The UNWTO launched a new project leading to at least 20 percent overall energy savings and increasing renewable energy use by 10 percent in hotels. It targets particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which represent the vast majority of hotel rooms in the accommodation sector and who can benefit from best practice trends and technology advances.
 

The project brings together partners from the hotel, environment and renewable energy communities and is supported by the European Union. Over half of the world’s 5.9 million hotel rooms are located in Europe. 90 percent of these are in small and medium hotels, while the remaining 10 percent belong to major groups.
 

The project will create a toolkit to assist investment decisions, improve access to new technologies, and build support networks. It will target savings from heating, cooling, lighting, washing and drying in pilot hotels by at least 20 percent overall energy savings, and increase of renewable energies production by 10 percent.
 

As well as small and medium hotels, beneficiaries will include hotel associations, national tourism bodies, destinations and tour operators, as well as green technology suppliers and manufactures. The project outcomes will be extended around the world and demonstrated on http://www.climatesolutions.travel/.
 

Launching the project at World Travel Market, UNWTO Assistant Secretary-General Geoffrey Lipman said, “In our Davos Declaration Process on Climate Change we established a way forward for the tourism sector to become climate neutral in the front ranks of the global community. We have to start now and this project is exactly the kind of collaborative public private initiative we shall be seeking around the world.”
 

UNWTO’s partners in this endeavor are the UN Environmental Program (UNEP), the International Hotel and Restaurant Association (IHRA), the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) and the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC).

The total value of the project is 1,148,092 euros, with 75 percent provided by the Intelligent Energy-Europe Program, which recognizes the role of the tourism industry regarding energy efficiency policies in Europe. The remaining 25 percent will come from the partner agencies.