To shower or to bath, that is the question

Gerhard Hope.

It is generally well-known that showers conserve more water than baths – depending, of course, on the type of low-flow shower head used.

Imagine my surprise then when I read in The National recently that “the latest luxury hotel to open in Dubai is ripping out shower stalls to replace them with baths.” Why? In the quest for that all-important five-star rating of course, essential to lure the luxury-conscious Dubai tourist.

The hotel in question is the Amwaj Rotana in Jumeirah Beach. Rotana CEO Omer Kaddouri was quoted as explaining that four- and five-star hotels have to have “100% bathtubs” (while a lowly three-star can have half showers and half bathtubs). This is according to the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) hotel rating system.

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What is puzzling about this story is why the Amwaj Rotana remained blissfully unaware of the rating requirements when it went the all-shower route.

Imagine the sheer expense and waste of time and labour involved in having to redo half of them! And this is not an isolated incident either. The same article reported that the Sofitel Dubai Jumeirah Beach had to install 438 bidets in order to obtain its five-star rating.

Just what is the DTCM up to? And why does it seem so far behind the rest of Dubai in championing sustainability and environmental awareness? Or is it that potential hotel guests cannot be bothered with being green when this could raise a potential conflict with being pampered?

While the paying guests themselves may not be particularly environmentally aware – using all the towels and leaving them lying around for housekeeping to pick up, for example – the hotel industry itself is taking sustainability seriously, it seems.

Recently it was reported that the Radisson Blu Hotel near Dubai Creek in Deira received official Green Globe environmental certification from sustainability specialist Farnek Avireal. This involved a substantial investment of AED1.25 million.

“We had already completed a number of sustainability initiatives, such as energy- and resource-saving, the use of biodegradable chemicals and recycling initiatives, but achieving Green Globe status will now have a positive effect on every aspect of the hotel operation,” said chief engineer Arthur Rodrigues.

The Green Globe certification audit addressed a staggering 250 points, he explained. “Some of the inefficient old and high-power consuming air-con equipment was replaced, coupled with an energy-recovery wheel, which cools hot air drawn in from outside before passing it through the hotel chillers.” The achievement was particularly significant given that the hotel opened its doors in 1975.

Also raising the green flag for the hotel industry, Soneva Fushi, Six Senses’ flagship resort in the Maldives, has already achieved eight months’ successful operation of its 70kW PV power plant. This is the largest renewable energy plant currently operating in that country, setting a benchmark for low-cost, clean-energy alternatives.

Interestingly, the thin-film PV panels used for the plant were fabricated in easy-to-assemble kit form by Beck Electric of Germany. The entire system, including tools for assembly, was then whisked off to the Maldives in a 40-foot container, and installed in two weeks by a team of 10 local workers, none of whom had worked with glass or solar panels before.

The hotel is so proud of its achievements it is even giving guests tours of its plant, including an ancillary recycling initiative.

Perhaps the secret to true sustainability in the hotel industry does, indeed, lie in ensuring the buy-in of paying guests. Surely guests will be interested in learning that the hotel they have opted to spend their hard-earned money at complies with the latest sustainability initiatives (while not skimping on luxury treatment either).

It might even be foreseeable in the not-too-distant future that, when guests check out, they receive an ‘energy consumption statement’ along with their bill.

Gerhard Hope is editor of MEP Middle East.