| Kippreport.com

Two Knights by the Creek Shine Again

July 7, 2010 3:31 by Rasha Reslan

Dubai, UAE – Together with Philips, the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) properties in Dubai Festival City have replaced their exterior façade with dynamic architectural LED lighting solutions as phase one of the project. All interior lighting will be completed in phase two, covering a total of 35,000 light points in hotel rooms, suites and public areas.

LED technology is the most innovative lighting solution in the market. It has radically changed the lighting industry since its introduction only a few decades ago.

Making LED available to consumers as well as covering most of the professional applications, allows huge savings on energy as well as maintenance cost due to its long lifetime, giving LEDs a very low total cost of ownership. All of this comes with possibilities to create different ambiences and scenes to the convenience of the users.

InterContinental and Crowne Plaza Dubai Festival City are setting the benchmark for the region’s best practice in Green. Aiming to reduce their carbon footprint, the hotels will be saving almost 2,000,000 kg per year of CO2 emission starting from today, as they switch on their new energy efficient lights.

The new lighting solution will also help the hotels save approximately 80% of their energy costs incurred on lighting.

This new innovative project fits perfectly in line with the existing green initiatives that the IHG Dubai Festival City properties already have in process; an aggressive recycling programme of all hotel waste across all areas including guest floors, the Lexus LS600 hybrid cars used for guest transfers (that produce 70% fewer harmful emissions than regular automotives), and the annual ‘Whatever Floats Your Boat competition that raises money for local environmental charities through a recycled boat race across the Dubai Creek.

During the Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in 2008, it was announced that Dubai alone was furnished with 47,000 hotel rooms with plans to triple that to 141,000 rooms by 2015. This year, according to the latest industry reports, Dubai tops the hotel growth list with 14,000 rooms entering the market.

“Philips’ participation in this successful project comes in line with the company’s promise to make a significant thrust in promoting energy efficiency in all lighting applications around the Middle East”, said Louis Hakim, Vice President of Royal Philips Electronics and CEO of Philips Middle East. “If all the hotels in the region at least adapt their interior lighting to energy efficient ones then the resulting impact on the environment will be remarkable”, he added.

InterContinental Dubai Festival City Hotel Manager, Steven Greenwood said, “InterContinental Hotels Group is committed to finding new ways of reducing our environmental impact.

Tourism plays a vital role in world economy, and it is an important source of income for the UAE. We believe that travel and tourism should be operated responsibly, and long-term benefits of going the extra mile with this approach far outweigh the costs. This is why the project to replace our current lighting with the Philips energy-saving light bulbs makes economic sense. LED lighting is far better quality, and more flexible, therefore impacting the quality of service.