As eight of its hotels achieve Green Globe certification, CEI Asia speaks to Carlson Hotels Worldwide managing director – Asia Pacific, Jean-Marc Busato to find out more:
What highlights have come out of this process?
The 362-room Radisson Plaza Hotel Sydney, operating within a heritage-listed building in Sydney’s CBD, has some successful environmental practices in place including the room-cleaning micro-fibre technique. This saves one million litres of water annually.
How did your hotels improve in measurable consumption?
Taking two hotels as examples, the Radisson Hotel Pudong Century Park achieved 14.5 per cent above the best practice score for energy consumption, and 1.5 per cent above best practice for water consumption per guest night.
Park Plaza Beijing Wangfujing achieved 42 per cent above best practice for energy consumption and 60 per cent above the best practice for waste sent to landfill per guest night. Innovations include low-flow tap-fittings, low/dual-flush toilets and waste recycling for all materials including green waste.
What challenges did you face putting this programme in place?
Asia Pacific is a diverse market with many cultures and communities, and so we had to take into consideration that the level of awareness and education around responsible businesses varies from country to country.
When did you start this programme and why?
The pilot Green Globe programme for certification services started in early 2009 with a selection of eight hotels. There are now plans to have all our Regent, Radisson, Park Plaza and Country Inns & Suites By Carlson branded hotels in Asia Pacific Green Globe-certified this year. There has been a strong mindset shift towards responsible business. At Carlson Hotels in Asia Pacific, we wanted to partner with a programme that would raise awareness and action among staff and guests.
And with an increasing number of guests prioritising eco-friendly travel, it also presents us with tremendous opportunities to build and cement customer loyalty by adopting programmes such as this. Moreover, the programme has been proven to reduce costs in energy consumption, waste production and resource conservation.
What is the feedback like?
Positive. Engaging in such programmes can also be a great staff motivator. For example, the Radisson Hotel Plaza Sydney was presented with the ‘Sustainable Operator’ award at the 2009 Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific for staff responsible business efforts.