 Nov. 18, 2008 - Novotel has announced that 11 of its resorts in the Asia Pacific region have achieved Green Globe Sustainable Tourism certification, and its remaining 73 hotels in the region will earn the rating by early next year.
The certification is part of a companywide goal to certify all 400 Novotel properties across 61 countries by 2010.
"Travelers are increasingly seeking hotels with an environmental conscience," says Michael Issenberg, chairman and chief operating officer of Novotel owner Accor Asia Pacific. "With a global network of almost 400 Novotel hotels and resorts already dedicated to the fight against global warming, Green Globe certification provides the assurance that our guests call for."
The Green Globe certification process includes an assessment of a hotel's environmental performance and the development of an environmental management strategy in ten key areas including waste management, air quality, and energy and water consumption. The hotel is then independently audited for compliance to Green Globe standards.
Once certified, a property must undergo biannual audits to maintain its Green Globe status.
"The Green Globe benchmarking and management process review heightened our awareness of the hotels' consumption of energy, water, paper, chemicals, pesticides and waste management as well as our efforts in social welfare actions," says Jagan Lacsher, executive assistant manager of the Novotel Bangkok. "The whole team has become focused on ways to improve consumption, communicate the efforts with guests and each department now contributes to a constant improvement process."
Last week, Destination Hotels & Resorts reported progress on its homegrown sustainability program, "Destination Earth," which leverages employee green teams to reduce its properties' carbon footprints. |
