| December 7, 2000 - Christopher J. Balfe, President of the ECOTEL®
Certification program, announced that the Hilton Nagoya passed an unannounced
environmental inspection last month. The Nagoya hotel became a member
of the ECOTEL® collection in December of 1999, and thus did not expect
to be re-inspected until their two-year membership came to an end in December
of 2001.
Inspectors from the ECOTEL® team arrived at the hotel before 8 AM
on Thursday, October 6th, and immediately began the surprise inspection.
“This particular unannounced inspection was interesting for two reasons,”
said Balfe. “First of all we never expect anyone to score as high
as Nagoya did today in surprise inspections.”
| The inspection began first in the main kitchen
where breakfast service was underway, and then continued to the recycling
station, through the guest floors and the executive lounge area, into the
top floor bar, back down through the specialty kitchens for the Japanese
and Chinese restaurants, and finally through the front and executive offices.
The Hilton scored nearly perfect marks in every department. Some
of the scores were actually higher than those of the initial inspection.
Balfe |
Hilton Nagoya
A 28-story, 450room luxury hotel,
one of
the tallest buildings in Nagoya
|
added that this was rare, since hotels usually work very hard to prepare
for their initial ECOTEL® inspection.
“The second reason that this inspection was interesting was that the
staff members were completely un-phased when they realized it was an ECOTEL®
inspection,” continued Balfe. The Hilton Hilton’s environmental program
is one of the finest in Asia; the employees obviously know that their efforts
will stand up to any test at anytime. And the staff members were
correct. During the inspection many staff members pulled their ECOTEL®
mission statement cards out of their pockets and displayed them to the
inspectors without being asked to do so. “It was very business as
usual in the kitchen where most of the action at that hour is,” said Balfe.
“I was totally impressed.”
Some of the managers and Green Hands Committee members (the hotel’s
environmental team) were more concerned. Purchasing Manager Mr. Naoki
Tatematsu said, “We thought it was a bad joke when we heard that an inspection
had begun that early in the morning. Most of us are not even in at
that early hour.”
Personnel Manager Mr. Yasuhiro Kamiya added, “The surprise definitely
shortened our lives." Now that the inspection is over, the entire
Hilton Nagoya staff has something to be proud of, as this was the first
unannounced ECOTEL® inspection ever performed in Japan.
The ECOTEL® inspection is based on five separate inspections each
with a
three-tiered numerical scoring system. The five inspections correspond
with the five globe awards:
-
Environmental Commitment
-
Solid Waste Management
-
Energy Efficiency
-
Water Conservation
-
Employee Environmental Education & Community Involvement
Within each globe inspection there are three levels of criteria and scoring:
Primary, Secondary and Tertiary scores. All hotels applying for certification
must satisfy all of the primary criteria before an inspection will be scheduled.
The hotel must prepare an application including descriptions of how the
primary criteria are achieved, and include descriptions of other environmental
efforts and programs that are in place at the hotel.
Once it is evident that all of the primary criteria have been satisfied,
inspections are scheduled to ascertain the lodging facility’s score according
to the secondary criteria. Inspections—both guided by hotel staff and unannounced—are
completed throughout the lodging facility to determine if the environmental
programs that the hotel reports to have in place are actually part of the
day-to-day operations.
Each department or function area of the hotel (i.e., main restaurant
kitchen, banquet kitchen, room service kitchen, front desk and office area,
executive office areas, etc.) is inspected and scored individually. A percentage
score is calculated for each department inspection, and each department
must score above a set level to be awarded the certification. If any department
scores below that level, but above a minimum threshold, the tertiary criteria
(described herein) can boost that department’s score in order that the
hotel may achieve the award.
The tertiary criteria are most easily described as a bonus system. The
hotel receives bonus points for environmental programs discovered in operation
that are not part of the primary criteria, and are considered to be above
ordinary levels of environmental responsibility. An example of a program
that would earn tertiary points in the solid waste management category
comes from a hotel in Latin America that collects cigarette butts and soaks
them in solution to draw out chemicals, which are then used as pest-repellent
for the fruits and vegetables grown on-site before the butts are disposed
of.
Based on the hotel’s NRS score in each category, the lodging facility
will receive from zero to five ECOTEL® Globes, corresponding to each
of the five cornerstones. Hotels that achieve the globes qualify as ECOTEL®-certified
hotels for a period of two years, but must agree to re-inspections (announced
or unannounced) at any time during that period. If the hotel falls short
of achieving certified status, the HVS International inspection team will
prepare an action plan to help management make the changes necessary and
prepare for re-inspection. |
 The
ECOTEL® Certification, managed by HVS Eco Services, is widely regarded
as the hospitality industry’s most challenging certification. The
criteria and inspection system was designed by a team that included experts
from the world-renowned environmental think-tank, the Rocky Mountain Institute,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and hospitality and engineering
experts. The certification recognizes only those hotels leading the
industry in environmental excellence, and the criteria are updated every
two years to keep current with evolving environmental trends in hospitality.
Thus members of the collection must be re-inspected once every two years
to retain their certified status. Furthermore, members must agree
to unannounced inspections anytime during their two-year membership period.
HVS International was created in 1980 to satisfy the growing demand
for reliable and well-documented hotel market studies and feasibility reports.
With eleven offices worldwide, HVS offers a vast range of services including
valuations, strategic analyses, development planning, litigation support,
executive search, waste management, gaming and restaurant consulting, asset
management, operational and management strategy development, and timeshare
consulting services. |
