Hotels could soon boast green leaves to show how environmentally friendly their establishment is. Tourists will soon be able to choose a hotel, not only by how many stars they boast, but also on how green they are.

As a pilot project, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning selected nine hotels and called in the experts. They evaluated the hotels' services and made recommendations on water and energy conservation and how to reduce waste.

Gottlieb Arendse, Director of Pollution and Waste Management says every company can make a difference. The Department is running the project in the hospitality and tourism sector, one of the biggest economic drivers in the province, to illustrate just what sustainability means when it comes down to the day- to-day running of a hotel.

Ranging from hotels to bush lodges and nature trails, the participating facilities are Boulders Beach Lodge, De Hoop Nature Reserve, Greenways Hotel, Grootbos Nature Reserve, Monkey Valley Lodge, Southern Right Hotel, Spier Estate, Vineyard Hotel and Winchester Mansions. Each establishment gave their commitment to implement recommendations to improve their environmental performance. Already the gains are being realised, one hotel saved R100 000 in a four-month period.

Hotels were assessed for the amount of water and energy they use and waste they produce. Thereafter they were given recommendations to make them more efficient and produce less waste and pollution. Like many companies, hotels are usually removed from the impacts of the products and services they consume.

Cleaning chemicals are manufactured and disposed of offsite. Electricity is produced offsite. Waste water is treated offsite. Food is produced, packaged and transported from offsite suppliers. Technical interventions to save water included installing multiflush toilet systems, low-flow showerheads and grey-water recycling systems. Energy saving interventions included retrofitting incandescent lightbulbs with energy-efficient CFLs or LEDs, insulating geysers, installing solar water heaters, and automating heating and cooling. Hotels were also encouraged to buy non-hazardous cleaning agents, scheduling activities to reduce consumption, sorting waste at source and making guests aware of resource saving practices.

Importantly, the Department made participation in the project dependent on signing a Memorandum of Understanding, which committed the participating establishments to at least spend between R10 000 and R40 000, depending on their size, on implementing the recommendations. This money is to be invested by October 2005. One of the main selling points of the project is that implementing the recommendations results in cost savings on electricity, water, cleaning materials and waste disposal. At the same time it will provide environmental benefits through responsible use of our precious water and energy resources, as well as reduce waste and pollution from electricity generation, waste water treatment and solid waste disposal.

The Department would like to see the best practice successes of the project being promoted through an environmental rating system. Arendse says the vision is a system similar to the well-known five star grading system used to indicate the quality of South African hospitality and tourism destinations, except that an environmental system would be based purely on environmental performance. This will enable tourists to make informed decisions when choosing to stay in facilities which have a proven environmental performance record, thereby contributing to the Departments vision of building a Sustainable Home for All, now and forever. The benefit of such a system is that it would provide sound and consistent standards for measuring environmental performance and would provide an incentive for establishments to strive for a higher rating through better practice.

The nine hotels are greatly in favour of the proposed environmental rating system, as it will be an increased marketing opportunity if they can show how environmentally responsible they are. With growing international and local awareness of the negative environmental impacts of tourism, this is a powerful incentive. The Department has met with some stakeholders already and is pursuing the setting up of such a system with the relevant tourism and hospitality authorities and associations. In the near future, the Department hopes that people will be choosing their holiday destination not only on the number of stars but also on the number of green leaves the establishment has achieved.

Enquiries:

Lynnette Johns
Media Liaison Officer for Minister Tasneem Essop
Western Cape Minister of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
Tel: 021 483 2769