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UNIT 4: ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME FOR
EMISSIONS CONTROL
Emissions from hospitality facilities are mainly emissions from vehicles and from
the burning of fossil fuels used for space and water heating and cooking.
Regular maintenance checks should be conducted on boilers and generators.
Filters and scrubbers should be fitted to exhaust fans, and be regularly cleaned
and maintained. Local legislation on emission standards should be consulted
before control devices are installed.
The use of vehicles, boilers and generators that can operate on ethanol blends and
bio diesel should also be considered.
Some Facts About Bio-Fuels
(From the Argonne National Laboratory, Canada, 1997)
The use of 85%-ethanol-blended fuels has been shown to reduce greenhouse
gas emissions by 30-36%. A 10%-ethanol blend results in a 25-30% reduction
in carbon monoxide emissions (by promoting a more complete combustion of
the fuel) and a 6-10% net reduction of CO2. In addition, as ethanol oxygenates
the fuel, there is a roughly 7% decrease in exhaust VOCs emitted from lowlevel
ethanol-blended fuels compared with fossil fuels. In high-level blends, the
potential for exhaust VOC reduction is 30% or more.
Examples of Good Practice
At the WelcomeGroup Mughal Sheraton, Agra, India, carbon monoxide and
sulphur dioxide emissions from boilers are purified through scrubbers before
being released. All fossil-fuel-operated equipment is maintained in good
working condition to minimise carbon dioxide emissions.
The Sånga Säby Hotel, Study and Conference Centre, Svartsjö, Sweden, in
association with the Swedish Ethanol Foundation, acquired the first rape methyl
ester fuelled car in 1995. Today, all vehicles, tractors, boilers and some of the lawn
mowers operate on rapeseed oil (the other lawn-mowers are powered by PV).
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ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME FOR MANAGING
INDOOR AIR QUALITY
Indoor air pollutants include combustion gases such as carbon dioxide, nitrous
oxides and hydrocarbons, tobacco smoke, VOCs, asbestos, ozone, dust and
particles, CFCs and radon.
The worldwide ban on the manufacture of CFCs came into effect in 1999. The
phasing-out of CFCs and other ozone-depleting substances used in the hospitality
business merits detailed consideration, and is discussed in the following subsection
of this unit. Detailed information on the management of ozone-depleting
substances in the hospitality industry can be found in the UNEP DTIE publication,
entitled How the Hotel Industry can Help Protect the Ozone Layer, in 1998.
Indoor environment quality depends on specific pollutants and their levels of
concentration inside the building. Monitoring air quality will give the most accurate
picture of the types and concentration of pollutants in the air. This requires
specialist help and equipment that may not be available in-house.