Reducing energy usage
IT has been estimated that 75% of a hotel’s environmental impact can be directly related to excessive consumption.
It is due to this waste and inefficiency that hotels that practise a green operation are rapidly gaining popularity.
More and more hotels are choosing to reduce their environmental footprint by performing upgrades to reduce energy and water consumption, recycling, composting food, buying from local food producers and being less wasteful.
Hotels have always been some of the biggest energy guzzlers around, contributing to the everincreasing problem of global warming.
Regardless of the time of day or what the accessible local resources are, hotels generally use more energy per visitor than local residents as they have energyintensive facilities such as bars, restaurants and pools as well as more spacious rooms.
Hotels must provide each guest with steaming hot or icy cold water and heat or air conditioning as desired and enough electricity to power all electrical devices at any given moment.
Excessive energy use is extremely costly. However, by installing energy- efficient technologies such as energy management systems, free hot water, free cool air, LED lights, ceiling fans, linen cards, lights- out cards and motion sensors for public- access rooms, energy bills can be reduced significantly.
According to the Governmentbacked Energy Efficiency Label programme, Malaysian hotels spend an average of almost RM2,200 per room each year on energy, which is 6% of all operating costs.
Hotels are starting to realise that reducing this energy usage is good business.
It makes a substantial difference to the environment, their profit margins and reputations.