations and take sustainability seriously and pro-actively. Karr said the commitment of the hotel’s management and employees to re-evaluate the way the hotel conducted business and the mindset change that transcended into daily actions, were the key contributory factors that resulted in Cinnamon Grand obtaining Green Globe credentials.

“We will continue to further improve our business model to establish a common and global approach to environmental, employer and social sustainability. We appreciate the guidance given by Sting Consultants (Pvt) Ltd, to evaluate and understand the processes as well as the benchmarking tools,” he said.

Green Globe Certification is the worldwide sustainability system based on internationally-accepted criteria for sustainable operation and management of travel and tourism businesses.

Operating under a worldwide licence, Green Globe Certification is based in California, USA and represented in 83 countries.

The origins of the Green Globe organization can be traced back to the United Nations Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992, where 182 heads of state from around the world endorsed the Agenda 21 principles of sustainable development.

Two years later, the Green Globe membership was established.

The Green Globe brand represents the best in sustainable practice within the travel and tourism sector and provides certification, training and marketing services.

Chaaya Village Habarana is green globe certified

The premier worldwide sustainability merit ‘Green Globe Certification’ was achieved by Chaaya Village Habarana.

The Green Globe certification requires conformity to 248 preset standards, the team at Chaaya Village Habarana worked to improve the standards of sustainability thus highlighting the importance of sustainable tourism.

Energy efficient measures, emission reduction, effective water management and waste management with an emphasis on reduce, recycle and reuse practices, were some of the aspects which required adherence for certification. The resort changed its daily practices and processes by using organic waste as fertilizer or farm animal feed, using biodegradable and non-eutrophic cleaning and cosmetic products, towel and linen reuse programs, supporting local community development projects etc. Chaaya Village Habarana had a compliance of 73 percent of the 248 standards. The Green Globe certification is awarded after an audit by a team of Green Globe assessors and upholds the highest standards of credibility and transparency. The organization follows an independent third party verification process and updates its criteria annually to ensure international compliance to the standards.

Green Globe Certification supports the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria (GSTC). The GSTC is the agreed international standard for the sustainable operation and management of travel and tourism businesses.

The Green Globe Standard meets and exceeds all the requirements of the GSTC.

Chaaya Village Habarana is a member of the Chaaya Hotels and Resorts brand which promises an experience based holiday to all its guests.

Located in the heart of the cultural triangle, Chaaya Village epitomises the simplicity of village life.

Heritance crowned most energy efficient hotel chain

Heritance Hotels Chain was crowned as the Most Energy Efficient Hotel Chain in Sri Lanka by Bagging Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards at the Sri Lanka National Energy Efficiency Awards ceremony.

Heritance Hotels made a clean sweep of the Large Scale Hotel Sector category, a feat never been achieved in the history of the awards by a single hotel chain.

Heritance Kandalama, the most awarded hotel in Sri Lanka walked away with the Gold Flame Award and was honored for its ability to demonstrate year-on-year energy reductions along with ongoing sustainability processes and energy management strategies.

Heritance Tea Factory the recent winner of the Sri Lanka Tourism Award for the Best 4 Star Hotel in the country walked away with the Silver Flame award.

Heritance Ahungalla, the winner of the Sri Lanka Tourism Award for the Best 5 Star Resort in the island who emerged the overall champion at the recently concluded Culinary Art 2011 was the proud winner of the Bronze Flame Award.

The Sri Lanka National Energy Efficiency Awards is an annual national event conducted by the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority for private and public sector institutions with the aim of recognizing their contribution towards an energy secure Sri Lanka.

“The relevance of heritage to our hotel brand is that it denotes the standards that we have established based on the knowledge and experience that have been passed down to us throughout the ages. We have learnt from the past and intend to use this as a foundation for the future. The relevance of inheritance to our brand is that, we have inherited the locality and environment in which we manage within,” Managing Director, Aitken Spence Hotels, Malin Hapugoda said.

“We as a team are delighted to have been recognized for the efforts we have taken towards efficient utilization, conservation and management of energy. We have been the pioneers of implementing innovative, cost effective and transferable energy efficiency measures over the years and winning these awards reaffirms our commitment towards reducing our demands on Mother Earth,” Aitken Spence Hotels Vice President, Engineering Rohitha Rajaratne said.

The group has a comprehensive energy conservation policy and has concentrated on reducing its dependency on fossil fuels by switching to renewable energy.

In a first for any hotel in Sri Lanka, a biomass gasifier was installed at Heritance Tea Factory and there after at Heritance Kandalama.

The gasifier reduces 750 tonnes of carbon emissions per year by replacing diesel with grilicidia wood.

Jetwing awarded gold at Energy Efficiency awards 2011

Jetwing, for the second consecutive year, was awarded a Gold Award at the Sri Lanka National Energy Efficiency Awards 2011.

The Award was made all the more sweeter, as this time three properties were nominated; Jetwing Beach and Jetwing Sea in Negombo, and the recently released Hunas Falls.

“It is indeed a great honour to be recognized for all our efforts; it has been a matter of professional and personal privilege to keep all our properties and practices as sustainable as possible”, Chairman Hiran Cooray said.

‘The leisure industry as well as us a company and family are growing day by day, and we will continue to remain efficient and sustainable in all ways possible.’

Jetwing Hotels is amongst the foremost resort chains in Sri Lanka, with 11 unique properties spread across the country. Renowned for its hospitality and spectacular designs, Jetwing Hotels is present in Negombo with four hotels; the massively re-visioned Jetwing Blue; Jetwing Beach a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World; Jetwing Sea, transformed from the former Seashells, and Jetwing Ayurveda Pavilions the first purpose built health resort in the island.

Other locations include the historic city of Galle with Jetwing Lighthouse.