The International Tourism Partnership (ITP), the organization that led the formation of the Hotel Carbon Measurement Initiative and the Hotel Water Measurement Initiative, has just released its Destination Water Risk Index. The DWRI is the result of a collaboration between ITP (project lead), Ecolab (sponsor and data provider) and Greenview (data analysis). Free to download, the Index seeks to help hotel developers, companies, their properties and wider tourism stakeholders to better understand and address their local water risk and its financial implications in the largest hotel markets in the world. The report is a must-read for anyone considering development in areas prone to water shortages.
Presenting the Index, Emilio Tenuta, Vice President of Corporate Sustainability, Ecolab, said: “The Index identifies 12 locations with the highest overall risk when factoring water stress, future water cost increase risk, water usage intensity per occupied room, hotel supply, and hotel pipeline growth. These destinations should be prioritized by companies when designing their water stewardship strategies.”
“Additionally, we’ve identified those destinations which are most susceptible to a water risk premium, because water is so undervalued,” Tenuta added. “We project that in some locations the premium could result in the price of water being more than 64 times higher than it currently is, based on average cost/risk analysis globally. Businesses should also take this into account.”
The destinations with the highest risk water-scarce destinations are in Indonesia, India, Thailand, China, United Arab Emirates and the Philippines out of almost 70 priority destinations analyzed overall. All locations with the highest overall assessment score are in Asia. Ten destinations are foreseen to have a “high” or “extremely high” hotel pipeline growth in the coming years, exposing hotels operating there to increased water risks in the future. One of those destinations is Los Angeles. Los Angeles was found to have an “extremely high” baseline water stress level, and an “extremely high” hotel pipeline growth percent tier.
Treated Sewage Treatment Plant Water
Water shortages can create crises in a hotel market. As described in the Destination Water Risk Index, the five-star Hyatt hotel in Pune, India, faced complicated issues when its water supply was abruptly cut off due to a municipal water shortage. The expansive Hyatt property includes 209 guest rooms, restaurants and banquet rooms. To maintain heating and cooling comfort for its guests and employees in the face of this cut-off, the hotel used treated Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) water in its cooling towers. The index includes other fascinating case studies of hotels and resorts having to get creative to find and conserve water.
If your company builds in area prone to water supply issues, you can certainly expect to pay more for it. The Index suggests upgrading water management practices and infrastructure—close monitoring of water use, rainwater and grey water reuse, leak detecting, sub-metering, etc.
The Index includes a list of all destinations reviewed, with cities ranked from 5 to 1 with 5 being a city most at risk. U.S. cities in addition to Los Angeles landing high on the list include New York City, Denver, Orlando and Phoenix.
The Index hammers home the importance of taking a location’s current and future ability to provide water into consideration. Our industry should not be in the business of helping to stress water infrastructure and the local environment.
Green Lodging News Adds SOL VISTA Case Study to Website
Green Lodging News has added a SOL VISTA case study to its website. The case study details how SOL VISTA was able to use its Skywalk platform to help the DoubleTree by Hilton Bethesda—Washington DC track savings, maintain ongoing performance, comply with local benchmarking laws, and procure cheaper gas pricing. The hotel benefits in many ways from Skywalk. For example, Skywalk tracks electricity demand levels to help maximize incentives from a voluntary demand-response program so the hotel can reduce use during peak demand periods. Also, the hotel’s annual benchmarking compliance submissions to Montgomery County are automated, reducing the margin for error and saving the property time and effort. SOL VISTA also handles professional data verification, as required by Montgomery County law.
To access the entire case study, click here. For more information on SOL VISTA and Skywalk, call (202) 445-9350 or e-mail sales@solvista.com.
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