We speak to James Hewitson, General Manager and Mohamed Abdelwahab, Area Director of Engineering, Middle East from Anantara The Palm, Dubai Resort, UAE.
The hotel is owned by Seven Tides International and managed by Anantara part of MINOR Hotels group. All hotels under MINOR group have energy, water, and waste management as mandatory key performance indicators (KPI’s) and receive consultation support from Green Growth 2050 to delivering the metrics. Eco-friendly resort Anantara The Palm Dubai resort has delivered on all its green metrics consistently; and received “Platinum status” certification on the Green Growth 2050 program.
Recently, they have further shown their commitment to sustainability by installing a water filtration system from Infinity water systems, in July 2021, when most of the hospitality is still coping with the impact of the pandemic and fighting for survival.
In the episode we discuss the challenges and opportunities facing a general manager in introducing green initiatives; right from having the CAPEX allocated, with getting owners buy-in to team alignment in implementation.
The two sustainability focus areas of the hotel have been on “Energy and Plastics”. They have eliminated most of the single use plastic items from the hotel: straws, cutlery, room keys to now plastic bottles. Mohamed has had great success with energy efficiencies and reduced the property’s energy bill by $250K savings in a single year. Proving that “Saving energy can—and will—impact profitability”.
The next challenge for the hotel is waste reduction, as all Minor hotels have been tasked with 20% reduction in waste for 2022, compared to baseline 2016.
In other episodes of the podcast, we have previously covered hotel sustainability stories from three different hotels; and we hope each of these episodes gives you an inspiration for your hotel’s green journey.
Previous related episodes:
Episode 1 of the podcast shared the passion from Paul Schenk, as Hotel Manager of Crowne Plaza Oman with a passion to eliminate all plastic form the hotel.
Episode 5 featured Soneva Resorts Maldives (25 years of sustainable luxury) shared on the podcast a few “smart commercial models implemented at the island” to fund their ongoing sustainability initiatives.
Episode 16 covered the story from The Hotel Britomart, New Zealand’s first and only 5 Green star rated hotel; working with local suppliers and in challenging the status quo to achieve sustainability
Show Notes:
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jameshewitson/
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohamed-abdelwahab-94ba0714/
- https://www.anantara.com/en/palm-dubai
- https://www.seventides.com/
- https://www.minorhotels.com/en
- https://www.greengrowth2050.com/
- https://infinitywatersystems.com/
- https://www.minor.com/storage/download/sustainability-reports/2020/mint-membership-certifications-en.pdf
- https://sustainabilitystoriespodcast.com/?p=309
- https://sustainabilitystoriespodcast.com/?p=157
- https://sustainabilitystoriespodcast.com/?p=461
