Light years ahead

By Selina Denman  www.constructionweekonline.com

InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) properties at Dubai Festival City is in the process of replacing all of their interior lighting with LED solutions. A total of 35,000 light points – in hotel rooms, suites and public areas – will be replaced with sustainable alternatives.

This is phase two of a project that has already seen the InterContinental and Crowne Plaza hotels replace all of their exterior façade lighting with LED solutions. The hotels are partnering with Philips to bring this project to fruition.

As a result of this initiative, the hotels will reduce their carbon emissions by two million kg per year, and will minimise their energy costs by some 50%, explained Tom Lord, hotel manager, InterContinental Dubai Festival City.

“We have done this for a number of reasons – one is to become a market leader in the field of green. Secondly, to be honest, the lighting that we had on the outside of the building was failing in certain areas and the existing lighting solution just didn’t have any longevity. But mainly, we did this because we thought it was the right thing to do. We are on a big drive to be a more responsible business and lighting was one area that we could really start with,” said Lord.

This new endeavour is in line with existing green initiatives at the IHG Dubai Festival City properties, which include aggressive recycling of all hotel waste, the use of a Lexus LS600 hybrid car for guest transfers, and the annual Whatever Floats Your Boat competition, which raises money for local environmental charities.

While the hospitality industry is becoming increasingly aware of its environmental responsibilities, large-scale initiatives such as those undertaken by IHG are still relatively rare, noted Louis Hakim, chairman, Philips Middle East and vice president, Royal Philips Electronics. “The hospitality industry is now more aware of the environment, whether on a local or global level. The Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing is currently promoting various efforts to make sure that this segment is leading the way to green.

“Philips is also active by conducting workshops and lighting audits in several hotels in Dubai, creating awareness, educating end users, and providing them with a wide variety of energy efficient lighting solutions to support their drive to be more sustainable enterprises. Having said that, so far very few have followed IHG’s footsteps and embarked on comprehensive programmes to become greener in their own right,” Hakim noted.

Apart from anything else, being green makes good business sense, Lord explained. “If you are a hotel in the Middle East, or anywhere in the world, your clients now want you to be greener. Your clients want to be linked with hotels that are responsible in that way, so I think we will see a bigger shift.

“The hotel industry is only going the same way as everybody else is. We are all moving towards awareness of the environment and the fact that there do need to be changes. But also, there are such fantastic solutions out there right now that you’d be crazy not to,” Lord pointed out.

“When you can change a halogen for an LED bulb and it lasts you 14 times longer, why wouldn’t you? You don’t have to change your light bulbs as often and you don’t spend as much money. It just makes sense,” he concluded.