News Releases

Singapore, February 2008 – The commitment by Grand Hyatt Singapore over the past 10 years in the area of “green” projects and initiatives that embrace both economic and environmental sustainability have not gone unnoticed.  At the recent ASEAN Tourism Forum 2008 held in Bangkok, Thailand, Grand Hyatt Singapore was presented with the ASEAN Green Hotel Standard 2008- 2009 award, the hotel’s second award in the ASEAN arena with regards to the hotel’s positive environmental actions. 

Acknowledging the urgency of global environmental issues, the National Tourism Organisations (NTOs) of various ASEAN nations agreed on the implementation of the ASEAN Green Hotel Standard, beginning in 2008.  The ASEAN Green Hotel is a hotel which is environmentally-friendly and adopts energy conservation measures with more than ten major criteria to fulfill, based on energy and water efficiency, environmental policy and actions for hotel operation, use of green products, collaboration with the community and local organizations and practice sustainable eco-tourism.  The hotel must also be friendly to the environment and not polluting or adversely impact nature.

“We at Grand Hyatt Singapore are fully committed to environmental sustainablility. This initiative taken by ASEAN is a commendable further step forward in their efforts to ensure that hotels adhere to responsible green standards.” says Mr Willi Martin, Area Vice President of Hyatt International Hotels & Resorts and General Manager of Grand Hyatt Singapore.

In 2000, the hotel re-engineered its entire air-conditioning and mechanical ventilating systems, saving approximately S$1.2 million a year through the Green Energy Management Project, or GEM, proving that environmentally sound initiatives can also be financially rewarding.  The savings are the result of the reduced use of energy and water, which also reduces the hotel’s carbon footprint.

The hotel has earned recognition of its “green” efforts through several other awards such as Winner in the Retrofitted Building Category at the ASEAN Energy Awards and Winner of the Singapore BCA Energy Efficient Building Awards in 2003.  In 2004, the hotel’s GEM project won the Bronze Award in the Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER) Asian Innovation Awards.

Grand Hyatt Singapore is also continuing its efforts with a list of new “green” projects and initiatives this year, including recycling water from the laundry plant for non-potable application, using NEWater for non-potable applications and recovering

condensation from the air-conditioning systems for use in the cooling towers.  In addition, all guestroom windows are covered with solar film that not only provides increased comfort for our guests, but also boosts energy savings.

The hotel is also currently working on a Trigeneration concept, or Trigen, with the assistance of Professor Ng Kim Choon from the Mechanical Engineering Department at the National University of Singapore.  Trigen refers to the simultaneous production of three useful energies - heat, power and cooling - from a primary fuel input, namely natural gas.

Following the successful implementation of Trigen, the hotel will produce some of its own electricity and use waste heat to produce hot water, steam and refrigeration, thus improving our Energy Utilisation Factor (EUF) by a further 35% and reducing our carbon emissions by nearly 3000 tonnes per year - an act that will do much for the environment.