Fourteen hotels in Macao have been commended for their environmental efforts by the Environmental Protection Services Directorate.
They range from five-star properties such as Hotel Okura in Cotai down to humble guesthouses like Hotel I Fu.
Other awardees included Nüwa, Sands Macao, MGM Cotai and Morpheus which won gold, while Grand Emperor, Countdown and Broadway picked up silver and Riviera, Hotel Waldo and Crowne nabbed bronze. Holiday Inn Express and Pension Cidade were also commended under the ‘Economic Hotel’ category.
First organised in 2007, each Macao Green Hotel Award is valid for three years.
Hotels that have won the award have effectively reduced operating costs and improved their environmental image via environmental protection management, and actively cooperated in the implementation of the government’s environmental protection policies.
In particular, the importation and transit through Macao of disposable plastic straws and disposable non-biodegradable plastic beverage stirrers is prohibited; as part of the promotion of the award, the restaurants of some of the award-winning hotels have not provided such items for many years, while some hotel restaurants do not provide disposable cutlery for meals or takeaways.
In addition, an award-winning hotel has set up a production line for bottled water in glass containers to replace disposable plastic water bottles to reduce plastic waste.
In order to support the achievement of “double carbon” targets in Macao, one hotel has introduced advanced environmental protection technologies, adopting a new eco-friendly refrigerant in the heat pumps for hot water supply, which reduces the potential for global warming by about 99 per cent compared to normal eco-friendly refrigerants, thus helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In recent years, some hotels have installed waste separation and recycling bins in guest rooms to facilitate the practice of separation and recycling.
