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Langham Gets EarthCheck Green Certification
Saturday, 11 May, 2010
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Hotel Group will aim for minimum silver certification
Langham Hotels International has forged a partnership with EarthCheck. The deal will result in all Langham and Eaton properties upgrading to EarthCheck so that they align with international standards of best practice.
The Langham, Auckland first certified using EarthCheck science, in February 2008. Since then, it has held the EarthCheck Silver Certification for two years running, while Eaton Hotel Kong Hong and Langham Place Mongkok, Hong Kong are pending Silver Certification Audits later this month.
Langham recently decided that all its properties will now benchmark with EarthCheck and aim for a minimum certification level of Silver. This is in direct response to the need to address major environmental challenges such as climate change, waste reduction and non-renewable resource management.
“Environmental advocates and stakeholders are calling on companies to demonstrate the role they must play in climate change mitigation and policy development,” explains John Dick, Vice President – Eaton Hotels International and the group environmental champion for both Langham and Eaton hotels. “This is reflected in the number of companies that are reporting on their policies and engagement efforts in response to new regulations including the Green House Gas (GHG) Protocols.”
“As the sustainability movement has evolved, so have the number of misleading environmental claims and operators who are misusing industry-developed labels to influence consumer behaviour,” states John Dick. “Schemes that can be accused of this include those with no common benchmarking criteria, no year-on-year performance expectations, no scientific reporting or international standards, and no 3rd party verification.”
Langham has opted for a companywide strategy to ensure a consistent approach is applied across the group and help them identify key milestones. To date, some of their best practice ratings include; The Langham, Melbourne who benchmarked 56.1% better than Best Practice Level for Potable Water Consumption; The Langham, Auckland who came in 33.8% better than the Best Practice Level for Potable Water Consumption and 22.2% better than the Baseline level for Waste Sent to Landfill.
Environmental awareness has grown significantly in some market segments. For conference bookings, the facts are clear: there has been a steady increase in the number of corporate clients requesting details specific to CSR programs.
“There is definitely an added sense of awareness and concern reflected in the questions and level of detail being requested from our hotels.” says John Dick. “As regulations surrounding climate change develop, so too does the expectation of guests. This is reflected by a number of international booking engines such as Expedia, that are now offering clients ‘environmentally sensitive accommodation options’ in response to growing demand.”
Valere Tjolle
Valere Tjolle is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite, special offer at: www.travelmole.com/stories/1142003.php
Valere
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