News & Stories

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Gstaad Palace pioneer for local district heating

17.4.2009

Gstaad. The Gstaad Palace in Switzerland has secured the beginning of a new ecological means of supplying heat. After two months of construction and an investment of 650,000 CHF, the hotel is the first customer of a new district heating network to provide heat from renewable Swiss energy sources.

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"Vote Earth!" - Lights out!

27.3.2009

Berlin. The World Wild Fund for Nature, the foundation for the protection of bio-diversity and the environment has called for us all to turn out our lights for one hour this Saturday, 28 March as part of its "Vote Earth" campaign. The Earth Hour 2009 will take place between 20:30 and 21:30 CET and 56 Fairmont Hotels around the world will be taking part, turning off all lights which can be safely extinguished for this period. 251 NH Hotels around the world will also take part in the event and so expect to save around 800,000 watts of energy. The WWF hopes to attract one billion participants worldwide. At close of editing yesterday, the WWF's website reported that 2,848 cities and communities in 84 countries had registered their commitment. / map

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Clearing the road

Tourism consortium Alpine Pearls pushes holidays without the car

27.2.2009

Salzburg. All in all, 21 Alpine resorts, "Alpine Pearls", have committed themselves to environmentally friendly principles of 'gentle mobility' since 2006. A new EU project may now bring the slow growing but very dedicated tourism consortium further impulse. In Les Gets, France, it's clear what the name "Alpine Perle" means: standing out from other French ski centres in environmental friendliness. "Of course I'm aware of not meeting central European standards, such as those in respect of traffic calming," Vice Mayor Christoph Mutillod says modestly. Les Gets is one of three French members of the consortium.

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The invisible Green

Talk in Africa: A construction company looks into the future of resorts

17.10.2008

Arusha, Tanzania. Construction giant Arup are best known for their eye-catching and epoch-making buildings such as the Bird's Nest, centrepiece of the recent Beijing Olympiad, and the Sydney Opera House. Less well known is the commitment towards sustainability in everything they do. From researching a more environmentally-friendly form of concrete to the sustainable master planning for the Dongtan Eco City near Shanghai. Recognising the longevity and wide ranging impact of the things they construct, think of that legacy of old hotel stock that every large hotel chain has to deal with, Arup also have a whole department looking to the future.

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A lot of labels for sustainable construction

The LEED standard and others: What is behind "green buildings"?

22.8.2008

Augsburg. A "green building" is a building that provides a significantly better eco-balance compared to average. But how can this be measured and documented? Numerous national quality certificates, all with the same goal and all similar in many aspects, find themselves in friendly competition for the favour of the proprietors. The most renowned one is the LEED certificate, which is driven forward by the American Green Building Council.

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"No more green washing of buildings"

Germans create DGNB quality certificate

22.8.2008

Stuttgart. Deutsche Gesellschaft für nachhaltiges Bauen develops a new quality certificate for sustainable buildings. To this end, a newly developed quality certificate for resource-saving buildings incorporates and also extends the ideas of the American LEED standard. Anna Braune, DGNB Office Manager, gives an overview of the background.

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World Water Week: Alarming figures

22.8.2008

Frankfurt. Tomorrow will see the final day of the "Word Water Week 2008". In the past few days, experts, politicians and economic representatives have met in Stockholm to discuss water shortage, water access and usage of water. Martin Geiger, an expert of the World Wildlife Funds demanded internationally coordinated water management. After the CO2 footprint, the term "water footprint" is now making the rounds.

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Tourism discovers the power of water

15.8.2008

Stubaital. Waterfall versus energy industy: In Stubaital, one of the most tourist intensive regions in Austria, a "WildWaterPark" has been created. It serves as the cornerstone against the advances of the ever hungry energy industry.

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The funding pots are full

EU funding programmes for heating and insulating buildings

20.6.2008

Augsburg. Climate protection is "in", and in no other area can it be carried out as efficiently and quickly as in heating and insulating buildings. In Germany, various funding programmes make modernizing heating systems and improving energy efficiency of buildings more attractive. Altogether, the Federal Government provided 3.3 billion euros for measures encouraging climate protection in 2008. In December 2007 and May 2008, 14 laws and seven additional measures were passed to help Germany approach its goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent in 2020 - compared to the base year of 1990. The following articles gives an overview, including a table of the different programmes.

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Survey: US business travelers will pay more for green lodging

23.5.2008

New York. U.S. business travelers are increasingly making daily choices to reduce their environmental impact, and they have specific expectations about the green practices hotels should be adopting today.

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