The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and its partners of the Nearly Zero Energy Hotels (NEZEH) initiative, have present the prototype of a new tool to engage the tourism sector in energy efficiency. The online tool was unveiled at the NEZEH International Conference held in the framework of FITUR Green (Madrid, 20 January 2016).
The neZEH toolkit is a practical instrument for hotel owners to assess their energy consumption levels and identify appropriate measures for energy efficiency improvement and reaching nearly-zero levels. This tool will be available for users by mid-March, 2016.
The neZEH initiative aims to support the tourism sector in Europe to comply with European Union regulations for nearly zero buildings (nZEB) according to which all 28 EU countries will need to reach nZEB levels by 2020.
““As tourism is a force for good, we need to ensure the promotion and development of sustainable, resilient and responsible tourism, which requires vision, innovation, correct planning, good management, sound monitoring and the inclusion of all the relevant stakeholders, including consumers” said Mr. Márcio Favilla, UNWTO’s Executive Director for Operational Programmes and Institutional Relations at the opening of the Conference.
The project, co-financed by the European Union, builds upon the UNWTO Hotel Energy Solutions, which has since 2011 engaged 20,000 users worldwide and 1,500 hotels in Europe in better understanding how to become energy efficient and more competitive.
NEZEH is developed within the principles of the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production Patterns and particularly of the 10YFP Programme on Sustainable Tourism (10YFP STP), led by UNWTO together with the governments of Morocco, Republic of Korea and France, with the support of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
The initiative will provide technical expertise to the private sector while fostering tourism public policies in the areas of energy efficiency and help the tourism sector in its contribution to the newly adopted Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
About NEZEH
The nearly Zero Energy Hotels – neZEH – is a project co-funded by the European Commission in the frame of the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme, aiming to accelerate the rate of large scale renovations of hotels into nearly Zero Energy Buildings (nZEB) by providing technical advice to committed hoteliers and demonstrating flagship nZEB projects in the European hospitality sector.
The neZEH partnership is composed by 10 partners across seven European countries: Technical University of Crete, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Systems Lab (Greece) – the coordinator – World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and Network of European Region for a Sustainable and Competitive Tourism (NECSTouR), Sustainable Innovation (Sweden), Creara Consultores S.L. (Spain), Energy Institute Hrvoje Požar (Croatia), Istituto Superiore sui Sistemi Territoriali per l’Innovazione (Italy), Agency of Braşov for Energy Management and Environment Protection (Romania), Federation of European Heating and Air-conditioning Associations (Netherlands) and ENERGIES 2050 (France).
