NH Hotels declares solutions for Eco-Design

NH Hotels gathered the company's largest suppliers at the II International Edition of the NH Sustainable Club in Berlin where they discussed and unleashed their solutions in eco-design.

Since NH Hotels started up its Environmental Plan in 2007, up to the first quarter of 2010, NH Hotels calculates it has made savings of up to 12% on its energy consumption (per guest and overnight stay) and 25% on water consumption. It has also cut its CO2 emissions by 16% and its waste production by 17%. These results have been achieved thanks to a wide variety of initiatives, such as new unfreezing processes for products and the new design for the trolleys used by room cleaners, and the new oxo-biodegradable amenities and the new printers that use cartridges made of recycled materials and smaller paper formats.

One of the ideas that has been brought forward is the idea of the Eco-Toilet. NH Hotels has studied, in collaboration with the Spanish Instituto Tecnológico del Agua how to install flow reducers, double flushing toilets and how to reuse drain water, and so generate major savings in water consumption alongside increasing guest awareness. There have been ideas presented by Villeroy & Bosch that involve zero water consumption toilets which means that the urinals use no water when flushing.

Peter del Wing, Head of Innovation at the company Villeroy & Bosch, reflected on how ceramic production processes directly affect the environment because of their water and energy requirements at the preparation, drying, firing and glazing stages, etc. Normally, 20,000 litres of water and 2 tonnes of CO2 emissions are needed to produce a tonne of standard ceramic product. Implementing new processes that use membrane filtering enable reduction of as much as 200 million litres of water a year in the production of ceramics.

Alberto Toquero, the Managing Director of the Mahou-San Miguel group explained how beer can also make a contribution towards making hotels more sustainable. Not only through a more rational distribution process which is more localised and uses hybrid transport, but also changing the perception that a new barrel should be renewed every few years, which is now obsolete. Mahou has designed large beer barrels, using environmentally sustainable materials, to ensure longer intervals between changes, less need for trips and simpler, cheaper recycling of materials.

NHHotels will be looking to develop and put into practice these ideas across its entire hotel portfolio to ensure its hotels in Milan, Brussels hotels, Madrid hotels and Rome hotels through to its hotels in Berlin are even more ecologically friendly.

About NH Hotels:
NH Hotels is the third largest business hotel chain in Europe. NH Hotels has 394 hotels with 58,982 rooms in 25 countries in Europe, America and Africa. NH Hotels now has 35 projects for new hotels under construction, which will provide a further 6,000 rooms.

A feature of NH Hotels is the desire of its employees to give service and seek the satisfaction of guests through the quality of services and constant innovation. The establishments of NH Hotels offer state-of-the-art technologies to help customers in communications, work and entertainment.

For more information, please contact:
Departamento Prensa
NH Hotels
Santa Engracia 120 Edificio Central
Madrid
Spain
+34914519762
www.nh-Hotels.com