China's hotels graded by environmental standard

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 ◆ China's hotels graded by environmental standard

The benchmark of eco-efficient hotels are under way in China and the first group of green hotels and restaurants with eco logo will receive their certification this September, China Daily reported Monday.

Five grades have been set up from one A to five As, according to the new category adopted by the China Hotel Association in this June.

The classification for green hotels or eco-efficient hotels provides a benchmark on hotel's environmental performance rather than their facilities and service quality as the hotel star rating describes.

New evaluation items cover energy use, water and waste gas emission, air quality and prevention of fire and food poisoning.

The newspaper quoted Zhang Jun, assistant president of the association as saying, "Environmental concerns among travelers are growing worldwide."

He said the new standard aims to provide hoteliers with a green management system to minimize resource consumption and reduce environmental impact, "which may save money while saving the environment."

The standard is expected to lower operational costs of hotels and improve their public images.

The hospitality industry in China saw an annual growth of 15 percent last year. The figure in 2001 shows China had more than 3.3 million hotels and restaurants, which boasted a total turnover of more than 600 billion yuan (72.6 billion US dollars).