UAE-based TIME
Hotels has revealed the results of the company’s carbon offset accommodation
programme, with participating properties collectively helping to surpass their
annual goal of offsetting 320 tonnes of carbon emissions achieving 326 tonnes in
just over nine months.
Launched during
Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2014, the Middle East’s first ever carbon offset hotel
accommodation initiative, was put in place at two of TIME’s busiest Dubai
properties, the TIME Oak Hotel and the TIME Plaza Hotel, which have now offset
the equivalent of 188 and 137 tonnes of carbon emissions respectively.
“In financial terms,
guests staying at the TIME Oak Hotel contributed over AED 20,600 with guests at
the TIME Plaza
Through myclimate, a
Swiss non-profit organisation that helps companies around the world to offset
their carbon emissions, the money raised will now be used to support two vital
offsetting projects in Africa .
The first is a solar
lighting initiative in rural Ethiopia ,
which will help to replace traditional kerosene lamps and the second is a programme
that funds energy-efficient cooking stoves for displaced families living in temporary
camps in Darfur , Sudan
“Looking at these carbon
emissions from another perspective, it is the equivalent of flying a fully
occupied 60-seater plane around the world,” added Awadalla.
Working closely with
TIME’s engineers, Dubai-based Farnek, a consultancy which is the Middle East
partner of myclimate, calculated that to offset the carbon emissions generated during
an average guest’s stay, (essentially the consumption of electricity and water),
would cost just AED 15 per stay. Each guest who checks-in at one of the
participating TIME hotels, is then offered a chance to contribute towards
climate protection.
Their contributions are
subsequently transferred to the myclimate Foundation, which invests into high
quality carbon offset projects. In this way, an equivalent amount of
climate-impacting emissions that are generated by a guest staying at a
participating TIME hotel, are saved somewhere else in world, replacing fossil
fuels with renewable energy.
“The damaging
effects of carbon emissions generated by the hotel industry, are simply
unavoidable. However, realising that they would
never be able to reduce their carbon emissions completely, TIME hotels elected
to do the next best thing, which is to offset the environmental damage it is
causing. TIME has now set the standard for other hotels in the region to
follow,”
said Sandrine Le Biavant, Director –
Consultancy, Farnek.
As part of its
innovative and forward-looking vision, TIME Hotels has already implemented a
significant number of initiatives to reduce its environmental impact. In terms
of sustainability, it is widely recognised as one of the most progressive hospitality
groups in the Middle East and two of its
properties have already been awarded the prestigious Green Globe Certification.
Time Oak Hotel also recently participated in a ‘Time
to Clean Up’ campaign, where 35 of the hotel staff managed to collect 1.8
tonnes of general waste around the TECOM area.
“At TIME Hotels we
are focused on highlighting sustainability across all areas of our business.
The early success of this initiative highlights our commitment to support the UAE’s
strategy to reduce its impact on the environment.
“The initiative is very
popular, more than 1,200 guests have chosen to participate so far and we are
now looking to extend it to other group properties in the UAE and Egypt
