B y Mona Daoud

Free under RF LL terms © Yana Gulyanovska

The Future won’t wait for anyone. We all know what happens to people who lag behind.

This is why TMA for development training and consulting saw fit to start an annual Conference for Green and Sustainable Tourism. They had the vision that with Egypt’s main source of income being tourism (944 million a year, which is 30% more than the rest of the world according to Senior Assistant Minister of tourism, Hisham Zaazou) and the environment being the issue of the hour, (and a very critical one for that matter), it is prime time to care of what we have as a nation before it runs out. This is what I call long sighted. This well organized conference is off with a very good start, getting speakers who raised ultimately important issues, and even better, provided exciting solutions for a change.

“We have amazing potential for solar energy” Said Ahmad Zahran, Renewable Energy & CDM Triocean’s Business Development Manager in his paper ‘The economic value of going green’,“ 100% of global electricity consumption can be supplied through a 300km² piece of land in the Western Desert”.

So why isn’t Egypt using this potential?

Unfortunately the answer lies in sheer inefficiency. Energy Committee Head of EJB, Khaled Gasser, confirmed this when he delivered his paper on solar water heating systems as a sustainable solution for hotels. He said that the usual culprits were; technical design mistakes, installation mistakes, lack of knowledge, poor after sales service, and a lack of awareness. He referred to systems installed in Marina in the North Coast a while back, where people left for months in the winter, neglecting required maintenance and came back to find the system eroded. The problem is not with solar heating systems, it is with users and careless installers.

In spite of seeming to be more expensive at first, on the long term solar heaters save a lot of money, energy and the environment. Hotels would do well to use them not just because they directly save energy and cost through the long life  environmentally friendly system, but they would make profits because by simply stating that they use solar heating they would attract more eco tourists by complying with global marketable trends. According t Zaazou, there is a 4% average increase in regular tourism, and a 14.9% increase in eco-tourism.

Just as he said “It is a rising trend”.

We can bawl our eyes out outside hotels and complain about the environment. Activists have been doing it for years, in vain. It is only when consumers refuse to buy an environmentally harmful product that business owners would begin to shift their policies. Unfortunately it is never about the right thing to do, and it is always about what sells.

Fortunately for the people who genuinely care, “environmentally friendly” is a best seller. All hotels will have to shift their ways in order to survive in the market.  The eco-tourism market is actually very competitive now, and consumers do not just go towards places that use the word ‘eco-toursim in their pamphlets’ or use brown paper as a superficial demonstration of their dedication, they actually verify what the hotel has done to be eco-friendly. Do they have solar heating? Do they have a recycling system? How do they save water? Do they abide by the surrounding environment?

By implementing a solar heating system for example, a hotel gets to use its logo, thereby proving its dedication to saving the environment, which leads to an increase in its market value due to the larger number of consumers it would attract as opposed to a hotel that doesn’t.

It is very comforting to know that the ministry of tourism is aware of the fact that tourists are more aware and are seeking ‘green options’. Zaazou wisely states ‘Tourism is Egypt’s future. Let’s be honest, we can’t compete when it comes to certain things like making great cars, but we most certainly have the power to compete on a touristic level.’

The problem, however, with the word ‘green’, is that is can easily be misunderstood by many. Zaazou elaborated that “‘green’ does not mean ‘planting’. Sometimes planting can be very harmful if it’s not in the right environment.” This is very true. Green is not a colour, but a behavior. If the natural environment is desert, then it should be left as desert, and respected for what it is. There is absolutely no sense in planting fields of flowers and exotic plants where they don’t belong. And to add insult to injury think of the amounts of water used to water these massive green fields. No self respecting tourist will accept this in the future. Such places are on the way out.

Businessman Ahmed El Wassief illustrated what he did in his paper ‘It pays to go green’. First off he explained that going green increases a business’ value because you build a brand and attract more customers. Moreover it saves costs and increases profits. By using stainless steel flow restrictors installed at the base of shower heads, he saved 18,000m³ of water.  It cost him 14,000 EGP to install the flow restrictors. In return he made 165,000 EGP of profit out of that simple change. Imagine how much profit a business could make by making other changes such as using energy efficient bulbs, and occupancy sensors as part of an energy management system. Even if a business is not able to invest a little in return for radically increased profit, there are changes that cost nothing , says Wassief. For example, using fewer lights in the pool after midnight; “It takes no effort but saves so much” he says.

In order to maintain this change in the face of tourism, and to validate the truly ‘green’ hotels from frauds and posers Wassief says “there is a need for unified certifications for eco-friendly hotels. There must be unified standards.” And who better to do this job than the UNEP (United Nations Environmental Programme)?

Zaazou then announced a surprise; that the government is taking radical steps and making financial investments through changing laws and giving incentives to keep the Egyptian tourism industry green. What was more surprising was that they will begin with Sharm El Sheikh, due to its popularity.

Last but not least, careless tourism does not only have a negative effects on the environment, but also upon ancient archaeological sites. To this effect, Zahi Hawas, Deputy Minister of Culture, and Head of Supreme Council of Antiquities announced that they’ve implemented a site management system, and that 95% of archeological sites have been improved. He said that pollution does not affect monuments, as much as careless masses of people, but what pollution does have an effect on, are the tombs.

Being green is not a singular activity, but a mass movement. Imagine if every single individual stopped being careless and made effortless changes, how much could be achieved, not just by saving the world from erosion and a cataclysmic end, (no one ever listens when we use that argument), but imagine the tons and tons of money that will come out of it.

However, making a lot of money is not the main incentive. If hotels and institutions don’t go green, not only will they lose out on the profitable market, but they will also make massive financial losses. It is now go green or die, to put it quite bluntly.