Jumeirah hotels awarded Green Globe Certification

Dubai, 09 February 2014: Jumeirah Group, the Dubai-based luxury hotel company, and member of Dubai Holding, is delighted to announce that two properties have been awarded the Green Globe Certification (GGC) for implementing energy-saving measures throughout the hotels.

The hotels join Burj Al Arab which has also been awarded the internationally renowned certificate. In 2012 Jumeirah Emirates Towers became the first Jumeirah property to receive GGC and this is the third year the hotel has been approved. Jumeirah Emirates Towers’s current Green Globe audit score is 91%, the highest in the UAE and the Gulf region.

Grant Ruddiman, General Manager at Jumeirah Emirates Towers, said: “Since becoming the first hotel within the Jumeirah Group to embrace the Green Globe programme in late 2011, we have made tremendous progress and seen year-on-year results. We have made major improvements and witnessed significant savings in terms of electricity and water consumption. Jumeirah Emirates Towers has positioned itself as a responsible and sustainable hotel and commercial complex which is proven in our recent 2013 audit results where we were awarded the highest score in the GCC.” Click here to watch an interview with Grant Ruddiman.

Jumeirah Beach Hotel was also certified by Green Globe for its outstanding sustainability management plan. The hotel’s green policies have been developed in line with its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme. Energy-saving measures include an upgraded chiller plant which utilises evaporative cooling systems and waste heat recovery, to reduce electricity consumption by 20%. In addition, environmentally friendly LED bulbs have now been fitted throughout the hotel, resulting in substantial cost and energy savings.

General Manager of Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Mahmoud Sakr, said: “We are delighted to have received this prestigious certification which highlights our ongoing commitment and dedication towards a more sustainable future. The property has ambitious goals for 2014 to continue to focus on environmental sustainability across all departments.”

GGC is the premier worldwide sustainability stamp for the tourism industry and is made up of 337 compliance indicators, applied to 41 individual sustainability criteria. The Green Globe Standard is a structured assessment of the sustainability performance of travel and tourism businesses and their supply chain partners. Also highly commended during the audit was the hotel’s Pavillion Dive Centre’s Disabled Diving Centre, created by Tawasul and Disabled Divers International (DDI). “It is the only such facility in the UAE with professional DDI Instructors and Dive Masters, aiming to promote, develop and conduct disabled scuba diving training programmes for professional and non-professional diving students,” said Sandrine Le Biavant, Director Consultancy, at Dubai-based FARNEK, Green Globe’s preferred partner in the Middle East and the company responsible for carrying out the certification audit.