The world’s most eco-friendly and sustainable hotels have been listed by the 2017 Green Hotelier Awards as part of Responsible Business Week and Jetwing Yala, the only Sri Lankan hotel, has been highly recommended for its sustainability initiatives in the Asia Pacific region.
The annual awards invite applications from hotels of any size anywhere in the world, judging them on their efforts to reduce energy and water consumption, waste output, roles as responsible businesses to their employees and in the local community, as well as looking at how they communicate their sustainable and responsible ethos to guests.
A winner and high recommendations were selected from the European region, Africa & Middle East, Asia Pacific and the Americas.
Through the awards the organisers suggest that more hotels than ever are measuring their performance on energy, water and waste, and setting themselves new targets each year.
Committed to sustainability initiatives through the Jetwing Hotels Sustainable Strategy, Jetwing Yala has one of the country’s largest privately owned solar installations of 300 kilowatts, which meets 40 percent of the hotel’s daily electricity needs.
The plant supplies excess energy at peak back to the national grid, helping to cushion grid fluctuations experienced by local residents.
Its cooling is operated by a vapour absorption chiller, run sustainably via steam generated from a biomass boiler using sustainable cinnamon wood procured locally. Hot water is provided entirely through renewable energy, and lighting is 100 percent LED.
The renewable energy applications and efficient operations reduce CO2 emissions by about 60 percent when compared with conventional technologies.
All waste water is collected, treated, and reused onsite. All waste generated at the hotel is separated at source and quantified prior to disposal.
As for water needs, seawater is filtered through a reverse osmosis system, ensuring no strain on the scarce freshwater resources of the region.
The waste water is separated at source and treated black water is used for gardening purposes while treated grey water is used for the cooling towers and further disinfected for use in cisterns.
The property also homes its own compost machine and plant whereby all organic waste is treated and used as organic fertilizer for the hotel gardens and farms.
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