While buying my supply of sea fish over the weekend, I noticed the prevalence of babies on the shelves: baby squid, baby lobster, baby Malindi Sole.Catching baby fish is an indicator of the poor health of our fish stocks - depleting without proper replenishment. When eating babies, they don't get a chance to grow into adults or spawn new babies.In addition, future fishing livelihoods are at stake - whether the artisanal fisherman or the fishing industry as a whole: in Canada, as many as 30,000 jobs were lost when the once plentiful supplies of cod collapsed in 1992.As consumers - whether as families, restaurants or hotels - we are a major part of the problem and we have the power and choice to be the solution too.Don't eat babies.
Today, 5th June 2008 is World Environment Day.The purpose of this week's EcoBuzz is to demonstrate how every aspect of our lives has some impact on the environment.It may seem as if environmental protection can sometimes be the preserve of "green nutter" environmentalists in western countries who may even go so far as suggesting measures we can take to mitigate the negative environmental impacts of our love lives.But this would be trivialising a far deeper and more penetrating issue.Here in Kenya we heavily depend on the environment, the land, and our natural resources for our well being and our wealth.Inappropriate disposal of condoms, for example, clog up sewerage systems, have to be removed manually, and reduce effectiveness at treating waste water.It is the most vulnerable people in our society who suffer the consequences of our environmental abuse.If we are aware about the really negative environmental impacts of our lives, then we have a responsibility to take action, even when cuddling our beloveds. More information on greening your sex life.
All this talk of going green, but where can you actually buy eco-friendly products or get some good advice about environmental management for your company? The first edition of the Kenya Green Directory, published by Ecotourism Kenya is hot off the press! There are listings of products in the following categories: natural and recycled products; alternative energy; water solutions; accredited environmental laboratories; and certified tourist accommodation providers. There are also listings of consultants and service providers for everything ranging from rain water harvesting and waste water recycling systems through to conservation area planning, industrial energy efficiency and renewable energy system design. If you are looking to purchase eco-friendly products or services, this is an invaluable resource. If you are a reputable supplier of such products and services and you aren't already listed, this is an annually produced directory, so you'd better get in there for the next edition!
Sustainable tourism is not just a “buzz” word. There are increasing numbers of hotels, lodges, campsites and community based tourism products that are trying to turn a profit whilst also taking care on the environmental and social impacts of their operations. The next time you decide to take a holiday, why not choose from places that have been eco-rated? Ecotourism Kenya operates an eco-rating scheme that has certified approximately 50 tourism businesses around the country. Look out for these bronze, silver and gold rated properties and support companies that take their environmental and social responsibilities seriously, visit www.ecotourismkenya.org for more information.
Climate change is without doubt the hottest issue on the global environmental agenda.Whilst a decade ago media coverage and debate centred upon whether the science of climate change was reliable, now the facts of climate change are no longer under dispute: global warming is a reality.What is at stake, however, is how the world should respond to the threats posed by global warming.Whatever complex terms the international negotiating community may use, the key cards upon the political negotiating tables are actually about changes in lifestyles and livelihoods.
It is increasingly becoming clearer that action will be required at the international, national, local and, importantly, personal levels.To illustrate this point, personal choices about “green travel”, “responsible travel” or “off-setting” air travel emissions are becoming more prominent in a tourist’s decisions about where and how to travel on holidays.Mintel, the international market research agency, estimates the current size of the green travel market in the UK, Kenya’s key source market, at over a million responsible holidays taken in 2006 worth a total £409 million pounds. Mintel predicts a 25% growth in this market year on year.The UK’s Carbon Trust rekons the market for voluntary offsets for carbon emissions incurred by air travel is growing by 60% a year in Britain.Whilst green travel or carbon off-setts are by no means mainstreamed within the overall travel and tourism industry, the rapid growth trends cannot be ignored.
In the first of a series of articles exploring tourism and climate change, Anjali Saini introduces the key issues affecting the industry.The second article in the series will investigate how global responses to climate change are being formed and how these may affect the tourism industry locally.This includes a discussion on voluntary off-setting flight emissions, what the carbon finance markets are all about and how they can potentially be tapped into.The final article in the series will further explore the increasing importance of the “responsible travel” markets.
