The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) has called on the Government to provide additional, ring-fenced funding for carbon reduction initiatives within the Irish hotels sector and wider tourism industry.
Delegates at the IHF’s 86th Annual Conference heard that, while many hotels are making significant progress in embracing sustainability, enormous untapped potential exists within the sector in relation to achieving greater energy efficiency and the adoption of renewable energy solutions.
IHF President Denyse Campbell said: “Environmental sustainability is one of the defining issues of our time and a priority for our sector. What we are hearing on the ground is that there is a strong determination and desire among hoteliers to make significant inroads in reducing their carbon footprint. Given their scale and the structure of operations, hotels are ideally placed to make a substantial contribution toward the country’s national carbon emissions targets. However, in order to realise this goal, higher levels of funding from Government will be required.”
Ms Campbell pointed to Fáilte Ireland’s recently launched Climate Action Programme and partnership with SEAI as a very welcome development and an example of the closer collaboration among industry that will be key to achieving meaningful reductions in carbon across the tourism industry.
“Much more needs to be done, however, in terms of Government funding for tourism sustainability, particularly for retrofitting of existing properties. These projects are highly capital intensive and require considerable investment by hotels. Additional Government supports are therefore vital. We had expected greater certainty in relation to funding plans by now, and this is something we would urge the Government to progress without delay.”
Recent industry research carried out by the IHF, shows that 65% of hotels plan to make additional capital expenditure investment in sustainability across a wide range of initiatives over the next 12 months.
Key areas of additional investment include energy efficiency measures (50% of hotels), renewable energy solutions (49%), food waste reduction (79%) and additional water conservation measures (36%).
A further 23% of hotels indicated they were actively in the process of exploring investment options to enhance the sustainability of the business.
