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The Orchid Home
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January 12, 2001 THE ORCHID PASSES ECOTEL® INSPECTION - RETAINS FIVE-GLOBE CERTIFICATION Christopher J. Balfe, President of the ECOTEL® Certification program, has announced that The Orchid Hotel in Mumbai, India, passed an environmental inspection last month. The Orchid became Asia's first hotel to win the ECOTEL® certification shortly after opening in May of 1997. Under the management of the Orchid Owner Vithal Kamat and Director Param Kannampilly, the hotel has earned more environmental accolades than any other hotel in the world. With this latest achievement, The Orchid becomes one of only four hotels in the world to maintain top-level, "five-globe," ECOTEL®-Certified status. The ECOTEL® Certification is a unique program with very stringent acceptance criteria. Since the ECOTEL® Certification's creation in 1994, over 1,100 hotels from more than 30 countries have applied for the certification. To date, less than 5% of these applicants have ever actually passed the certification inspection. For this reason, the ECOTEL® Certification is highly regarded. The Orchid exhibits every characteristic one would expect to find at an operation that is considered world-leading in the realm of environmental responsibility. The hotel's Green Team has created a solid-waste-management system so detailed that the only waste that does escape is composted in the on-site vermiculture zone; most of the bricks and cement used in the actual construction of the hotel utilize recycled materials; and all of the wooden furniture inside the hotel is made from recycled cotton plants. Additionally, solar panels adorn the roof terrace, and cutting-edge thermal ice storage equipment helps the hotel conserve energy during periods of high demand. The guestrooms even include an "Eco-button" conservation device invented by Mr. Kannampilly. The Orchid also provides CNG vehicles to transport guests from the airports to the hotel. Valentine Lehr, principal of the internationally acclaimed engineering consulting firm Lehr Associates, conducted the ECOTEL® inspection at the Orchid. Throughout the four years that the hotel has been in operation, the engineering team headed by Chief Engineer Mr. K. P. Das has gone to great lengths to monitor consumption levels. After a detailed inspection of every facet of the hotel and its consumption reports, Mr. Lehr commented that "consumption levels here are far below the norms for full-service luxury hotels." But it is not these elements that make the Orchid's environmental program particularly extraordinary. What makes the Orchid a leader in the hospitality industry are the totally new and innovative ideas that the managers and staff at the hotel have conceived and turned into action. Much of what the Orchid focuses its time on today is unparalleled in the hotel industry. For example, the Orchid's work with community and environmental organizations is unprecedented. The hotel works with more than 12 non-government organizations (NGOs) dedicated to environmental goals. It also created the first corporate-sponsored Advance Land Management (ALM) program, whereby residents get together, pool their money, and hire clean-up crews and landscapers to restore and beautify their surroundings. Never before had a corporation taken the initiative. Soon after beginning the ALM, nearly every one of the Orchid's neighboring hotels had become involved. In one example, the Green Team put together an event to organize volunteers to participate in a local drive to clean up plastic bags from the streets of Mumbai. The event turned out to be more successful than even the hotel could imagine, with volunteers from more than 70 schools collecting some 2.25-million plastic bags from the streets. The amount of plastic was enough to fill a delivery truck so tightly that not another bag could be added. All of this was accomplished in under 30 days. In another example, the hotel worked with the government to establish a pollution-control check-point where staff from the hotel inspected taxis for the proper pollution-control devices, and issued fines to those taxis that were not properly equipped on behalf of the government. This event was so successful that staff now plans to form mobile brigades of pollution inspectors to cover more territory. Currently, the Orchid is finalizing a project to help other local hotels finance the replacement of CFC air conditioners with environmentally responsible new equipment. For a more detailed list of the Orchid's many community and environmental contributions, The ECOTEL® Certification, managed by HVS Eco Services, is widely regarded as one of the hospitality industry's most challenging tests of environmental responsibility. The criteria and inspection system were designed by a team which included experts from the world-renowned environmental think-tank, the Rocky Mountain Institute, as well as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The ECOTEL® criteria are updated every two years to keep current with evolving environmental trends in hospitality; thus, hotels must be re-inspected once every two years to retain their certified status. Furthermore, members must agree to unannounced inspections anytime during their two-year membership period. HVS International was created in 1980 to satisfy the growing demand for reliable and well-documented hotel market studies and feasibility reports. With 12 offices worldwide, HVS offers a vast range of services including valuations, strategic analyses, development planning, litigation support, executive search, waste management, gaming and restaurant consulting, asset management, operational and management strategy development, and timeshare consulting services. |
