BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Fuego CMS//iCal4j 1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Asia/Qatar TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Asia/Qatar X-LIC-LOCATION:Asia/Qatar BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+032608 TZOFFSETTO:+0400 TZNAME:GST DTSTART:19191231T233352 RDATE: END:STANDARD BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0400 TZOFFSETTO:+0300 TZNAME:AST DTSTART:19720601T000000 RDATE: END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTAMP:20130525T061315Z DTSTART;TZID=Asia/Qatar:20120917T063000 DTEND;TZID=Asia/Qatar:20120917T083000 SUMMARY:QGBC Launches Green Hotel Interest Group in Preparation for COP18 TZID:Asia/Qatar UID:20130525T061315Z-uidGen@ganymede.local LOCATION:Doha DESCRIPTION:Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC) is encouraging the rapidl y-expanding hospitality sector to adopt best green practices in preparat ion for the upcoming climate change conference in Doha (UNFCCC COP 18) by launching its Green Hotel Interest Group (GHIG). COMMENT:[ppm:alt id=277]Qa tar Green Building Council (QGBC) is encouraging the rapidly-expanding h ospitality sector to adopt best green practices in preparation for the u pcoming climate change conference in Doha (UNFCCC COP 18) by launching i ts Green Hotel Interest Group (GHIG).
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\nThe launch\, which took place on Monday\, 17th September 2012\, at the Wyndham Grand Regen cy Hotel\, Doha\, saw leading hotels\, organizations and individuals com e together to open dialogue on supporting and advancing green developmen t within Qatar&rsquo\;s hospitality sector.
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\nEng. Meshal Al-Shamari\, Director of Qatar Green Building Council\, welcomed partici pants and introduced the event: &ldquo\;The establishment and launch of the Green Hotel Interest Group is timely amidst the flurry of activity f ollowing the 2022 FIFA®\; World Cup bid win and the upcoming COP 18. All eyes really are on Qatar right now.&rdquo\; He also highlighted the importance of the sustainable development as a main pillar in Qatar Visi on 2030.
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\nAs part of the organization&rsquo\;s ongoing pro gram to share and encourage good sustainability practices in the built e nvironment\, GHIG will join forces with hospitality partners across Qata r and work towards offsetting the CO2 emissions generated by the hospita lity sector. Alongside the already large number of housing developments currently underway in the country\, 800 more buildings\, including hotel s\, are expected to be built in Doha&rsquo\;s city center alone and this is likely to rise over the next few years.
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\nAshwin Shetty \, Food and Beverages Manager at the Wyndham Grand Regency\, said: &ldqu o\;On an international level\, people are beginning to understand the ch anges that need to start taking place in order to protect the environmen t. Hotels are not exempt from this and there is now an expectation from our guests to see changes taking place within the hospitality sector. Gr een changes hotels can implement include\, serving water in jugs to avoi d using plastic bottles\, to renting iPads for meetings to reduce the us e of paper.&rdquo\;
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\n&ldquo\;We are hopeful that the Gree n Hotel Interest Group will bring together like-minded organizations in Qatar to feel inspired and conjure up fresh ideas to start making a diff erence. Working with hotels\, future initiatives could include collectiv ely composting leftover food to reduce waste\,&rdquo\; he added.
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\nThe event featured a number of specialist guest speakers who di scussed topics that ranged from the importance of initiating a Green Hot el Interest Group in Qatar and low energy lighting for Hotels to the pot ential of establishing an Annual &ldquo\;Green Hotels Award&rdquo\;.
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\nJohn Bryant\, a professor at Texas A&\;M University\, dis cussed the topic of &lsquo\;Continuous Commissioning&rsquo\; which focus ses on the ongoing evaluation of a building's energy consumption. Bryant led his discussion with a thought-provoking question to the audience: & ldquo\;There are about 13\,500\,000 hotel rooms in the world and within the MENA region alone\, there has been an annual growth of 2.4% in the p ast decade. We need to ask ourselves\, are these rooms doing the best th ey can?&rdquo\;
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\nQGBC has already established a number of interest groups within its Research and Innovation Department\, includin g the Solid Waste Interest Group\, the Water Interest Group\, and the Gr een Infrastructure Interest Group. The Green Hotel Interest Group repres ents the latest addition.
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