Green Hotel Awards | DSPA announces a ‘platinum award’ next year

Raymond Tam (right) granting an award

The Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) celebrated the 10th anniversary of the “Green Hotel Awards” yesterday awarding the 2016 winners.

In a ceremony that took place at the World Trade Center, the director of the DSPA, Raymond Tam, mentioned the achievements obtained during the last 10 years in his opening speech. “Ten years ago there were eight hotels awarded, today we are awarding 47,” Tam announced. Next year will feature a brand-new “platinum award” which aims to continue to stimulate the industry to “go beyond” the current targets.

This year, the DSAP acknowledged in particular the achievement in the fields of energy reduction (of over 3.000kWh), reduction of water consumption (300 cubic meters decrease), waste reduction (30 percent per room), growth on collected recyclable materials (over 170,000 tons) and reduction on food wastes.

Tam also noted the progress that has been achieved on waste reduction as an industry, claiming that the hotel industry had reduced waste by “over 30 percent,” while “significant results were also obtained relating to energy and water savings as well as an increase in the number of environmental protection training activities.”

The top awardees that received the “Gold Award” of the “Green Hotel” were seven hotels: Conrad Macao, Banyan Tree Macau, Sheraton Grand Macao, The St Regis Macao, Studio City, Holiday Inn Macao (Cotai Central) and Pousada de Mong-Há, that received the golden certificate valid for the period of three years (2017 to 2019).

Tam mentioned that the collection of food waste and use of electric vehicles should be an environmental protection focus.

“On the works regarding the food waste I think we still can do more. The same applies for the electric vehicles,” Tam stated, and added that beside the food waste, the focus should be on the collection and treatment of residues “from the beddings. The top of the residues collected from the hotels are related to the beddings.” Tam has previously mentioned that the bureau will work together with the industry in order to improve on the treatment of this kind of waste.

Plan to curb high-polluting scooters exceeding expectations

On the sidelines of the “Green Hotel Awards,” the director of the Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA), Raymond Tam, remarked on the results of the plan announced by the government in February this year to reduce the large number of high-polluting scooters and motorcycles on the roads in the region. “The outcome of this plan is better than expected,” he said. “We predict to collect about 30 percent and according to the latest figures from yesterday [June 21], there were a total of 5,100 motorcycles collected already… which represents an increase of 5 percent more [than the 30 percent expected], and we expect that there will be more.”