The two-way relationship
The World Tourism Organisation asks that the tourism industry recognises a two-way relationship between tourism and climate change. “On the one hand, tourism has an obligation to minimise its adverse impact on the environment and thus on the emission of greenhouse gases which in turn contribute to climate change. On the other hand, it is recognised that changes to the world's climate will have a direct impact on many tourism destinations which could have far-reaching implications, not just for the tourism industry, but for other economic sectors. The tourism industry needs to be made aware of these consequences and set in train planning processes which will enable it to adapt and adjust its activities accordingly.”
The impacts of climate change on tourism
Already seen in Kenya as a result of drought conditions:emergency encroachment of cattle herds into protected areas, increased levels of poaching for food in marginal lands, and deaths of wildlife unable to cope with extreme conditions.Although drought used to be a natural or cyclical phenomenon, climate change has seen, amongst others, increased incidences of drought over the last ten years, a gradual rise in sea levels and extreme weather events at coastlines.Planning has never been a particular strength in Kenya, yet advance planning that seeks to take into account, adapt and mitigate against increasing incidences of severe drought in wildlife areas or erosion and weird weather patterns at the coast will ultimately protect billions of dollars worth of our tourism assets.And even if we can’t see it now, the insurance industry already does:insurance products and prices in the most vulnerable states in the USA correlate neatly with graphs showing temperature rise as a result of global warming.Over there, the insurance industry has for some years been building climate change impacts into increased premiums, and complex forecasting models have been developed by the industry to try and hedge against “climate risk”.
Tourism as a contributor to climate change
Growth is good and Kenya aspires to a million tourists a year.The potential benefits to the economy are immense.But whilst tourism is at the frontlines of feeling the impacts of climate change, it also contributes to its causes.To receive a million visitors a year means a million flight journeys have been taken.Although air travel only contributes to a relatively small percentage of global emissions currently, it is the fastest growing source of greenhouse gas emissions.The impacts of air travel are more pronounced because at cruise levels, emissions are made directly into the upper stratosphere.Whether we like it or not, it is likely that in as a direct response to this there will in the future be increased levels of direct and indirect taxes and levys in the air transport sector – in fact carbon offsets are already a form of voluntary tax.In the media we have seen that there are trends by the European consumer to avoid horticultural produce that has been flown in and has associated high levels of carbon dioxide emissions.Will this extend to the consumer of long-haul tourism?What position should the Kenyan tourism industry take on this issue?
Air travel and other forms of transportation are by far the most significant contribution by tourism to climate change.However it is also important to note that tourists exert a high per capita consumption of water, energy and other scarce local resources, which exert considerable stress upon the local environment.These stresses, in addition to increasing the carbon footprint of a tourism operation, may well exacerbate the adverse effects that climate change is already having on local ecology:consider the situation of starving cattle, destroyed livelihoods, dying wildlife and yet the continued extraction of water for supply to a lodge swimming pool - all located in the same ecosystem.As the WTO states, “in all such incidences, the destination's sustainability remains a prime concern.”
Resource and energy efficiency, including the use of renewable energies in hotels and resorts, are response mechanisms that need to be encouraged.Ecotourism Kenya’s Ecorating Scheme is an important voluntary response to supporting sustainable operations by the tourism industry but the challenge is to achieve wider uptake by the industry. Growth is good, but sustainable growth is survival.
Anjali Saini is a founder member of Ecotourism Kenya and continues to be a voluntary environmental adviser to the society.She works as an environmental consultant specialising in environmental management, energy efficiency and sustainable tourism.
With one or two key exceptions, Clean Development Mechanism projects have yet to reach their potential in Africa. Anjali Saini argues governments need to grasp the opportunity.
"I’ve had to learn to think like a banker," says Tom Owino, an energy consultant who structured the carbon financing deal for Mumias Sugar Company’s new cogeneration scheme in Kenya. Under the scheme, the company will use sugar cane process waste (bagasse) that currently gets dumped, to generate steam and power for its internal operations. Excess power (25MW) will be available for sale to the grid. The project will also generate carbon revenues from approximately 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) certified emission reductions (CERs) per annum. It is likely to become Kenya’s first fully approved Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project.
