Companies lead UAE’s eco-march

RITIKA SHARMA / Emirates Business

As the UAE takes strides towards promoting environment initiatives, companies in the country are also leading the eco-march by example.
In a recent and much-talked-about event, when UAE-based hotels chain ‘TIME Hotels’ grabbed the prestigious Green Key Award, the message went out loud and clear — that UAE is committed to the best when it comes to eco-friendly initiatives and that it is the result of equal efforts of the government and the people.
In an exclusive conversation
with Emirates Business, Mohamed Awadalla, TIME Hotels CEO said, “We have been committed to pursuing an active strategy of initiatives, events and programmes designed to engender a pro-sustainability culture across all our properties and in the communities in which we operate. This Green Key award is further endorsement of this commitment, and provides further motivation for us to maintain our corporate policy of putting the environment at the top of our agenda for positive change.”
“Our overall aim is to add value to people’s lives and the community in general through a combination of education and employee engagement activities and we’re obviously very happy to be recognised for our efforts in sustainability by these particular awards,” he added.
Notably the audit for the aforesaid award covered 12 key areas from water conservation, waste management systems and indoor environment to green activities, staff involvement and guest awareness. The participants are assessed on all of these areas to ensure they meet a set of high standard of environmental requirements.
About efforts in planning and execution stages, he said, “We have implemented a significant number of initiatives to reduce our environmental impact. In terms of sustainability, we are widely recognised as one of the most progressive hospitality groups in the Middle East particularly with this latest endorsement from Green Key.”
Interestingly, the damaging effects of carbon emissions generated by the hotel industry are considered unavoidable.
“Realising that we would never be able to reduce our carbon emissions completely, we elected to do the next best thing, which is to offset the environmental damage caused and doing so setting the standard for other hotels in the region,” he pointed out.
It is worth a mention that going beyond green initiatives with conventional methods, the hospitality group also made a wave when it launched a sustainability-focused drive with the launch of a Slow Food Initiative at TIME Oak Hotel & Suites. The group is the first in the region to introduce the concept into mainstream beverage offerings.
Awadalla explained, “An international movement founded by professional gourmet Carlo Petrini in 1986, slow food supporters are committed to sourcing and using food that is produced and prepared as per local culinary tradition, and using high quality locally sourced ingredients.”
He further said, “We are strongly committed to introducing sustainable practices across all elements of our operation, and with around 85% of food items imported from around the world, this is a key area where we believe positive changes can be made, to reduce our impact on the environment even further.”
Apart from environment friendly, the eco-initvtes has one huge advantage of reduced budgets as well.
Talking about the possible financial benefits, he said, “It has a huge impact, reducing energy consumption has a massive impact on the bottom line and therefore monitoring energy waste and focusing on the environmental benefits is crucial. The environment is also an important factor for many consumers so a hotel practicing a range of eco-friendly initiatives may well be the favoured option over on that is not.”
Stating that UAE hospitality industry is at the fore-front of the eco-march, he said, “Dubai hotels are advocating sustainability in a big way and we’re happy to be leading the way in many respects. As part of its innovative and forward-looking vision, TIME Hotels has implemented an innovative initiative to reduce the environmental impact.”

HMH – TOWARDS ITS
‘ECO VISION 2020’
Another example of ‘leading by doing’ is UAE’s HMH group. The group is progressing well on its ECO Vision 2020 with the aim of reducing energy and water consumption at the various hotels managed by the group by 20 percent year on year. In doing so, the pioneer among local hotel chains from the Middle East, is leading the way in sustainability programmes.
Laurent A. Voivenel, CEO of HMH – Hospitality Management Holdings, said, “We have been conducting regular audits across our properties to measure, manage and reduce our carbon footprint. We have developed practical, cost-effective strategies to reduce our carbon footprint by upgrading infrastructure and changing behaviours.”
“Actions such as these are critical to mitigating the devastating impact of climate change on people and nature. We are very pleased with the results so far thanks to our dedicated and passionate teams. Achieving this goal is testament to our commitment to protect the environment in order to make it a better place to live for local communities and future generations,” he added.
As part of the ECO Vision 2020, HMH has implemented a number of energy and water efficiency measures across all its hotels including The Ajman Palace Hotel, Coral Beach Resort Sharjah and Coral Dubai Deira Hotel.
Some of the initiatives implemented include upgrading lighting systems, introducing voltage optimisation on main electrical switchgear, carrying out regular audits on thermal insulation systems and optimisation of Building Management Systems (BMS) to ensure all equipment is running at the highest efficiencies possible.