The launch of the Gateway Hotel in June last year not only saw the advent of Three Cities’ first green hotel, it also precipitated a change within the hospitality group setting it on the path to becoming one of South Africa’s first truly green hospitality groups.
Group Engineer and certified energy manager, Murray Burger said, “Since considering energy efficient solutions with the Gateway Hotel development, general awareness about the group’s environmental sustainability has strengthened immensely. We have recognised the importance of sustainable development and this has become an integral part of life and work at Three Cities. Systems have been optimised where possible and improvements are ongoing. We are committed to driving these improvements and maintaining focus on greening in the coming years.”
The Gateway Hotel with its unique, leafy green façade has a comprehensive environmental management plan and innovative green policies. It is also a certified Committed to Efficiency (C2E) member of the Green Leaf Environmental Standard which promotes responsible tourism and measures green accommodation, green business, green products and green events.
Three other Three Cities properties; Le Franschoek Hotel & Spa, Riverside Hotel and Royal Palm Hotel followed suit last year and also have Green Leaf’s C2E certification. Furthermore, Green Leaf will be launching their real-time green accommodation booking portal at this year’s Tourism Indaba and all four hotels will be loaded on the portal. Burger said, “The portal is exclusively for environmentally friendly hotels and will ensure they are visible to tourists looking for green accommodation options.” Three Cities’ other properties are expected to sign up for Green Leaf later this year.
Three Cities has a number of other green projects in the pipeline including partnering with an energy management service provider which will be tasked with implementing energy efficient measures in conjunction with the group’s management policies. “The service provider will help us maximise available energy rebates and we will be directly involved in this process, managing it every step of the way,” said Burger.
Other projects in progress include the replacement of additional shower heads in hotels across the group with low flow shower heads that will reduce water usage from 15l per minute to 8l per minute. To date over 850 showerheads have already been replaced.
Three Cities is committed to environmentally sustainable, energy efficient operations. To sum up their green initiatives and shout about sustainable, energy efficient thinking worldwide, the group recently started their Green Piece Facebook page. “The page is a mouthpiece for all our green policies and we also use it as a means to convey green news, sustainability tips and other green ideas,” said Burger.
Please visit the page at www.facebook.com/ThreeCitiesGreenHotels.
No comments yet.