According to recent World Bank analysis, the current average market price for CERs is US$10.30. This year, African projects have traded at $8.30 per CER, a discount of $2 from the average. Although the negotiated price for CERs generated by the Mumias project is confidential, it is likely to be at the lower end of the price scale for African projects. "It’s the perception out there about the high risk of investment in projects in Africa that gave us less leverage to negotiate the carbon prices," says Owino.
Reducing risk
In the recent Ai projects summit on project financing for infrastructure development, Professor Charles Soludo, the Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank, argued that African countries must create an enabling environment for investment funds to flow. Pre-requisites include the right institutional and legal frameworks, the right macro-economic conditions, players who have the capacity to develop projects and structure financing and, most important, "skills, skills, skills".
Owino himself bemoans the fact that it took months for Kenya’s Designated National Authority (DNA), the institution responsible for approving projects before they are forwarded to the CDM Executive Board, to provide the required letters of approval. "I know and understand that the DNA is under-staffed and lacks capacity, but taking an uncertain length of time for project approval gives a really negative signal to potential investors out there, who then automatically lump us in the high risk category for carbon projects. This is something that we could and should be able to control."
While a non-level playing field is a major reason why there are not more CDM projects in Africa (unfair methodologies are currently under consideration by the CDM Executive Board), ultimately the political will of a country is the key determinant.
"Look at Honduras," says Mike Bess, International Director for ESD UK, an international consulting firm in energy and carbon finance. "This is a small Latin American country with a similar investment climate to many African countries. What is it that makes a country like Honduras have more CDM projects than sub- Saharan Africa as a whole?"
Stimulating private interest
African countries have no shortage of projects that would make excellent CDM projects, with the potential to attract significant carbon revenues in addition to project-based revenues. Encouraging equitable distribution of CDM projects was on the agenda at the recently held 12th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Second Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP 12 and COP/MOP 2). Dubbed "the Africa COP", one success includes a $60m UN capacity-building initiative, to ensure African countries can access their fair share of CDM projects.
But attracting private sector backers remains the problem. "Without private investment, there can be no CDM, no matter how many consultants are thrown at the problem, capacity-building workshops are held or awareness-raising projects funded," says Stephen Mutimba, Managing Director of ESDA, an energy consulting firm based in Nairobi.
Only a few local experts, such as Tom Owino, have had the opportunity to learn by doing, through initiatives such as the Pembina Institute for Appropriate Development (Canadian NGO) Small Projects Facility, which has supported CDM project development in Kenya, Nigeria and India. The Mumias project, as well as the World Banksupported CDM project development for Kenya’s main electricity generator, Kengen, will do much to address the private sector’s lack of awareness and current scepticism.
The private sector has low awareness about CDM because past capacity-building activities have focused on governments and NGOs. Many have erroneously thought that CDM is more a source of donor funding than a market-based mechanism. This lack of understanding has worked against CDM project development in Africa and discouraged the active participation of the private sector. By contrast, countries such as China, India and Brazil have seen CDM as a business opportunity, rather than development aid, and as a result there are far more CDM projects and much more private sector involvement in these countries than in sub-Saharan Africa.
During the COP, African NGOs called for a $800m "Africa adaptation fund" to give climate change a helping hand. But African governments should work harder towards creating the right conditions for CDM to work throughout the continent, rather than reaching for the begging bowl. Bess compares the prospect of an $800m adaptation fund with revenues generated by Nigeria’s recently CDM-approved project that captures gas that would otherwise be flared for power generation, which will generate $600m in carbon revenues over its lifetime.
"It’s not inconceivable that many more projects of a similar scale can be developed across the continent," says Bess. "Setting aside a portion of the carbon finance revenues generated for the purposes of adaptation and other critical needs is a more sustainable way of generating more funds for a longer term. It’s just that more effort has to be made upfront in order to realise that potential."
Bess’s company, ESD, and its international partners ESDA, Camco International, Greenergy and ESD Ventures, ran a series of parallel side events to the COP/MOP meetings with the theme of "Making the CDM work for Africa". The events were unique because they were the first time the private sector in Kenya, represented by the Chairman of the Kenya Association of Manufacturers, Stephen G Smith (MD Eveready EA), and the Chairman of the Association of Cement Producers, Michel Puchercos (MD Bamburi Cement), collectively expressed their desire to tap into the CDM as an additional source of investment towards cleaner production and new technologies. The local private sector was supported in their statements by key international figures in the CDM, voluntary off-set sectors and an encouraging presence by senior figures in the Kenya Government.
