April 27, 2010 – Hotel MAITAI POLYNESIA – Bora Bora – Signaling a deepening of its commitment to sustainable tourism practices, the Hotel Maitai Polynesia Bora Bora announced today an alliance with EarthCheck, the world’s largest certifier of sustainable travel and tourism businesses and communities.
Hotel Maitai Polynesia is a part of the Pacific Beachcomber S.C. portfolio—which also includes the four InterContinental hotels in French Polynesia, the Maitai Rangiroa Hotel, and the m/s Paul Gauguin cruise ship—and leads the group in environmental sustainability certification.
The move sees Hotel Maitai Polynesia joining the ranks of hospitality giants such as InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG), Carlson Asia Pacific, Sandals Resorts International, Langham Hotels International, Banyan Tree, Alila, Six Senses and Dusit, all of whom use the science-based environmental management tool to minimize their environmental footprints.
Hotel Maitai Polynesia formalized its commitment to sustainability in 2009, when the hotel secured the Bronze level of achievement using the Green Globe certification. Later in 2009, Hotel Maitai Polynesia obtained Silver Green Globe certification, and is proud to have upgraded to EarthCheck in order to ensure the hotel is operating according to the highest of international standards.
Hotel Maitai Polynesia is committed to continually improving its environmental and social sustainability performance and annual benchmarking. The hotel has also implemented an Environmental Management System—which includes checking water and electricity consumption and sorting wastes—and meets the requirements of the Green Globe Company Standard.
The EarthCheck Program responds directly to the major environmental problems facing the planet, including climate change, waste reduction and non-renewable resource management. Year One cost savings experienced by companies using EarthCheck average 30% for energy and waste stream and 20% for water consumption. These savings are directly reflected in the bottom line and will help shield Hotel Maitai Polynesia from expected increases in the cost of essential resources such as water, energy and waste management.
“We’re delighted to see that Hotel Maitai Polynesia recognises how advances in science and changes to legislation will impact how we all do business in future,” said Stewart Moore, CEO of EC3 Global. “With such change comes both risk and opportunity, so it will be increasingly important for organisations to minimise exposure while positioning for competitive advantage.”
The program will enable Hotel Maitai Polynesia to independently calculate Scopes One, Two and Three emissions. It complies with Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) Greenhouse Gas Protocol, and the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) 14064 range of standards for greenhouse gas accounting.
EDITOR’S NOTES
About The Hotel Maitai Polynesia Bora Bora (www.hotelmaitai.com)
Nestled in an idyllic setting, the Hotel Maitai Polynesia Bora Bora is the perfect place for an unforgettable stay at an authentic Polynesian hotel. Located at the southern tip of the island and within walking distance of famous Matira Point, the Hotel Maitai Polynesia provides an array of amenities and services that offer incredible value for money when visiting Bora Bora.
With 28 garden view rooms, 20 ocean view rooms, 7 beach bungalows and 19 overwater bungalows, the Hotel Maitai Polynesia is the ideal choice for affordable beachfront accommodation while discovering the incredible activities and excursions that Bora Bora has to offer.
About Pacific Beachcomber S.C. (www.pacificbeachcomber.com)
With more than 25 years of experience in the French Polynesian tourism market, 670 hotel rooms and 166 cabins, the Pacific Beachcomber group is the country’s largest luxury hotel and cruise operator. In addition to the m/s Paul Gauguin (www.pgcruises.com) luxury cruise vessel, Pacific Beachcomber owns six award winning hotels: InterContinental Tahiti Resort, InterContinental Bora Bora Le Moana Resort, InterContinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa, InterContinental Moorea Resort and Spa (www.tahiti.intercontinental.com), as well as the Maitai Polynesia Bora Bora, and now the Maitai Rangiroa (www.hotelmaitai.com).
Pacific Beachcomber’s next resort project is The Brando, a luxury eco-resort featuring 47 deluxe bungalow villas scheduled to open in 2012 on the eponymous actor’s remote private island, ten minutes by air from Tahiti. The project will be constructed to the most exacting requirements of environmental design and will be fully self sustaining with renewable sources of non-fossil energy.
Sustainable development is the keynote of Pacific Beachcomber’s projects and all resorts within the company’s portfolio are Green Globe certified. At the Intercontinental Bora Bora Resort & Thalasso Spa, the company was the world pioneer in the use of sea water air conditioning (SWAC) technology, using deep sea water for all the cooling requirements of the resort. SWAC is a clean, quiet, maintenance-free and fully renewable non-fossil source of environmentally friendly energy, and results in electricity savings of more than 50% for the resort in comparison to conventional cooling methods. Each of the four InterContinental Resorts are Green Globe certified.
Richard Bailey, President of Pacific Beachcomber, is also a founding member of Te Mana O Te Moana (www.temanaotemoana.org), a Tahiti based non-profit devoted to the protection of marine wildlife and in particular the green sea turtle. Te Mana also works closely with the local authorities on a variety of youth oriented educational and public outreach programs.
About EC3 Global (www.earthcheck.org or www.ec3global.com)
The world’s largest certifier of sustainable travel and tourism operators, EC3 Global has more than 1000 clients in over 60 countries. The company’s Earthcheck Program is a benchmarking, certification and performance improvement system that was jointly developed by the Australian Government funded Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre (STCRC) and Brisbane-based company EC3 Global.
EarthCheck provides an operational framework to increase efficiencies, maximise the benefit of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, and minimise environmental impacts.
For further information please contact:
Hotel MAITAI POLYNESIA
Laurent DARCY
Managing Director
P: +689 86 51 08
E: l.darcy@hms.hotelmaitai.com
W: www.hotelmaitai.com
EarthCheck
Chantal Dunbar
Communications Manager
P: +61 401 058 159
E: chantal.dunbar@ec3global.com
W: www.earthcheck.org
