Sofitel The Palm Dubai earns Green Globe “Gold Status”

Sofitel The Palm, Dubai has deservedly reaped the Green Globe certification, this time “written in Gold”.

Having upheld the said certificate’s overall requirements – as evident through the extensive audit carried out by Green Globe’s independent auditors – a third party inspection team ultimately awarded the “Gold Status” validation to the 5-star resort. This “Gold Status” reward, granted in recognition of the resort’s 5 years of continuous certification, reflects the commitment of Sofitel The Palm towards minimizing the impact of its activity on the environment, and mirrors its adherence to environmental sustainability policies. “The resort has proudly met and maintained the Green Globe Certification guidelines since the opening, earning the title of environmental champion and making real progress towards sustainability, all the while demonstrating the growing reach of this prestigious award. We are extremely proud of the hard work and dedication of all our members of staff, highlighting a true commitment towards sustainability,” said Sofitel The Palm’s General Manager, Christophe Schnyder.

Green Globe is the premier worldwide certification and performance improvement program developed specifically for the travel and tourism industry. It assists organizations to improve their economic, social and environmental sustainability while being rewarded and recognized for it. The Green Globe standard provides organizations with a framework to conduct a comprehensive assessment of their environmental sustainability performance, through which they can monitor improvements and achieve certification. Accordingly, an audit is carried out for the purpose of assessing the progress, ongoing compliance with applicable standards, and continuous improvement.

“In choosing the award recipients, several criteria are taken into account throughout the audit process. Sofitel The Palm has proudly applied sustainability requirements by means of energy efficiency and by sorting and recycling waste. The resort has maintained an efficient waste segregation program which has enabled us to recycle 470 tons of cardboard and paper, 120 tons of plastic, 150 tons of glass, 8 tons of cans and 60,000 liters of used cooking oil to date,” explained the Director of Engineering, Rohit Salunke, who has proven to be instrumental in the implementation and up keeping of Green Globe guidelines. In addition, the resort has introduced Epson printer technology, avoiding the printing of credit card slips upon completion of any transaction, promoting QR codes, cutting down on food waste through the cutting edge food reduction technology, WINNOW, participating in the Soap for Hope program to recycle discarded bathroom soaps, encouraging guests to reuse linens and towels during their stay, and limiting access to printed newspapers throughout the resort, replacing those with online applications.

In light of our guests’ full understanding and utmost support to the sustainability program we are venturing into, we succeeded in introducing drastic changes to our overall approach to economic, social and environmental sustainability. Of those major changes we mention: making available to guests the Tesla car model for airport transfers and transportation around the city, in a bid to support the move in accelerating the world’s transition to sustainable energy. We also removed trash cans from administrative offices and replaced them with centralized recycle bins, separating waste into paper and plastic, hence contributing to the recycling rally. Bearing in mind that saving energy is tantamount to rescuing the planet, we constantly encouraged activities that aimed at raising awareness of the environment and generating positive change.