Dubai hotels are to set an ambitious target of reducing their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by as much as 20 percent by the end of 2011, in a voluntary environmental scheme revealed on Monday. Dubai's Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) along with leading facilities management company Farnek Avireal, unveiled the DTCM Environmental Awareness Program at The Hotel Show's Seven Star Conference, currently taking place at the Dubai International Exhibition Center. The groundbreaking program aims to make Dubai's hospitality industry more aware of the need to protect the environment and conserve precious natural resources. Sheikha Ebrahim Al-Mutawa, deputy director, Business Development, DTCM, said: “We want to create a partnership with Dubai's hotels, their engineers and energy providers. It is not compulsory to join, but reduced carbon emissions mean lower energy costs, so there is clearly a financial incentive as well as an environmental one.” The announcement comes at a time when many hotels are beginning to experience the new tariff or slab structure introduced on March 1 by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA). Based on Farnek Avireal's energy database, a typical five-star city hotel has a total energy bill of up to AED7 million a year. That would increase by an additional AED4.5 million. For a five-star beach hotel with energy costs of around AED15 million, it will cost an additional AED10 million. Dubai hotels still lag behind their counterparts in Europe, where the average hotel produces 3,000 tons of CO2 emissions per annum. In Dubai that figure is 6,500 tonnes. The comparison on water consumption makes equally grim reading. European hotels use an average of 350 liers per guest per annum, while Dubai hotels consume 850 liters per guest. According to Farnek Avireal, the size of the carbon footprint produced by all 300 hotels in Dubai is around 500 million kilos a year. __
