Public Servant Lifestyle

The Considerate Hoteliers Association has announced that WRAP will sponsor its annual 'Environmentally Responsible Hotel of the Year' awards.

Hotels play an important role in reducing the amount of waste sent to landfill due to the significant amount of waste they generate - on average, each hotel creates around 1kg of waste per guest per night. However, at least 30% of a hotel’s solid waste stream can be sorted for recovery and recycling, and some hotels sort up to 50% of their waste.

Hotels can also influence their guests’ behaviour through waste minimisation messages that can be taken home. The 'Environmentally Responsible Hotel of the Year' award will help demonstrate the range of initiatives that hotels in the UK are taking to reduce the amount of waste they dispose of and the associated costs.

Hotels applying to be considered for the award will be asked to demonstrate either that they are implementing programmes that cover the full spectrum of the waste chain from initial purchasing to final disposal or that they are taking a particularly innovative approach to one element of waste minimisation (from stimulating the development of recycling services to designing and refurbishing hotel rooms with recycled/recyclable materials).

It's A WRAP

The Waste & Resources Action Programme's (WRAP) sponsorship of this award demonstrates the important role that this sector can play in helping the UK achieve its recycling targets. It also helps show that, in the light of increasing waste disposal costs, hotels that implement a comprehensive approach to waste minimisation can often reduce their costs significantly and – in most cases – enhance the quality of the guest experience.

Alongside the WRAP sponsored award, Considerate Hoteliers will continue to offer hotels that are making a considerable contribution to their community and local environment the opportunity to apply to be considered for the accolade of Considerate Hotel of the Year Award.

The 'Environmentally Responsible Hotel of the Year' award will be presented by Jennie Price, Chief Executive of WRAP, at the annual Master Innholders General Managers Conference on 16/17 January 2006, to be held at The Carlton Tower, London. This is a flagship event for the industry and a key forum at which current events in the industry are discussed. Liam Lambert (GM of the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park London) and chairman designate of the Considerate Hoteliers Association will present the Considerate Hotel of the Year award at the same event.

Last year’s winner of 'Environmentally Friendly Hotel of the Year' was 51 Buckingham Gate and the Crowne Plaza London St James, a member of the Taj Group. Welcoming the award, Bernard de Villèle, Vice-President Operations Europe and the Americas, and General Manager – Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, said: "Commitment to environmental issues can often be achieved without financial investment through simple action plans – and the great thing is that the benefits are not only environmental but financial in terms of real savings."

All hotels of six bedrooms or more and operating in the UK will be eligible to apply for the awards. Only individual hotels may apply, as opposed to groups (though any one hotel within a group may apply as an individual).

WRAP is a major UK programme established to promote resource efficiency. Its particular focus is on creating stable and efficient markets for recycled materials and products and removing the barriers to waste minimisation, re-use and recycling. A not-for-profit company in the private sector, WRAP is backed by substantial government funding via the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

WRAP is currently running fifteen programmes. Twelve of these relate to market development, comprising nine material streams (Paper, Plastics, Glass, Wood, Organics and Aggregates, Tyres, Batteries and Plasterboard) and three generic areas (Procurement, Financial Mechanisms and Regional Market Development). Three further programmes relate to the wider resource efficiency remit - Collections, Communications and Awareness and Waste Minimisation.

Waste

On average, a hotel creates around 1kg of waste per guest night. At least 30% of a hotel’s solid waste stream can be sorted for recovery and recycling and some hotels sort up to 50% of their waste.

A typical waste minimization and recycling strategy would include the following actions:

Training staff on the importance of waste minimisation

A commitment to use suppliers who will take back packaging

A commitment to purchase re-usable items wherever possible

An obligation on suppliers to minimize packaging and waste in their own operations (over and above any requirements of the Packaging Waste Regulations)

Implementation of processes to monitor waste volumes sent for landfill

Recycling of products – including innovative approaches for community recycling where recycling infrastructure does not exist

Composting of permissible garden waste

Effective recycling of furniture, fixtures and fittings after refurbishment, and disposal of building waste and materials.

The Considerate Hoteliers Association was one of the first associations to focus on the environmental and social impacts of hotels. Founded in Westminster in 1991, it now has over 50 members nationwide and these comprise many of the UK’s flagship properties - the Ritz, Crowne Plaza London St James, Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons and The Lowry, to name just a few. More information on all of WRAP's programmes can be found on: www.wrap.org.uk.

More information and how to enter for these prestigious awards can be found at www.consideratehoteliers.com.

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