The Westin Dragonara Resort, part of the Starwood hotels and resorts chain, has introduced a "Green Council" made up of associates who have implemented specific environment-friendly projects.

Initiatives at the St Julian's include the introduction of a "green room", a reverse osmosis plant, in-house waste separation, paper recycling, power factor corrector, and the installation of energy-saving lighting and appliances.

This year the company will also be investing in new energy and water-saving equipment to further reduce the carbon footprint. Starwood hotels and resorts around the world have been working diligently over the past 18 months to reduce their environmental impact. Many owners have already been involved by working alongside in global citizenship efforts, namely environmental responsibility and community involvement.

Earlier this year Starwood crossed an important journey milestone when it opened its 1,000th property. The chain's brands - Westin, W, St Regis, Le Meridien, Four Points, Aloft, Sheraton, Element - are represented in almost 100 countries and there are plans to open 80 hotels this year, many of these in rapidly growing markets.

As the footprint grows, Starwood has an even greater environmental responsibility and one that is shared across all Starwood hotels. Ambitious yet achievable goals have been set to reduce the use of energy and water. By 2020, the energy goal is to reduce consumption by 30 per cent per available room across all owned, managed and franchised rooms. On the same basis, the goal is to reduce water consumption by 20 per cent. Starwood's innovative edge plays an important role in this work.

A sustainability-centered Element brand is serving as a "greenovation" lab, as hotel operating practices are looked into with an innovative lens. What is discovered at Element about running green hotels is then applied to other Starwood brands.

The Westin Dragonara Resort has also joined over 100 Starwood hotels across Europe, Africa and the Middle East in a powerful global message about environmental awareness and caring for our planet during Earth Hour. The Westin Dragonara Resort took energy-saving measures for one hour by switching off all non essential lighting and reducing all lighting in public areas.