‘SWITCH’ towards sustainability

By Cheranka Mendis

While gearing up to welcome the anticipated increase in tourism, local hotels are now showing signs of adapting to greener and more sustainable practices in managing their energy, water, and waste management resources, according to data collected from 276 hotels under the EU SWITCH Asia Greening Sri Lanka Hotels project.

In a research carried out by the SWITCH Asia team in Sri Lanka taking into account 78% from the total hotels registered under the project (351 hotels), it was revealed that the most commonly-adopted green invention is energy efficient  lighting, with 83% of the hotels having partially or completely switched to CFL and LED lighting from incandescent lighting. While larger hotels are still in the process of switching, smaller hotels have nearly completely adapted the green approach.

With the request for green or eco friendly hotels now becoming a worldwide trend, the pressure is on for local hotels to ‘switch’ to a sustainable operation platform. The cost benefits as well as the marketing spin that a hotel receives by adapting a green methodology also acts as a driving factor for the industry.

The EU SWITCH Asia Greening Sri Lanka Project, which is currently in its final year of operation after a three-year run, has managed to successfully engage the industry in resource optimisation in the areas of energy, water, and waste, while spreading the word on sustainability islandwide.

The survey notes that the typical distribution of energy consumption of a mainstream hotel is 50% for air-conditioning, 20% lighting, 15% for kitchen, 8% laundry, and 7% for other activities.

Best practices adapted in the field of energy in green intervention are the use of CFL/LED lighting, moving towards key switches, shifting from centrifugal and screw compression to control plants, modulating unitary air conditioning, and using solar power for hot water generation.

While 80% of the hotels have switched towards energy efficient lighting, only 10% of all hotels are said to be using energy efficient air-conditioning. Solar water heaters are common in nearly 50% of the larger hotels, while only 20% of the smaller hotels have installed air-conditioning.

The findings of the survey noted that the use of alternative green energy sources such as biomass boilers using cultivated wood, mini/micro/pico hydro power, solar PV and wind energy is however not well established in Sri Lankan hotels yet, perhaps due to the uncertainty of raw materials, high investment, long payback periods, and unreliable technical support.

Senior Environmental Engineer Prof. Niranjanie Rathnayake sharing the findings of the report noted that in water management, a large percentage of water is used for guest rooms (33%) while 18% is used for kitchen, 19% for locker room and pubic bathroom, 15% for landscape, 11% for laundry and 3% for the pool.

“The best practices in the sector of water and waste management are the dual flush toilets, installing low flow showers and taps, installing sewage treatment plants (of which 80% water consumption is available for reuse), solid waste segregation, and biogas usage,” Rathnayake said.

She noted that 54% of the large and 59% of the SME sector hotels have installed small capacity dual flush toilets while 43% of the large hotels have put in place low flow taps and showers. Only 13% have done so in the SME sector.

However, in the case of waste management, particularly in the category of large hotels the situation is much improved. This is perhaps due to the regulatory requirements and enforcement by the environmental authorities and the grant and subsidiary schemes that were available for installation of sewage treatment in the recent past, Project Director Srilal Miththapala said.

Statistics gathered shows 92% of large hotels having their own sewage plants while the balance is connected to city sewers or common treatment plants. Solid waste management is happening at a level of 77% in the large sector while the SME sector only records 27% in solid waste management.

Miththapala, noting the importance of making the hotels greener in Sri Lanka, said that more and more hotels are showing an interest in getting into sustainable management of their resources. “The model that was used in Sri Lanka for the SWITCH Asia project is a successful one which the EU is trying to replicate in the likes of Africa and South America,” he added.

“We are witnessing large scale development today and to prevent the environment from getting unnecessarily damaged it is essential that we look into greener practices.”

During this year, the SWITCH Asia project will focus on doing more research and gathering data while looking into producer reference case studies and success stories in six of the best hotels. Plans are also underway to conduct the second sustainability conference with international speakers, conduct a second round of green awards and organise foreign journalists to come to Sri Lanka and see the good work done by the hotels.

CCC Solutions Limited CEO/MD Prema Cooray noted that for tourism to become the leading industry in helping the Government achieve economic momentum in the coming years, adapting green sustainable practices would not only boost the industry but improve the economic model of the SME sector as well.