MoU Signed to Enhance Resource Efficiency in Hotels

Amman: The Royal Scientific Society (RSS) and the Jordan Hotels Association (JHA) signed a memorandum of understanding on Sunday aimed at enhancing resource efficiency in three-star and below hotels. The signing ceremony, attended by Vice President of RSS Rafat Assi, Vice President of JHA Hussein Hilalat, and Hala Khayat from the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), marks a significant step in the project, said a statement. Rafat Assi highlighted that the project, implemented by RSS in collaboration with GIZ's Employment-Oriented Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSME) Promotion project, provides technical support to 10 Jordanian hotels in Amman, Salt, and Irbid. The initiative aims to implement resource efficiency practices and sustainable solutions to save energy, water, materials, and improve waste management from November 2023 to May 2024. Evaluation results reveal significant opportunities for resource savings in these hotels. Implementing the recommended measures could achieve annu al financial savings of JD27,468, reduce annual energy consumption by 24 percent, water consumption by 34.7 percent, and decrease carbon dioxide emissions by 136 tons annually. Assi expressed hope for the successful implementation of these measures and the sustainability of the project through continued cooperation between RSS and JHA. Hilalat emphasized the importance of the memorandum in improving resource efficiency in the hotel sector, particularly given the sector's high operational costs. He highlighted the development of an electronic assessment tool by RSS to evaluate hotel performance, which encourages managers to adopt measures to reduce energy and water consumption, switch to renewable energy, and implement waste reduction strategies. He also underscored JHA's commitment to environmental initiatives, aiming to educate members on adopting sustainable practices to create a green hotel environment. The project includes an electronic questionnaire to gather primary data from hotels, measure awarenes s of resource efficiency, and develop a self-assessment tool to help hotels evaluate and improve their performance. He thanked all contributors to the project's success, especially GIZ for its support and cooperation. The project developed an electronic questionnaire to collect primary data from the targeted hotels to support the initial evaluation of the hotel and help measure the awareness of hotel owners of the concept of resource efficiency, applied practices and compliance with environmental standards. A self-assessment tool was also developed to evaluate and rationalize resource consumption in hotels, which can be used to evaluate and improve performance and be aware of savings opportunities. Source: Jordan News Agency