Eco-friendly Hilton Malta outperforms Med. counterparts

The Hilton Hotel, in St Julians, has slashed energy consumption per guest night by 15.1 per cent, making it the chain's regional energy champion.

As a reward, the hotel's 360 employees were yesterday each given an eco-friendly mountain bike worth €350.

Over 16,000 team members from 79 Hilton hotels in Europe and Africa took part in the campaign, launched in January last year. They focused on empowering team members to identify environmental improvements and implement change.

The result was an overall 6.5 per cent reduction in energy consumption.

Hilton Malta chief engineer Joe Restall said the hotel converted heating water boilers from diesel to gas, reducing CO2 emissions by 115 tonnes. It replaced 3,000 halogen lamps with compact energy saving bulbs saving a total 300,000kWh per annum.

It also installed a new reverse osmosis plant producing 39,000 cubic metres of drinking water and recycled 16,000 cubic metres of waste water through a treatment plant in order to produce second-class water for all cisterns and irrigation of the hotel grounds.

The hotel separated 100 tonnes of waste and disposed safely of 200 kilogrammes of batteries, 300 kilogrammes of bulbs and lamps and 11,000 litres of cooking oil.

It planted 200 Aleppo pine trees and achieved the European eco-label certification for the environmental procedures put in place.

The next steps were to replace another 3,000 halogen lamps, fine tune the initiatives taken last year, and install a kitchen hood extractor system to reduce air conditioning loss. Another project would convert heating and cooling using solar energy. This would be done in conjunction with Malta Enterprise and European technical partners.

Wolfgang M. Neumann, president of Hilton International Europe and Africa, said that in a year the company reduced carbon dioxide emissions by 5,800 tonnes - the equivalent of taking 1,200 cars off the road.

This, Mr Neumann said, was just the beginning. "We're not perfect and our approach is not fault-free, but our We Care Programme is a step in the right direction."

He congratulated Hilton Malta for outperforming 11 other Hilton hotels in the Mediterranean, one of five regions that comprises Hilton in Europe and Africa.

He said that through its energy saving initiatives, Hilton saved $3.2 million overall.

Hilton Malta general manager Clement Hassid said that by using its position as a major purchaser and consumer of natural resources, the hotel could accelerate the pace at which environmentally-sustainable options were implemented.

Environment Minister George Pullicino said the biggest contributor to CO2 emissions was the agricultural sector. More than 30 per cent of land was being used to produce livestock feed, contributing 18 per cent of CO2 emissions.

Hilton Malta's achievements, he said, were one fine example of how the tourism industry was actively seeking ways to improve upon its operations to ensure that the environment was cared for.