Green Globe Certification on ‘greening’ hotels through waste management

Reducing waste and purchasing green products are powerful strategies for reducing the environmental footprint and increasing the operational sustainability of hotels. Reducing & Reusing, Recycling, and Waste Sorting should all be part of developing waste management programs. Did you know that wet garbage accounts for 40% of all the waste generated at hotels?

Green Globe members are committed to minimize their environmental footprint and reduce waste streams, reuse what cannot be avoided, and recycle what is not reusable. Minimizing the amount of solid waste that goes to landfills and incinerators, helps reduce negative environmental impacts. Additionally, minimizing waste reduces the need for virgin materials and limits the amount of greenhouse gases that are released throughout a product’s life cycle (extraction, manufacturing, distribution, use, and disposal).

"Although waste is clearly a big issue for hoteliers, examples of good waste management practice can be found across the international hospitality industry. They range from environmentally enlightened individuals at small establishments, contributing in some way to well-orchestrated systems within large players," said Green Globe Certification CEO Guido Bauer.

Conforming to the Green Globe criteria and its commitment of sustainability under the pledge of "I will be Green", the John Keells Hospitality Group initiated a project last year, to install a biogas plant at Chaaya Village Habarana, one of their properties in Sri Lanka. The concept of the biogas digester came as a solution for wet garbage disposal. Wet garbage consists of food waste from buffets and restaurants at the hotel, and accounts for more than 40% of the entire waste generated. At Habarana Village, wet garbage used to be given to a local piggery, however, the amount of waste produced exceeded the requirements of the piggery. The implementation of this biogas digester provides a base for proper disposal of roughly 300kg of waste food per day. The digester converts tons of kitchen waste to power, which can be utilized by the resort as an alternative energy source for cooking purposes.

Biogas technology is common in Sri Lanka, and biogas units are widely used to manage kitchen waste effectively. Typical materials used for biogas production are animal waste, food waste, and crop waste. The benefits of a well-operating biogas unit range from being an environmentally-friendly method of waste management, providing clean and low cost fuel for cooking, to producing high quality, enriched organic fertilizer. Most waste material has the potential to generate biogas, which is considered "green energy".

The success of the pilot project at Chaaya Village Habarana in Sri Lanka has encouraged the management to install a biogas plant at a second property, the Cinnamon Citadel Kandy. As a matter of fact, the John Keells Group aims to share the expertise gained from Chaaya Village and Cinnamon Citadel and implement biogas plants at all their hotels and resorts in the near future.

"Wherever possible, waste elimination at source is our number one priority. Converting it to reusable or recyclable material is an added benefit. The biogas plant gives us the possibility of changing from fossil to renewable fuel which is not only favourable to the hotel, but contributes to improving our environment," concludes Dinushka Kalutota, Specialist Sustainability with the John Keells Hotel Group.