Greener hotels in the offing

by Jayampathy JAYASINGHE

The Switch Asia website was launched in Sri Lanka at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) to help the hotel sector to be more eco-friendly to maximise their profitability. The project is funded by the European Commission.

CCC Managing Director Prema Cooray said the Switch Asia project will benefit the small and medium sector of the hotel industry. "Today the world is looking at organisations that fall in line with good business practices. A time will probably come when those that do not follow these practices will not in business any more," he said. He said the Switch Asia project will provide free consultancy to hotels in the country.

Project Director, Greening Sri Lanka Hotels, Srilal Miththapala said the primary objective of the project is to help hotels to improve energy, water and waste management systems. Hotels will be able to reduce the cost of operations by following these practices. "We have the Travel Foundation of the United Kingdom as a partner in the project. It is the largest group of UK travel agents. The project is named Greening of Hotels in Sri Lanka."

He said the European Union is helping Asian countries to switch from poor environmental practices to better ones. "We have a good mix of partners like the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority and Institute of Environmental Professionals and an NGO that will bring their expertise to the project." He said hotels have been viewed as energy guzzlers due to poor air-conditioning plants and old kitchen equipment," Miththapala said.