Hotel results to green energy to cut costs

Kenya: Players in the hospitality industry have resorted to green energy and environmental conservation to cut costs and ensure best operating standards.

Top hotels at the Coast are now partnering with the Mombasa County government and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) in tree planting and beach clean-up projects.

The Sarova Whitesands Beach Resort & Spa, which won Africa’s leading eco hotel in the World Travel Awards (WTA) 2014, involves customers in its environmental conservation efforts.

“Our efforts for sustainable energy use are championed by the hotel’s engineering department which has been instrumental in seeing us scoop awards as the most energy efficient unit in service sector,” said the hotel’s assistant unit manager Samuel Were.

At Sarova Whitesands, Were added, guests are encouraged to care for their environment around by planting trees before their departure. “We engage guests in tree planting and then when they leave we take good care of them,” he said.

Iconic buildings

“It is about giving people a voice on the planet’s future and working together to create a sustainable low carbon future for planet earth,’’ Were said. He explained that at the hotel, they have a single designated location where various garbage types are dumped.

“We have an elaborate waste management system in place where dry garbage is put separate from wet garbage and bio-degradable and non-bio degradable waste is also separated,’’ he said. The hotel is phasing out refrigerants that do not conform to newly-set ozone friendly standards.

The hotel features in global events like the World Earth Hour Day, where electricity and lights are switched off for specific periods to symbolise conservation. During this day, millions of people turn off their lights for Earth Hour at 20:30 on the last Saturday of March. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Europe to Asia to the Americas have stood in darkness during previous Earth Hours.