Responding positively to the green cause, some Indian hotels have gone in for an energy audit. Syed Ameen Kader speaks to five such hotels from different cities to highlight their best practices.
In the recent past, Indian hoteliers have shown a great deal of enthusiasm to go green, and have taken the rightful measures to attain high energy efficiency.
Although no hotel in India has obtained the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification as of now, many have gone in for voluntary energy audits and various other types of certifications such as ISO 14001, Ecotel, and Green Globe.
With the entry of international players in the Indian hospitality field, developers are becoming more and more energy conscious from the designing stage itself.
They have started to realise the cost-and-comfort benefits of ecofriendly designs and operations. In an effort to highlight some of the best practices adopted by existing hotels, Hotelier India has handpicked five properties from different parts of India, who have got an energy audit done through agencies like the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre (the parent body of the Indian Green Building Council – IGBC – who is the certification authority for LEED–India), and others.
These hotels were among the first in the country to go in for an energy audit, and are ITC Sonar, Kolkata; The Gateway Hotel, Bangalore; Trident, Chennai; WelcomHotel, Vadodara; and Taj Coromandel, Chennai.
The abovementioned have spearheaded some of the green practices in their respective properties which set them apart from their competitors.
In fact, ITC Sonar, Kolkatta, was the first in the world to earn carbon credits, mainly through energy conservation initiatives such as achieving higher efficiencies in air conditioning systems, improving pumping systems, and employing waste heat recovery.
While the Taj Group has launched the Environment Awareness & Renewal at the Taj Hotels (EARTH) programme, and has also gone in for the prestigious Green Globe certification, there are other agencies in India who do energy audit for hotels.
Also, there are models like ‘shared savings’ which Energy Service Companies (ESCO), are working on, where the initial capital investments are arranged by ESCO.
Most of the international hotel chains have taken a number of measures to improve their energy efficiency. Green experts say that rating systems or energy audits are not the only parameters to judge a hotel’s green consciousness, as there are other processes which many hotels have opted for.
“A hotel can be extremely energy and resource efficient without opting for a rating. What is vital is that the hotel industry should realise the importance of going green, and now the message is spreading. As more and more hotels are projecting themselves as green, I hope everyone will join the fray,” said Hisham Ahmad, energy analyst at Environmental Design Solutions (EDS).
Said Sivaram K, counsellor with the CII-Sohrabji Godrej Green Business Centre: “The certification systems like LEED rating, Ecotel, and Green Globe, as well as other systems based on Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS), would be adopted rapidly once the early adopters start leveraging green features to their competitive advantage, resulting in tangible commercial gains”.
He said hotels can achieve commercial gains from the higher occupancy levels, resulting in higher revenues as well as reduced operation and maintenance costs.
Sivaram said a number of hotels have registered with them for the LEED rating system for new construction (NC). These hotels are Lake Plaza Hotels (Park), Hyderabad; Novotel, Pune; The Oberoi Trident, Hyderabad; ITC Fortune Hotel, Lavasa; ITC Limited, Bangalore; Goddess Resort & SPA, Raigarh; Hilton Hyderabad Palace, Hyderabad, and Chitralekha Hotels, Basar.
“In our opinion, the tipping point of rapid adoption (of green rating systems) would be crossed any time in the next two-to-five years, in spite of the current recessionary trends affecting the hospitality sector”, he added.
Energy analysts say that the best possible way to become energy efficient is through taking some measures right from the concept design stage of the building.
