Environmentally friendly hotels awarded

The Environmental Protection Bureau has presented awards for 13 local hotels, acknowledging their efforts in promoting a greener environment in a bid to encourage the industry to participate in protecting the environment.
It’s the 8th edition of the award and it is the first time that a 4-star hotel has won a gold prize. A representative of winning Hotel Beverly Plaza said that the hotel is relatively old and it’s harder for them to save energy but the company tries in different ways, such as replacing gas stoves with electricity powered ones.
The Deputy Director of the Environmental Protection Bureau, Vong Man Hung, said it was the first time a 4-star hotel had won the gold prize; two budget hotels won certificates of merit, indicating that more and more medium and small scale hotels are actively participating in protecting the environment.
A total of 14 hotels participated in the competition, with 13 winning prizes, including Gold Prize for Hotel Beverly Plaza, The Venetian and MGM; Silver Prize for Galaxy, Mandarin Oriental, Hotel Guia, Waldo Hotel and Royal Hotel; Bronze Prize for GrandView Hotel, Pousada Marina Infante and Fu Hua Guangdong Hotel; Certificate of Merit for 5 Footway Inn and Hong Thai Hotel.
This year’s awards were presented recognising the hotels’ performance in 2014. In terms of evaluation for 2015, the Environmental Protection Bureau said it would focus more on criteria like noise control, reducing food waste and light pollution, in accordance with new environmental protection laws and regulations as well as requests from society.