Nearly zero, nearly there

The Nearly Zero Energy Hotels (neZEH) is an initiative inspired by the European Union's targets for the greenhouse gas reduction and co-funded by the EU's Intelligent Energy Europe Program.

Its purpose? To accelerate the rate of refurbishment of existing hotels, namely the small to medium, helping them to become Nearly Zero Energy Buildings by:

- providing technical advice to committed hotel owners

- demonstrating the profitability, feasibility and sustainability of investments towards nearly zero energy

- undertaking training

- promoting front runners at national, regional and EU level to increase their market visibility

The neZEH claims as benefits for the hospitality sector:

- energy savings and thus reduction of operation costs

- an improved image and service for guests

- access to a new "sustainability" market segment

- achieving Corporate Social Responsibility targets and sustainable balance

The initiative, a consortium of European institutes and agencies and the UNWTO, will run for three years (2013-2016) and includes several pilot projects in 7 countries.

In the next few weeks, we'll try to unveil more about those particular projects.

source: http://www.nezeh.eu/home/index.html

Sustainable Tourism

The United Nations World Tourism Organization defines sustainable tourism as "Tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities"

Therefore, it should:

1) Make optimal use of environmental resources that constitute a key element in tourism development, maintaining essential ecological processes and helping to conserve natural heritage and biodiversity.

2) Respect the socio-cultural authenticity of host communities, conserve their built and living cultural heritage and traditional values, and contribute to inter-cultural understanding and tolerance.

3) Ensure viable, long-term economic operations, providing socio-economic benefits to all stakeholders that are fairly distributed, including stable employment and income-earning opportunities and social services to host communities, and contributing to poverty alleviation.

http://sdt.unwto.org/content/about-us-5