One of the outcomes was a call to target at least a hundred projects to be developed in 2007, and for major international support to be put towards this. Mutimba called for developed countries to follow the example of Austria, by committing to purchase a certain percentage of its CERs exclusively from African countries.
"Such initiatives can lead to a win-win situation" says Michael Schlup, Director of the Gold Standard, an international quality label for CDM projects. "Most projects in Africa have very high potential in bringing about environmental and social sustainable development benefits that are the cornerstones of the Gold Standard certification criteria". Achieving Gold Standard certification, which takes only a little more effort during project development, means that projects are able to sell premium quality carbon credits that can attract a price premium of up to 25 per cent with additional financial benefits for the developer, for example, in project pre-financing. Tapping into the Gold Standard can help to address risk and build more confidence in African generated CERs.
Were a hundred projects to average a level of 100,000 tonnes of CERs each a year, then, with a current market price of $10.3 per tonne of CERs - discounted for risk but escalated for a Gold Standard premium - an estimated $100m a year in carbon revenues could potentially be generated, significantly boosting current levels of project financing on the continent. This could translate to more than a billion dollars in carbon revenues over the typical CDM crediting periods, ranging from seven to twelve years. India, China and countries in Latin America are already capitalising on the opportunities. It’s Africa’s turn.
Anjali Saini is a Kenya-based consultant specialising in environmental management. She is also a director of Integrated Energy Solutions, Kenya’s first Energy Service Company (ESCO)
This article appeared in Africa Investor, January 2007
It is often said that in order to shape the future one must reflect upon the past.Looking back upon ESOK’s development, one of the main things that stands out for me is quite simply that ESOK has been built upon the foundations of strong core values and a high degree of voluntary effort and commitment.
In a way I feel that I have grown up with ESOK, sharing in its successes and its growing pains.I remember first hearing about ESOK at a small workshop held in the Sarit Centre, a side event to the main tourism fair.Chris Gakahu and Steve Shelley were the originators who had developed the concept and steered ESOK through its set up and its nascent years.Don’t forget that at that time it seemed as if all new non governmental organisations were viewed as being potentially subversive and therefore it was no small task even just to get ESOK officially registered as a society.
Thinking about it, I suppose you could see ESOK as being somewhat “subversive”.There are two core values which have consistently driven ESOK’s activities over the years, first the task of trying to “green” the tourism industry as a whole; and second to champion the concept of ecotourism in Kenya.Both values do most definitely challenge the status quo.They require that the industry and its stakeholders think about a wide range issues that previously they felt were not in their business domain and that they take responsibility for these.This change is never an easy process and always meets with resistance.
I mentioned that ESOK had growing pains.These are probably the same pains that many advocacy and rights based organisations go through:internal and external conflicts; tight finances; misunderstandings of mandate or just misunderstandings in general.They are pains that can threaten an organisation’s very existence and they can be expected at any point during its lifetime.However, it was the strength of ESOK’s core values that ultimately pulled the organisation through these teething problems.These values inspired involvement, passion and commitment in a group of individuals who were able to regroup, attract resources and ultimately nurture ESOK back into health.The same values continue to inspire people to volunteer their time to ESOK.In hindsight, the growing pains are the kinds of things that keep organisations on their toes and that continually challenge people to either re-think and strengthen their values or to stand up and defend them.
One of the questions that I am sure ESOK will be asking itself during this period of introspection is how to increase the impact of its activities.Despite ten years of ESOK’s existence; a country with a heightened sense of environmental awareness; the introduction of environmental regulation; and the publication of several national poverty reduction strategies, the challenges faced by ESOK in delivering upon its core values have escalated rather than diminished.
