PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release 20 December2016

Mövenpick Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel’s reduce, reuse and recycle strategy strikes gold

  • Luxury hotelawarded Green Globe Gold Member status after five years of consistent certification;
  • property saves equivalent of 380 trees per annum and enough energy to power 190 households;
  • 60 tonnes of waste diverted from landfill every year

Dubai, UAE:Mövenpick Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel Dubai has been awarded Green Gold Membership by international certification body, Green Globe, (GGC), which is a structured assessment of the sustainability performance of any travel and tourism businesses. The hotel qualified for Gold Membership after five years of consistent certification.

Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts is the largest international hotel group to commit to Green Globe Certification for all of its properties worldwide and commenting on behalf of Mövenpick Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel Dubai, General Manager, Robert Barker said:

“The hotel has now been recertified by Green Globe for five consecutive years, which is a testament to the hard work and dedication of our staff, operating best practice in sustainability.

“We now join an elite group of enterprises to hold the coveted gold membership status worldwide and along with our business partners, we are committed to making a difference by reducing any negative impact the hotel may have on the environment,” he added.

UAE-based Farnek, Green Globe’s preferred partner in the Middle East, carried out the assessment of 44 core criteria supported by over 385 compliance indicators, measuring energy and water consumption as well as waste management, with its online Hotel Optimizer benchmarking software.

“The hotel has made great efforts lowering its carbon footprint over the past five years. For example, a recent lightbulb replacement programme has seen 800 incandescent lamps replaced with energy efficient LEDs, helping to deliver energy reduction of 1.28% alone,” said Sandrine Le Biavant, Director Consultancy, Farnek.

“This is approximately 172,194 kWh lower or around the same amount of energy used by 190 households over the last five years,” she added.

Waste reduction has also been a priority for the hotel and since implementing a paper and carton recycling system in 2011, the hotel has collected an average of 1,860 kilograms per month for recycling comprised of 92% carton and 2% paper. This is roughly equivalent to protecting around 380, 20-year-old trees every year.

The hotel’s waste diversion from landfill was at 17.74% in 2015 and this year has increased to more than 20%. Annual waste reduction is at approximately 60 metric tonnes, a 7.1% saving in 2015 and this year a waste audit has been completed to identify even further reductions.

To further improve its green credentials, the property installed an electric car charger earlier in 2016, which is one of only two docking stations located within a hotel in Dubai. The charging station is capable of charging two cars simultaneously and is free to use for electric vehicle drives with a green card charger.

“It is critical to maintain standards and increase sustainability initiatives that will create a difference, economically, socially, culturally and environmentally over the long term,” added Le Biavant.

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Photo caption 1:The hotel recently replaced 800 incandescent lightbulbs with energy efficient LEDs, helping to deliver energy reduction of 1.28% alone in 2015.

Photo caption 2: Mövenpick Ibn Battuta Gate Hotel Dubai, General Manager, Robert Barker.

Photo caption 3: Sandrine Le Biavant, Director Consultancy, Farnek, presents the Gold Membership award to the Mövenpick Ibn Battuta Gate hotel’s ‘green team’.

About Green Globe certification

Green Globe is the worldwide sustainability system based on internationally accepted criteria for sustainable operation and management of travel and tourism businesses. Operating under a worldwide license, Green Globe is based in California, USA, and is represented in over 83 countries. Green Globe is an Affiliate Member of the United National World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). To find out more, please visit

About Farnek

Established in the UAE since 1980, Dubai-based Farnek Services LLC/Farnek Middle East LLC is an international full service property management company.

With a skilled workforce of more than 4,000 employees, Farnek has now added offices in the Northern Emirates, to its existing offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, to deliver professional FM services for over 2,500 properties to high quality, world-renowned organisations such as Dubai Airport, Emirates Airlines, Abu Dhabi Airport, Etihad Airways, Dubai Mall and Dubai’s latest high profile mixed-use community, City Walk.

In 2010, following a successful tender bid, Farnek received the ultimate trade reference – the maintenance contract for the tallest building in the world, Burj Khalifa. This paved the way for Farnek to confirm its position as the leading FM company in the UAE, which was capped with Farnek being awarded the 2015 Facilities Management Middle East 'Overall FM Company of the Year' award.

Farnek regularly monitors the performance of its Integrated Management Systems and is certified to ISO 9001, OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001 and recently successfully completed the certification assessment for its asset management system complying with ISO 55001:2014.

Being an innovative and technology-led company, Farnek was one of the first FM companies to offer an online maintenance platform and in conjunction with Hitches & Glitches, (part of the Farnek group since 2014) it has also signed an agreement with Gadgitech, a UAE distributor of smart home products. Besides a potential retail collaboration, Farnek aims to become a market leader in the fledgling smart home installation and maintenance sector.

Farnek is also a leader in sustainability and has exclusivity agreements with international organisations such as Green Globe and myclimate. In 2007 Farnek was presented with the prestigious Emirates Energy award for producing the Middle East's first hotel energy consumption benchmark survey and shortly afterwards launched the Middle East’s first carbon neutral transport. Farnek has also been accredited by the Dubai Regulatory Supervisory Bureau as an approved energy auditor.

In recognition of its sustainability efforts, Farnek has been the proud recipient of the renowned Facilities Management Middle East Awards 'Green FM Company of the Year' in 2012, 2014 and once again in 2015. Farnek has also been recognised for its tireless efforts in CSR and as such was rewarded with 'CSR Initiative of the Year' at the 2015 awards ceremony.

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