9 Jetwing hotels receive Carbon Footprint certification from Sri Lanka Climate Fund

Long known for their commitment towards the environment, Jetwing Hotels achieved another milestone by being awarded ISO 14064 certification for nine of its properties.

Biomass boiler at Jetwing Blue 

This prestigious honour was given to Jetwing Blue, Jetwing St. Andrew’s, Jetwing Ayurveda Pavilions, Jetwing Lighthouse, Jetwing Beach, Jetwing Sea, Jetwing Lagoon, Jetwing Yala and Jetwing Vil Uyana. The International Organisation for Standardisation has a membership of 162 countries, and with a portfolio of more than 21,000 standards giving world-class specifications for products, services and systems, to ensure quality, safety and efficiency.

ISO standards provide a model to follow when setting up and operating a management system. These standards are formulated and a result of international, expert consensus which provides a number of benefits, such as efficient use of resources, improved risk management, amongst others. 

The ISO 14064 standard published in 2006 is a part of the ISO 14000 series of International Standards for environmental management. It specifies principles and requirements at the organisation level for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals. It includes requirements for the design, development, management, reporting and verification of an organisation’s GHG inventory. 

Certified by the Sri Lanka Climate Fund (SLCF), which is a private-public partnership company under the purview of the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment, all direct emission sources and energy indirect sources have been accounted for in the GHG inventory across the nine properties making Jetwing Hotels the first to be verified under the ISO 14064 standard in Sri Lanka. 

Solar park at Jetwing Yala 

One of the largest sources of global CO2 emissions is electricity production via fossil fuels, thus, in order to reduce the GHG emissions associated with the hotel’s operations, Jetwing Hotels has actively reduced its grid electricity consumption by both reducing its energy demand via energy efficiency improvements and promoting non-fossil fuel based (renewable) energy usage. At present, over 50% of Jetwing Hotels’ energy requirement is met by renewable energy sources; namely sustainably sourced fuel wood, solar electricity (PV), solar thermal and biogas. This is utilised with the use of vapour absorption chillers, centralised hot water systems, rooftop solar PV systems and bio gas digesters across the properties.  “With the certificates we have received we have achieved quite a milestone indeed. Nine of our 19 resorts are now certified, and it is a great honour to have our efforts recognised and verified according to international standards,” said Jetwing Hotels Chairman Hiran Cooray. “Our engineering and hotel teams constantly work hard to live up to our reputation for being a company that utilises green technology, and we thank them for their efforts as we can only go further from here,” he continued.