The Environment Council has organised the Macao Green Hotel Award Scheme since 2007, which is designed to demonstrate the importance of environmental management, and honour hotels that have committed to environmental management. As environmental awareness and expectations of customers has been rising recently, it makes business sense for the hotel industry to adopt the “Green Hotel” model in their daily operation. It does not only save operational cost through resource conservation, but also further improves customer satisfaction. This illustrates a win-win situation for the environment as well as the community. Westin runs sewage treatment plant The Westin Resort Macau, a recipient of the 2007 Green Hotel Award, told media today that it had introduced a wide range of measures to cut energy and emission in order to protect the environment. According to the hotel, it was the first of its kind in Macao to be built with a sewage treatment plant to process all the wastewater generated from both the hotel and the golf club. It was built, with an estimated MOP$10 million, mainly to protect the nearby shorelines from being polluted. Since the hotel’s opening in 1993, the plant had processed an average of 130,000 cubic meter of effluent annually, at a yearly cost of approximately MOP$1 million. As part of the environmental program, the recycled water from the plant is used to water the hotel landscaping and that of the golf course, thus reducing the need for additional water consumption. Moreover, the hotel had introduced an energy management program since 1995 to reduce its energy consumption. According to an energy consultancy responsible for monitoring and recording all affecting factors such as hotel occupancy, food covers, laundry production, and ambient conditions, it was estimated that the resort had avoided 18,000 tones of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere from 1995 to the present, which equates to approximately MOP$19 million of energy savings. The hotel’s emission-cutting measures included recovering heat from steam returns, and retrieving cold exhaust air, using energy-efficient lightings, and among many others. The management of the hotel said that they would continue to adopt more measures to cut energy consumption and operate the resort in an even more environmental way. The goal this year is to cut 5% of energy consumption than that in 2008, said Mr. Romulo Z. Estrada, the resort’s director of engineering. Other winners of the Macao Green Hotel Award 2007 were Hotel Beverly Plaza, Mandarin Oriental, Macau, Holiday Inn Macau, Riviera Hotel Macau, Metropole Hotel, Emperor Hotel and Pousada de Mong - Há of the Institute For Tourism Studies. 2009 MIECF opens on Thursday Should you require more information on environmental protection and respective business opportunities, please participate in the 2009 Macao International Environmental Co-operation Forum and Exhibition, which is to be opened on Thursday (2nd April). Please contact the 2009 MIECF Secretariat at: Telephone: 853-8798 9675, Fax: 853-2872 8213, Email: info@macaomiecf.com, or visit the official website: www.macaomiecf.com for details. (Some information of the press release is provided by the Westin Resort Macau)
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