Starting in 2007, the Macao Green Hotel Award is striding into its fourth year. The Award is organized by the Environmental Protection Bureau (DSPA) and co-organized by the Macau Government Tourist Office. It is also supported by the Macau Hoteliers and Innkeepers Association, the Macau Hotel Association, the Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Center and the Macao Hotel Employees Association. Hong Kong Productivity Council is the Technical Consultant of the Award. The Award was launched to raise the awareness of the importance of environmental management in Macao's hotel industry and commend those hotels which have adopted environmental measures.
The hotel industry in Macao is developing and growing continuously with increasing numbers of new hotels opened. To be in line with the "Framework for Development and Reform Planning for Pearl River Delta Region (2008~2020)" and “Guangdong-Macao Cooperation Framework Agreement”, Macao was positioned as the "Global center of tourism and recreation" as the regional development. The Macao Environmental Protection Bureau initiated the "Macao Green Hotel Award" to promote and encourage Macao’s hotel industry to implement environmental measures. In addition to reducing operating costs and enhancing the green image of hotels, the Award can also align with the government’s future development of environmental laws and regulations in order to respond to the demands of environmental protection from the community.
As the number of entrants for Macao Green Hotel Award is increasing, the Environmental Protection Bureau, together with other co-organizer and supporting organizations, will continuously improve its assessment criteria to promote and encourage Macao hotel industry to reduce emissions proactively and to push forward the development of relevant environmental industry and green purchasing. Meanwhile, the organizer is studying and extending the promotional channels of the Award, to recognize hotels with excellent environmental performance and to upgrade the green image of the hotel industry.
Eligibility
The “Macao Green Hotel Award” is divided into 2 categories. Hotels that operate in Macao according to Portaria n.o 83/96/M, and belong to either one of the following categories, or hotel training school managed by the government are eligible for the award.
Category I: 3 stars hotel or above, and hotel training school managed by the government
Category II: 2 stars hotel or below
(Note: 3 stars hotels and hotel training school has been included in category I since 2010 Macao Green Hotel Award.)
The effective of award is 3 years. If the validity of the award has been expired and the awardees want to continue the Macao Green Hotel Award status, these hotels shall submit their application again. On the other hand, the green hotel awardees of 2009 and 2010 can also submit their application again in 2011, but the award category will be re-evaluated based on the assessment result in this year.
Assessment Criteria
The assessment criteria for the Macao Green Hotel Award are based on 3 areas namely, Green Leadership and Innovation, Green Programme and Performance and Partner Synergy, and had gone through 3 phases, namely “Review of Questionnaire” (The participating hotel is required to fill assessment checklist), “Field Assessment” and “Awards Endorsement”.
Green Leadership and Innovation refers to the level of commitment made by the hotel’s senior management in the pursuit of environmental objectives within the hotel, the commitment of managers and staff to the implementation of environmental initiatives, and how the hotel creates an environment to encourage the generation of green ideas from staff.
Green Programme and Performance assesses the accomplishments made by hotels when carrying out their environmental programmes.
Partner synergy looks at how a hotel explores opportunities to inform suppliers and contractors about the importance of environmental management and encourage them to adopt their own environmental strategies in their individual operations. Furthermore, hotel’s participation in local environmental activities is also relevant.
The mechanism of follow-up assessment
The validity for “Macao Green Hotel Award” is three years. To follow up the environmental performance of the award-winning hotels during the award valid period, these hotels are required to complete the follow-up assessment questionnaire every year and adhere to the Environmental Protection Bureau’s related follow-up measures. For those who cannot follow the requirements stipulated by the Macao Environmental Protection Bureau, their awards will be withdrawn by the Adjudicating Panel.
Hotels which have obtained silver or bronze awards in 2011 “Macao Green Hotel Award” can submit their application again in the next 3 years during the award valid period in order to achieve a higher award level.
The characteristics of 2010 Macao Green Hotel Award
To summarize the experience of past four years, in order to align with the government’s future development of environmental laws and regulations in order to respond to the demands of environmental protection from the community, and to be in line with Macao was positioned as the "Global center of tourism and recreation" as the regional development, the standard of assessment criteria of 2010 Macao Green Hotel Award was higher than the all previous years. Not only 3 stars hotels and hotel training school had been included in category I, and the participants should meet the requirements in water-saving, energy-saving and waste-reducing, but also should meet the other requirements such as restaurants exhaust, light pollution, vehicle exhaust and engineering noise. At the same time, gold, silver and bronze prize were inducted for the first time last year in category I (3 star hotels or above), which encouraged participants to improve actively their environmental performance in order to achieve a higher level of recognition.
Among the awarded hotels in the “2010 Macao Green Hotel Award”, 7 of them received the first “Macao Green Hotel Award” in 2007. These hotels continue to improve their green measures and performance within the 3-year award validation period after receiving the award, and have achieved significant performance in energy-saving, water-saving and waste reduction. Comparing the hotel’s performance between January and November 2010 with that in the same period in 2007, the electricity consumption was reduced by 7% - 42% which is equal to 5180 tonnes CO2 reduction. This is equivalent to carbon sequestered by 120493 tree seedlings grown for 10 years or annual greenhouse gas emissions from 921 passenger vehicles. In addition, the water consumption was reduced by 13% - 41%; and the quantity of waste disposed of was reduced by 13% - 36%. Furthermore, some of these hotels have reduced resources consumption through installation, replacement or implementation of energy-saving and air emission reduction measures. These hotels have participated in different local environmental publicity and education programmes in order to fulfill their responsibility in environmental protection.
By the end of April 2011, 22 hotels have received the 2010 “Macao Green Hotel Award” or holding the “2008-2009 Macao Green Hotel Award”, that is about 45% of the total number of hotels rated with three-star or above in Macao. Building on the recognition and support from the local hotel industry, the numbers of hotels participated in and received the award are increasing progressively.
Enquiries
If you have any enquiry about the Macao Green Hotel Award, please read “The Application Guideline of 2011 Macao Green Hotel Award” in appendix in this book, or contact the Environmental Protection Bureau by as follows:
Address: Alameda Dr. Carlos D'Assumpção, N.os 393 a 437, Edifício "Dynasty Plaza", 10.° andar, Macau
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