Analysis | Environmental Bureau awards 19 hotels for ‘going green’

A total of 19 hotels were awarded at the Macao Green Hotel Awards, held by the Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) on Friday, for their environmentally friendly operations in 2018. Together with the previous two editions of the awards, a total of 55 hotels have thus far been awarded for their green operations.

The 19 hotels were presented their awards during the ceremony and commended for their waste reduction efforts. Hotel Okura Macau, Morpheus and MGM Cotai received gold awards, while Sands Macao, The Countdown Hotel, NÜWA, Broadway Hotel and Crowne Plaza Macau were awarded silver. MGM Macau, Riviera Hotel Macau, Inn Hotel and Harbourview Hotel received bronze awards.

Talking at the sidelines of Friday’s award ceremony, DSPA Director Tam Wai Man told the media that in 2018, compared to 2012, the awarded hotels registered great improvements in terms of environmental protection.

“The average consumption of electricity in each of the awarded hotels’ guest rooms decreased more than 28,000 kWh,” said Tam.

According to the DSPA, the average waste reduction of each awarded hotel was 1.7 tonnes, representing a 45% decrease. The bureau’s calculation method simply divided the amount of waste by the number of rooms of the awarded hotels.

However, looking at the statistics of Macau’s hotel rooms and number of visitors, results suggest that the waste decrease may not necessarily be related entirely to recycling measures. It could also be related to the reduced number of guests each hotel room hosted.

According to statistics by the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC), in December 2018, Macau’s hotels had a total of 39,000 guest rooms, and hosted a total of 14.1 million tourists during the year. These statistics indicate that, in 2018, each of Macau’s hotel rooms hosted approximately 362 tourists on average.

In December 2012, Macau was recorded as having 26,069 hotel guest rooms, and 9.54 million tourists staying in those hotels. Applying the same calculation as before, each of Macau’s hotel rooms hosted an average 366 people for 2012, four more tourists per room during the year compared to the 2018 figure.

However, the result of having 45% decrease in waste from each awarded hotel’s rooms was due to the hotels’ recycling measures, Tam said. “The total recycling exceeded 210,000 tonnes, which is equivalent to 120 days of Macau’s refuse incineration plant,” he said.

“Nearly 64% of the awarded hotels are doing kitchen waste recycling, with a total of 4,500 tonnes recycled so far,” added the DSPA director.

Despite the fact that, according to Tam, the hotels have been awarded due to waste and energy consumption reduction, two of the Golden Awards winners, Morpheus and MGM Cotai, only started their operations in 2018.

Presently in its 12th edition, each year hotel applicants are encouraged to nominate themselves for the award. According to statistics provided by DSPA, none of the hotel applicants awarded in 2016, 2017 and 2018 managed to repeat the feat in these three years.