Novotel has announced that 32 hotels and resorts throughout Asia Pacific have achieved Green Globe Sustainable Tourism Certification, including three hotels in Hong Kong, and a further 40 hotels have attained benchmarking status — the first significant step towards certification.
The most recent Novotel brand hotels to achieve certification are Accor's three Novotels located in Hong Kong: Novotel Hong Kong Century, Novotel Hong Kong Nathan Road, and Novotel Hong Kong Citigate.
According to Evan Lewis, the vice president in charge of communications for Accor Asia Pacific, certification is achieved hotel by hotel, requiring each hotel to be individually committed to the program and able to demonstrate environmental out performance. He added that the pace at which the program has been adopted by each of the hotels was particularly pleasing, and it resonated well with Accor's overall environmental commitments.
Green Globe Certification takes place in two stages: first an assessment of the environmental performance according to a benchmarking audit; and then the establishment of environmental management system to improve each hotels performance with respect to sustainable development policies. Following this each hotel is externally audited for compliance to Green Globe standards.
Green Globe, an international organization that provides certification for sustainable tourism, was originally established in 1992 by the World Tourism and Travel Council and is based on Agenda 21.