More and more it is apparent that achieving better environmental management in the tourism industry or encouraging ecotourism as a viable poverty reduction strategy requires a system wide approach.I remember arguing at the recent National Ecotourism Conference held by ESOK, that the impacts of good environmental management by businesses within the tourism sector are threatened because there is no level of “fair play” in the entire system, and hence good individual efforts are in fact wasted.To this extent, I believe ESOK needs to be even more “subversive” in its efforts, or to put it another way, much louder in challenging the status quo.The values that drive ESOK are so sound: who would not agree that there needs to be better management of environmental impacts within the tourism industry; or that ecotourism can represent a pathway out of poverty for many people?But without stronger advocacy for system wide efforts where all stakeholders ranging from government, parastatal and county council through to businesses and local communities are forced, through the sheer weight of strong values and public opinion, to start fulfilling the roles they are meant to be playing, how will great impact ever be achieved?
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There are a number of individuals who particularly stand out in my memories of ESOK, both in terms of their outstanding voluntary contributions to ESOK and also for sharing perspectives which have helped me to develop both professionally and personally.First are the two initiators, Chris Gakahu and Steve Shelley, now no longer involved but who had the initial foresight and drive to establish ESOK.Dr. Helen Gichohi, a founder member and mentor to ESOK, was able in conjunction with Chris to tap into their professional networks in order to secure resources to ensure ESOK’s ability to grow.Helen also introduced Jake Grieves-Cook to ESOK, who took over the Chairmanship at a time when there were virtually no members and hardly any activities.Jake is credited with boosting membership, steering through a number of important initiatives such as the ESOK Ecorating Scheme, and firmly establishing ESOK as a voice to be listened to within the tourism industry in fora such as the KTF.In addition, Jake’s experience and high degree of integrity in both the main stream tourism industry as well as in ecotourism ventures with local communities brought a new dimension to ESOK’s operations.He helped to shape thinking on the developmental role of ecotourism and how to manage many of the difficult day to day challenges in meeting this role.Mark Hardy, a fellow volunteer, gave an incredible amount of energy and time to ESOK.I will always remember regular brainstorming development sessions with Mark and Judy Kepher-Gona which served to continually generate thought and ideas, many of which can be seen reflected in some form or other in ESOK’s current activities.Both Judy and Mark are now my friends as well as colleagues.Alan Dixson has been at the forefront, for as long as I have known him, in championing ecotourism in Kenya.His company is one of the few that has actively promoted partnerships between local community entrepreneurs and the established tourism sector, and I know it remains his long cherished vision that these types of partnerships are escalated to the extent that local community ecotourism enterprises become successful businesses in their own right and hence also contribute to local social welfare, and environmental protection.Ernest Mungai, Wycliffe Mutsune and O.T. Ngwiri were also part of ESOK for almost as long as I can remember, finally “retiring” from committee duties at about the same time as I did in order to allow for new energy and ideas.Finally, the late Sandy Vohra, who was among the first business leaders in the mainstream tourism industry to recognise that the industry needed to manage its environmental and social impacts and in providing environmental stewardship to this effect.It was an easy task persuading Sandy, my employer at the time, that the Sarova Group should become an ESOK Founder Member.Although I left the Sarova Group not too long afterwards, it was always rewarding to track their involvement in a number of related initiatives, including the ESOK ecorating scheme, the Nairobi Central Business District Association and the GEF-KAM energy management awards.
March 5th, 2006
Anjali Saini, ESOK Founder Member and Founding Board Member
Kenyan businesses and industries are always among the first to complain about the ever-rising price of energy, but the high cost of supply is only part of the problem. Whilst energy costs are indeed high, surveys indicate that the potential for energy conservation and efficiency remains largely untapped in Kenya's industrial and commercial sectors, with achievable savings estimated at between 15% and 20% of current usage. Despite this significant potential, the actual energy savings realised by the Kenyan tourism industry have amounted to far less than this: energy management in the sector is surprisingly poor. Energy is rarely subjected to the tight controls that are applied, for example, to the management of human resources.
Hotels, tented camps and lodges are a good example. Energy costs represent a large percentage of hotel operation costs, which in turn affect the profitability of the tourism industry and put serious stress on Kenya’s environment and energy infrastructure. To provide hot water for tourists, for example, trees are felled around game parks, or electric water heaters suck power from the already overstretched national grid.
