Hotels clean up at The Mauna Lani Resort's solar-powered golf carts, each of them projected to save a a lifetime total of 12 barrels of oil, helped the Big Isle resort to grab a "Green Business Award" from the state.
Green Business Awards
The awards promote conservation
and waste reductionBy Tim Ruel
truel@starbulletin.com"I think that's cool, don't you?" said Marlyn Aguilar, waste reduction coordinator for the Health Department.
The Green Business Awards, presented for the first time yesterday at the governor's office, also went to Hilton Hawaiian Village and the Kahala Mandarin Oriental Hawaii.
The Health Department, along with the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism and the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, started the awards to bolster conservation, waste reduction and pollution prevention efforts, said Aguilar. The Health Department wants to be seen as more than a regulatory agency, she said.
The awards were open to all of Hawaii's 161 hotels, though about 15 to 20 hotels participated in the state's waste-reduction forums in January and June, making them eligible. The state is hoping for more hotels to participate next year, Aguilar said.
CRAIG T. KOJIMA / CKOJIMA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Noel G. Trainor, of Hilton Hawaiian Village, Susanne Hate, of the Kahala Mandarin Oriental, and Riley Saito, of Mauna Lani Resort, accepted the governor's first Green Business Awards yesterday at the Capitol.
The three winning hotels completed an audit checklist that reviewed pollution prevention, water-saving efforts and other environmental practices.
The audit was done in spring, well before Hilton Hawaiian Village said it would have to dispose of all the furniture, carpeting and wallpaper from its moldy 453-room Kalia Tower. Aguilar said the disposal likely would not have affected the hotel's award. The state was mainly interested in day-to-day operational measures at the hotels, Aguilar said.
Hilton estimates it annually diverts more than 1,300 tons of food waste, glass, paper, cardboard, phone books and other materials from landfills through recycling.
Other winning points were Hilton's water conservation measures. Beds are made by housekeepers, but not washed every day. Cooling water in the air-conditioning units is recycled. Water is served on request in restaurants. Those measures and others save more than 33 million gallons per year, the hotel said.
The Kahala Mandarin's air-conditioning system is cooled by ocean water, so it doesn't need cooling towers. Heated water from the air-conditioning is used to warm the swimming pool and part of the domestic hot water supply.
In addition to its solar-powered golf carts, the Mauna Lani also has solar roofs that provide electricity to the hotel and its golf maintenance buildings. The hotel increased its total solar capacity earlier this year to 500 kilowatts, and the systems are projected to save $5 million in the next 25 years, the hotel said. The Mauna Lani also has a five-acre compost facility that each day goes through five tons of bushes, branches and other green waste. After the waste is broken down, the compost is reused on the 3,200-acre property, or sold.
