SEYCHELLES is predominantly a destination which is very serious about promoting sustainable tourism and adopting eco-friendly programmes and activities.
Complementing this further, the Hotel L’Archipel on Praslin has announced a ‘GoGreen’ initiative by implementing numerous renewable energy solutions while also enhancing comfort for its guests.
The project is the outcome of two years of research and planning driven by managing director of the property, Louis D’Offay with the support of his team.
Praising the good work, Alain St.Ange, the Seychelles minister responsible for Tourism and Culture said: “The Hotel L’Archipel has always believed in sustainable tourism having conceived a touristic establishment blended with the environment of Seychelles. It has now taken a step forward by meeting the norms much sought after by the conscientious travellers.”
The team at LÁrchipel worked closely with Pace Seychelles in auditing the energy consumption at the property to prepare short, medium and long term strategies for implementing five green initiatives.
All refurbished rooms have been installed with Inncom’s Energy Management Systems (EMS) Systems with intelligent occupancy detection to control the room’s energy consumption. Guest comfort has been improved, condensation and humidity dramatically reduced whilst achieving a 30 per cent savings of the in-room air-conditioning energy consumption.
The hotel installed 244 Solar Photovoltaic Panels as Phase One with an annual production of over 108,000kWh which saves about 28,850 litres of diesel fuel annually. Not burning this fuel saves 76.8 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, which is the equivalent of removing the pollution of 16 cars from the road permanently.
All refurbished rooms have been installed with efficient LED lighting reducing the rooms lighting energy demand by 80 per cent. Phase two of converting the property to LED lighting will involve installation of the entire garden with Exlite Solar LED Lights.
The property has successfully implemented phase one of biotech cleaning with the short term goal to reduce chemicals usage by 10 per cent within the next six months.
The hotel is using various Ozone technologies for safe bacterial cleaning of food, cutlery, crockery to provide a bacteria free environment in the kitchens, whilst dramatically reducing chemical and energy usage in the kitchen by over 50 per cent.