Beijing plans to select 30 star hotels this year to pilot a
city-wide program aiming to reduce energy consumption by 10
percent, an official with the Beijing Development and Reform
Commission (BDRC) said yesterday.
Five hotels Xiyuan Hotel, Qianmen Hotel, Beijing Railway Hotel,
Hepingli Hotel, and Winterless Hotel became the first batch of
hotels to adopt the program, known as Energy Performance
Contracting (EPC).
The practice is part of the measures taken by the local
government to achieve a Green Olympics in 2008.
EPC is a financing technique that uses cost savings from reduced
energy consumption to repay the cost of installing energy saving
equipment.
An example of possible energy saving measures is hotels changing
to a more efficient lighting system.
BDRC's Director of Environment and Resources Huang Qian
disclosed the program at a meeting held by the Beijing Tourism
Association and the Energy Management Association, which aimed to
promote the new EPC system among hotels and the tourism industry in
Beijing.
"Saving energy and reducing consumption have become major tasks
for the whole of society, and the hotel sector is one of the major
energy consumption industries in China," said Du Jiang, director of
Beijing Tourism Administration.
There are more than 660 star hotels in Beijing and 112 of them
have signed agreements with the Beijing Organizing Committee for
the Games of XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) to provide services.
The hotels in Beijing are the windows for the 2008 Beijing
Olympics, and they have a direct impact on whether or not the
concept of Green Olympics can be achieved, according to Du.
Zhang Jun, director of BOCOG Service Department's accommodation
section, said that utilizing energy friendly equipment and
facilities is crucial for Beijing 2008.
From the end of this year, BOCOG will carry out an investigation
of energy consumption among hotels that will host guests during the
Olympics.
China has put energy saving as a basic national policy and
prominent strategy, said Huang.
For example, the State Council stipulated that the indoor
temperature in summer in all public places should not be lower than
26 C. In winter, the temperature should not be higher than 20
C.
(China Daily August 18, 2006)