With
the slogan "The Power of Tourism", Instituto Tecnológico
Hotelero (ITH) and FITUR, in collaboration with the World Tourism
Organization (UNWTO) and Grupo Habitat Futura, organize the fourth
edition of FiturGreen 2013.
FiturGreen
2013 will be held in hall 10B05 of the exhibition fair, that will
focused on the funding models for energy efficiency through
Energy Service
Companies (ESCOs), energy andsustainable
building certifications,
and management of sustainability in tourism industry. The program
this year will include workshops and case studies on advanced
technologies for monitoring and controlling energy efficiency,
efficient heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC), efficient
lighting, watermanagement
and thermal insulation.
During
the morning of the opening day, entitled "Reducing costs without
investment", which will take place on Wednesday 30th January,
experts from Gas Natural-Fenosa and Prosolia will explain agreement
options and the implications of Energy Services
Companies (ESCOs) for the hospitality
industry, including the types of contracts and
success stories of hotels that have implanted formulas, adapted to
the particularities of the hotel industry. The benefits, advantages
and challenges ESCOs and hotels must resolve to grant access to
energy efficient technology, will be debated in a panel discussion
with the participation of representatives of Bosch, Buderus,
Balantia, Prosolia and Gas Natural Fenosa.
In
the afternoon, two workshops will be held. The first will be devoted
to studying the conditions, characteristics and steps to be taken in
order to implement advanced energy monitoring and controlling
systems, with the help of Grupo Euroconsult and Schneider Electric.
The second workshop will be present case studies and the results of
two pilot projects, carried out under ITH Sustainable Hotel:
Efficient HVAC for Hotels, carried out in collaboration with Grupo
CIAT; and Efficient Lighting for Hotels and Tourist Accommodations,
with Light & Energy.
The
second session, on Thursday, January 31st, will be devoted to
defining the keys of "360 Sustainable Hotel", that is to
say, to clarify the differences between certifications,
standards and models of energy management and responsible tourism
that can be implemented in tourism and travel industry. In addition,
Asociación de Hoteles de Turismo de la República Argentina (Hotel
Association of Argentina), ITH partner, will present its “Programa
de Hotelería Sustentable y Hoteles Verdes en Argentina”
(Sustainable Hospitality Program and Green Hotels in Argentina),
recently awarded with the UNWTO Ulysses Award in the category “NGOs
and public institutions and their innovative contributions”.
Demands
of institutional entities and customers on sustainability and energy
efficiency are increasing, and that is the reason tourism industry is
bound to know the ways to reduce the environmental impact of its
activities. To this end, representatives of Spain Green
Building Council - LEED, PEP Passivhaus and
BREEAM Spain, along with Thomas Azcárate Bang, president of the
Institute for Responsible Tourism - Global Sustainable Tourism
Council, and Gonzalo de Castro, vicepresident of
TÜV Rheinland Ibérica,
will explain the main models for legitimizing and endorsing
environmental and energy policies on the hotels.
In
addition, speakers will analyze success stories, such as Hotel NH
Eurobuilding (Madrid), first hotel in Europe to be certified with ISO
50.001 energy management certification, and leader in the
implementation sustainability and energy efficiency measures at the
hotel. Water will be the central issue to be discussed at a
workshop, conducted by Grundfos Spain and Aqualogy, which will be
focused in studying the steps to implement technologies and systems
to manage this valuable and much needed resource for hotels.
Finally,
on Friday, February 1st, the presentations will address on
"Sustainability in the Tourism Industry". Attendees will
learn tools and systems to design sustainable management plans for
hotels, regardless of their size and turnover, including Intelitur
platform, an initiative led by the Spanish Chambers of Commerce, and
developed by ITH; and WTO Hotel Energy Solutions (HES), whose Spanish
version was launched in late 2012. The next challenges and trends
related to sustainable tourism that hotel industry must face in the
near future will be raised in a panel discussion, with Thomas Meller,
director of Mesoamerican Reef Tourism Initiative (MARTI), Arantxa
Garcia, responsible for SustainableDevelopment for
Accommodation & Destinations Sector of TUI Travel PLC and
representative of Tour Operators' Initiative for Sustainable
Tourism Development, and Daniel Frey, Preferred Partner &
Auditor for the Iberian peninsula of Green Globe, among other
experts.
Green
Hotel & Tourism Solutions
This
year, for the first time, FiturGreen program will include a parallel
session, Hotel & Tourism Green Solutions, which will take place
on Thursday January 31st, from 14:30 to 20:00 hours, and organized by
Grupo Habitat Futura. The meeting will analyze operational and
management issue, architectural design, facilities and the latest
market innovations. The conference will bring together some of the
most outstanding professionals, both engineers and architects as well
as national hotel groups, such as NH Hotels, TMA Arquitectura, Jaime
Beriestain, José Riu de Martín, Oriol Tintoré, Cuende y Gutiérrez
Arquitectos, Francesc Valls, founder of ESADE Centre for Tourism
Management, the CAMP platform, among other experts, to show, through
case studies, how sustainability benefits and contributes to
profitability in tourism industry
Rehabilitation
and sustainable building -key to the hospitality
industry, are getting an ever more global, multidisciplinary scope;
and this is also related with the need to use more sustainable,
healthier, attractive and profitable materials and resources, able to
provide solutions to sustainable hotel management. When compared to
other competitive Mediterranean destinations, these factors add value
to Spain tourism companies; so to updated facilities, to renovate
with distinctive design and sustainability criteria, will also help
to reactivate the construction market and to reinforce the local
hotel industry.
Green
Hotel & Tourism Solutions is supported by Colegio de Arquitectos
de Madrid, is sponsored by Geberit, Hansgrohe, Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries, Lutron, and counts on the collaboration of Bosch,
Euronit, Cosentino, Lamp and Pladur.