Launched in April 2014 with an annual target of offsetting 320 tonnes of carbon emissions, the UAE hospitality group is already celebrating the success of the region's first hotel stay carbon offset programme.
UAE based TIME Hotels has revealed the results of the company's carbon offset accommodation programme, with participating properties collectively helping to surpass their annual goal of offsetting 320 tonnes of carbon emissions achieving 326 tonnes in just over nine months.
Launched during Arabian Travel Market (ATM) 2014, the Middle East's first ever carbon offset hotel accommodation initiative, was put in place at two of TIME's busiest Dubai properties, the TIME Oak Hotel and the TIME Plaza Hotel, which have now offset the equivalent of 188 and 137 tonnes of carbon emissions respectively.
"In financial terms, guests staying at the TIME Oak Hotel contributed over AED 20,600 with guests at the TIME Plaza hotel achieving almost AED 16,300," said Mohamed Awadalla, CEO, TIME Hotels.
Through myclimate, a Swiss non-profit organisation that helps companies around the world to offset their carbon emissions, the money raised will now be used to support two vital offsetting projects in Africa.
The first is a solar lighting initiative in rural Ethiopia, which will help to replace traditional kerosene lamps and the second is a programme that funds energy-efficient cooking stoves for displaced families living in temporary camps in Darfur, Sudan.
"Looking at these carbon emissions from another perspective, it is the equivalent of flying a fully occupied 60-seater plane around the world," added Awadalla.
Working closely with TIME's engineers, Dubai based Farnek, a consultancy which is the Middle East partner of myclimate, calculated that to offset the carbon emissions generated during an average guest's stay, (essentially the consumption of electricity and water), would cost just AED 15 per stay. Each guest who checks-in at one of the participating TIME hotels, is then offered a chance to contribute towards climate protection.
Their contributions are subsequently transferred to the myclimate Foundation, which invests into high quality carbon offset projects. In this way, an equivalent amount of climate-impacting emissions that are generated by a guest staying at a participating TIME hotel, are saved somewhere else in world, replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy.
"The damaging effects of carbon emissions generated by the hotel industry, are simply unavoidable. However, realising that they would never be able to reduce their carbon emissions completely, TIME hotels elected to do the next best thing, which is to offset the environmental damage it is causing. TIME has now set the standard for other hotels in the region to follow," said Sandrine Le Biavant, Director - Consultancy, Farnek.
As part of its innovative and forward-looking vision, TIME Hotels has already implemented a significant number of initiatives to reduce its environmental impact. In terms of sustainability, it is widely recognised as one of the most progressive hospitality groups in the Middle East and two of its properties have already been awarded the prestigious Green Globe Certification.
Time Oak Hotel also recently participated in a 'Time to Clean Up' campaign, where 35 of the hotel staff managed to collect 1.8 tonnes of general waste around the TECOM area.
"At TIME Hotels we are focused on highlighting sustainability across all areas of our business. The early success of this initiative highlights our commitment to support the UAE's strategy to reduce its impact on the environment.
"The initiative is very popular, more than 1,200 guests have chosen to participate so far and we are now looking to extend it to other group properties in the UAE and Egypt," said Awadalla.
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