NH Hoteles Receives Greenbulding Award

Released on: March 23, 2010, 6:42 am
Author: NH Hoteles
Industry: Travel

NH Hoteles has announced that it has received a 'Greenbuliding' award by the European Commission for the energy efficiency plan of the ambitiously renovated NH Príncipe de la Paz in Aranjuez.

The European Commission's GreenBuilding programme accredits the most environmentally friendly buildings that are not used as homes, as far as their energy consumption is concerned. NH Hoteles recently won this award for two of its hotels; a hotel in Barcelona (NH Podium) and one in Seville (NH Central Convenciones). The hotel chain will present its environmentally efficient initiative to some of its other 398 hotels for this programme.

After winning two Spanish prizes last January, the European Commission, in its GreenBuilding Programme, has awarded one of its 13 international prizes to the NH Príncipe de la Paz in Aranjuez. Luis Ortega, the Head of the Environment and Engineering for the NH Hoteles, picked up the prize at the Convention Centre in Frankfurt.

Since September 2009, NH Hoteles has been one of the European Commission's Partners
for achieving its Environmental Plan, specifically in the GreenBuilding Programme. This project was started up in 2005 and aims to officially accredit non-residential buildings that are highly environmentally friendly with regards to their energy consumption. In particular, it certifies buildings which, over the last five years, have managed to achieve cutbacks of at least 25% in their total energy consumption. The first hotel in the chain that was accredited was the NH Príncipe de la Paz.

The renovation programme carried out at the NH Príncipe de la Paz achieved reductions of 1,930,928 Kwh in primary energy consumption, equal to the average home consumption of 1,300 people in a year and a reduction of 1,073 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

To achieve these targets, the hotel not only set up a system of comprehensive checking of its electricity, water and gas consumption, but also implemented technical measures and improvements in management. In addition to replacing all its energy inefficient light bulbs in its rooms and common areas, the NH Príncipe de la Paz cut down the amount of installed power in rooms by 68% without impairing brightness levels, implemented programmes for controlling the timing of outdoor lighting, installed automatic sensors for detecting presence, put up solar sheets on the windows to lessen air-conditioning requirements, improved the systems for extracting and detecting smoke in the kitchens and installed a centralised system for managing its air-conditioning facilities.

In the area of management measures, after carrying out an in-depth energy audit to detect poor practices, specific training and awareness courses were set up for employees in the NH Príncipe de la Paz hotel and the work force was involved in an energy saving campaign.

About NH Hoteles:
NH Hoteles is the third largest business hotel chain in Europe. NH Hoteles has 349 hotels with 52,856 rooms in 22 countries in Europe, America and Africa, including hotels in Brussels, hotels in Amsterdam and hotels in Madrid. NH Hoteles now has 54 projects for new hotels under construction, which will provide more than 8,000 further rooms.

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

As a responsible company that is a reference in the tourist industry, NH Hoteles offers hotel services that anticipate the needs of all our stakeholders: Employees, Customers, Suppliers, Shareholders, Society and the Environment, taking the greatest care over detail and providing efficient, sustainable solutions.

NH Hoteles is listed on the Madrid Stock Exchange.

PR Contact:
Departamento Prensa
NH Hoteles
Santa Engracia 120 Edificio Central
Madrid
Spain
+34914519762
www.nh-hoteles.com