DSPA attributes ‘Green Hotel Awards’ to 31 local units

A total of 31 local hotel units have been awarded accolades under the “Macau Green Hotel Awards” program, organized by the Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA).
This was the thirteenth iteration of the awards, which were first presented in 2007 with the aim of recognizing advances made by hotels regarding environmental protection and the adoption of new technologies aiming to improve their environmental performance in several fields.
According to information from DSPA, the 2019 edition of the awards established a new high in the number of units awarded, which demonstrated the improvements made in terms of waste reduction and recycling, food waste management, energy conservation, and emissions reduction.
In the 2019 edition, eight hotels have received gold awards. This number represents an exponential increase from the previous edition, in which only three hotels have reached such status.
Silver awards were also given to 11 hotels and another six received bronze awards.
Last year, two hotels received excellence awards and a total of four budget hotels also received awards, raising the total number of currently-awarded hotels to 56. This represents nearly half the total number of hotels in Macau.
The awards are valid for a period of three years.
The DSPA also acknowledged in a statement that in recent years, the hotel industry has improved its environmental performance by adopting advanced environmental protection technologies, including the installation of water bottling stations, solar panels, and other environmental protection equipment.
Additionally, to reduce the use of disposable plastic, some hotels no longer provide plastic bottled water in guest rooms and have installed drinking water dispensers in several public areas.
One of the most significant changes noted is food waste management.
“As of 2019, about 75% of the 56 award-winning hotels have undergone food waste recycling, an increase of about 18% compared with 2018, and the total amount of food waste recovered has exceeded 6,500 tons,” DSPA said, adding that over 50% of the award-winning hotels have now installed kitchen waste machines to handle food waste.