Many cost-effective and sustainable energy supply and end-use alternatives are already available for the Kenyan lodge, camp or hotel: better energy management, more efficient appliances, and renewable energy resources such as solar, wind, micro-hydro or sustainably harvested fuel wood. Although a section of the industry has embraced renewable sources, the majority still use energy inefficiently.
Whilst awareness about energy efficiency has increased substantially as a result of initiatives such as the GEF-KAM Industrial Energy Efficiency Project, the National Energy Management Award and a number of Ecotourism Kenya supported programmes, it is clear that there are still a number of barriers that are inhibiting companies to invest in energy efficiency projects in their facilities.
There are a number of ways that the barriers can be addressed and in reality it will always require a comprehensive approach through a mixture of Government support (for example through policy instruments and fiscal incentives) combined with voluntary initiative by the private sector. It also requires that companies and individuals "think outside the box" when reviewing the way in which they are using energy. In Japan recently, the Prime Minister promoted a half-sleeved business suit for use during summer to try and reduce air conditioning loads in office buildings. The initiative never caught on because the suits looked rather odd to the otherwise conservatively dressed Japanese executives (and indeed the rest of the world), but it certainly made a very widely-publicised point!
Energy auditing, a tool used to assess an organisation’s energy use, make it more efficient and reduce costs, is not a new concept in Kenya, but very few businesses make use of it. There are a number of reasons for this:
1. Most businesses don’t see the need to pay consultants for energy audits, preferring instead to deal with equipment manufacturers and suppliers who carry out audits in order to demonstrate the energy saving potential of their equipment. The perception here is that this is ‘free’ advice, and while such assessments may be useful, they are not independent, and may not take into account alternative energy options that could serve a particular need more efficiently.
2. Professional and independent advice is perceived to be expensive. The usual story: consultants or outside experts come into a company, write a report and send it to the MD - who yells a little and then files the report away in a dusty cabinet. An expensive waste of time? Done in this way, it is indeed. Paul Kirai, project manager of the KAM-GEF project on industrial energy efficiency, says that it has become increasingly apparent that a company may need some ‘hand-holding’ to implement the recommendations made in an energy audit report, to make sure that the recommended savings actually occur. It is also important to improve the quality of the energy audit to give confidence to the client. Many times audit recommendations are made from "an outsider's" perspective and fail to recognize the practical limitations at the enterprise level, (human, technical and financial) of the measures proposed. It is for this reason that there have been many energy audits in the past whose recommendations have never been implemented.
3. Implementing energy audit recommendations can be expensive. Significant energy savings can be realised through tighter monitoring (things financial controllers are good at) and “soft” management actions - increasing staff awareness and motivation about energy management and providing incentives for good practice, and are relatively inexpensive. In reality, however, as electricity is the most expensive energy source in Kenya today, equipment retrofits or substitution aimed at substantially reducing electrical loads are likely to achieve the highest energy savings. One example: using electricity to heat water for hotel bedrooms may take up to 15-20% of a hotel’s electricity bill. Using solar water heating panels with electrical boosters can reduce this to about 5%, but also requires purchasing new equipment - a prospect few hotels, lodges or camps can consider in these grim times or against competing requirements such as upgrading room decor or purchasing new kitchen equipment.
In order to address some of these problems, the Ecotourism Society of Kenya (ESOK), EcoForum and Energy Alternatives Africa (EAA) are working together on an innovative project to support better energy management in Kenya’s tourism industry by creating a model for cost-effective, environmentally-friendly and sustainable energy management, and publicising the benefits. EAA has conducted energy audits for two tourism facilities, chosen through a competitive process offered to members of the Ecotourism Society of Kenya, and is now following up the audits with technical support and monitoring visits over a six-month period. Updates and experiences from the project will be published in this magazine, and made widely available to the tourism industry through the Ecotourism Society of Kenya. The UK-based Staples Trust has provided a substantial subsidy for the cost of the audits and follow-up services to the hotels.
