Environment | Green Hotel Awards | More lower-category hotels awarded

Macau’s environment regulator granted awards to 13 hotels yesterday for their “notable results in waste and emission reduction” achieved in 2014. For the first time, the annual Green Hotel Awards have recognized a four-star hotel with a gold award, and two budget hotels with merit awards.
The Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) director, Helena de Senna Fernandes, sees it as “a very encouraging sign,” as it “spreads a message that it’s not only the luxury hotels that can obtain such a grading, but also that the lower category hotels, through introducing different practice, would be able to get this award, even the highest award.”
Of the prominent gaming operators, MGM Macau and the Venetian Macao-Resort-
Hotel each won gold awards, and the Galaxy Hotel Macau won silver. So far in the Green Hotel Awards’ history, a total of 32 hotels have been recognized, accounting for one third of the hotels in Macau and 60 percent of hotel rooms.
Ms Chan Sio Fai, manager general of the Hotel Beverly Plaza  –
the first four-star hotel to receive a top award – told the Times, “As an old hotel, the operator might face more difficulties in achieving energy savings, such as investing in equipment transformation.” She added: “We invested a lot in advanced energy-efficient equipment in recent years, which has seen a big effect.”
MGM Macau’s director of facilities management, Mr Peter Chan, also acknowledged that regardless of whether it’s a five-
star or budget hotel, “there is still a lot that can be done.” In addition to the operator’s resolution, he said that customers’ responses and participation are also key factors in hotels’ environmental practice.
“The biggest difficulty faced is the [customer] behavior, because we also have to maintain a certain level of customer service, so we can’t cut down too much. (…) We depend very much on customers helping us; it’s a joint effort between us management and the customers,” he explained.
According to the deputy director of the Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA), Ms Vong Man Hung, these 13 newly awarded hotels were responsible for collectively separating and recycling a total of 6,000 tons of waste last year. A significant waste reduction of 17 percent compared with the previous year was observed among the medium and small-
scale hotels.
“Take the example of a 300-guestroom hotel with an 80-percent occupancy rate: in terms of reducing power consumption, 340,000 kilowatt-­hours (kWh) of electricity was saved in a year, which means MOP400,000 was saved in electricity bills, and over 300 tons of carbon emissions were prevented. In terms of water consumption, over 27,000 square meters of water was saved in a year, which equates to a MOP160,000 saving on water bills, and a reduction of over seven tons of carbon emissions,” she added.
The official stressed that it has become important for the sector to consider how it could use resources more efficiently and reduce waste, especially as more big-scale hotels are opening up.