The two successful applicants were both coastal resorts. Energy costs tend to be high for such facilities, which cater for longer stays, are usually connected to the national grid and use substantial amounts of electricity for air conditioning, cooking, pumping, water heating and laundry services. The Voyager Beach Resort is a 232-bed hotel seven kilometres north of Mombasa, catering primarily to the charter tourism market. Hemingway’s in Watamu is a Small Luxury Resort of the World catering to the high-end tourism market, with 75 bedrooms. Audits have been carried out at both hotels; the next step will be for the hotels to agree upon action plans with specified targets and schedules.
The preliminary results
Both resorts use a similar mix of energy sources: grid electricity, liquid petroleum gas for cooking, diesel for generators and/or boilers, and charcoal for cooking (charcoal is used mainly for “speciality cooking” eg bbq on a theme night. In terms of overall cost the amount of charcoal used by a hotel is not too significant, but in aggregate the coast tourism market exerts significant charcoal demand – good market for legitimate suppliers of charcoal, but since it’s not legal, how are they being supplied?). Both resorts demonstrated a high degree of energy management awareness, although this awareness was confined to the maintenance department of Voyager Beach Resort, and to the senior management at Hemingway’s Resort. In order to achieve significant savings with minimum cost, all staff must be aware of and involved in the energy management programme. While management recognises this, there had been no formal policy, cost accounting procedures, training or team building with respect to energy management. These are all activities that help to build awareness over time. It must be realised that there are no quick fixes, and that energy awareness and management needs to be a continual process, built into a hotel’s regular activities and programmes.
Some management measures do require a low to medium level of investment. There are essentially two principles in operation here: first, you can’t manage what you don’t measure; and second, always try to eliminate scope for human error in control systems. In the first case, strategically installing meters throughout a hotel will enable better accounting of energy to specific cost centres. This may help certain decisions to be made. For example, a better idea of the true costs of a laundry operation has encouraged some hotels in Kenya to completely outsource their laundry service at substantial savings. Metering also helps with establishing energy improvement targets, and monitoring against these targets. Simple spreadsheets may be used to input data and generate management reports showing performance and highlighting any problem areas. In the second case, the installation of timer switches can ensure that appliances are not left on longer than they need to be. Typical examples are swimming pool and fountain pumps, or outdoor feature lighting, which do not need to be left on all night. Amazing as it may sound, this is a common practice in hotels and resorts in Kenya. In one interesting case, the level of potential savings could have justified the creation of a new dedicated "energy manager" position at the hotel with plenty of change to spare.
Ideally, energy efficiency systems are planned before the hotel is built, ranging from provision of hot water through to appropriate types of lighting. Hemingway’s, for example, incorporated the use of solar energy to heat water for bedrooms in its original design, and thus saved a great deal of money from the outset. While water heating for rooms takes up approximately 19% of the electricity bill at Voyager, only 6% of Hemingway’s bill goes to heat water.
Poorly designed, inefficient systems have high operational costs, and will require retrofits later on. In the current economic climate, few hotels can afford the high capital costs of these retrofits, and so make do with existing, expensive systems. Either way, profitability suffers.
Telling this to an operational hotel may seem a bit like crying over spilt milk, but all good hotels have regular refurbishment programmes, and these represent good opportunities for including changes to more efficient systems. For example, by implementing changes to air conditioning and water heating in the recent refurbishment programme of an entire block of bedrooms, Voyager Beach Resort has managed to reduce costs per room by 10% and 30% respectively. Carrying out a phased approach to investment in better energy systems is more likely to build the argument for capital investment needs to the hotel’s owners and senior management. Where possible, trials should be carried out in a sample area, and performance monitored. A good start is in the replacement of ordinary light bulbs with energy efficient lamps, which last longer and are up to 75% more efficient. Lights that are left on all night for safety and security purposes should be the first to be replaced. Financing is always a problem, but senior management know that investment in energy improvements can be considered as investment in a profit centre: every shilling saved is a shilling added to the bottom line.
Recommendations to both Voyager Beach Resort and Hemingway’s Resort incorporated no-cost, low-medium cost, and high cost measures. The project initially focused on the no- and low-cost measures, setting the stage for investment in medium and high cost measures by proving their potential for substantial energy savings.
This article is adapted from versions that appeared in Ecoforum Magazine, Vol 26 No. 2, Long Rains Edition, 2002 and an updated version in Ecotourism Kenya's Special Edition 10th Anniversary newsletter, October 2006.
