Close on the heels of ITC Maurya winning the 'Best eco-friendly hotel – Special Prize' award by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, Shayan Mallick visits the property to find out the initiatives taken by the hotel to combat ecological degradation

As a part of its WelcomEnviron initiatives, ITC Maurya has undertaken a number of steps towards maintaining a greener and healthier environment. The hotel undertook a host of multi-faceted programmes to not only improve its own environment, but also to propagate environmental causes. Their guiding principle is ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’. The hotel has its own programme, encompassing local participation, creating awareness among employees and internal conservation, through energy-saving  gadgets and environment-friendly material.

Ecological degradation is looming large on the horizon. Global-warming, depleting water level, deforestation and their combined effect on living and non-living beings have reached such a proportion, that it threatens the very existence of humanity.

ITC Maurya’s initiatives

Understanding the science, economics and politics of ecological degradation can be an uphill task, because the problem is global. It is instructive to study the initiatives undertaken by ITC Maurya, a five star deluxe hotel property, spread across five acres and located near the plush Diplomatic Enclave in the national capital. The hotel only recently has been awarded the ‘Best eco friendly hotel – Special Prize’ by the Ministry of Tourism, Government of India.

ITC Maurya consumed an average of 1300 kilolitres of water, per day, some ten years ago. The average consumption was down to 800 kilolitres, until a couple of years ago. Today, the hotel consumes 625 kilolitres of water on an average and is striving to bring the consumption level down to an ambitious 450 kilolitres of water per day, by the end of the current year. There was a time when the chillers, one of the major consumption areas in the hotel, used to consume 300 kilolitres of water, which has now been brought down to 150 kilolitres. The figure looks all the more impressive, considering the fact that water is becoming such a precious commodity.

Water positive facility

Today, ITC Maurya boasts of being a water-positive facility. It is able to generate more water than it consumes. Net water consumption across various ITC facilities in 2003-04 was 8.44 million kilolitres and the total potential created through RWH (Rain Water Harvesting) was 16.06 million kilolitres.

“The hotel has minimised consumption of water, energy and all other natural resources. We comply with all the environmental legislation and the effort is not just to reduce, reuse and recycle the resources consumed by the facility, but to surpass the set benchmark. The key to our strategy is sensitisation, conservation and water table enhancement”, says Dipak Haksar, Vice President - Operations, ITC Ltd - Hotels Division & General Manager - ITC Maurya.

As part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the management has undertaken a host of measures to reduce its water consumption in the property, apart from measures undertaken to minimise its use of energy and other natural resources. These measures have solved some water problems not just for the property, but also for the surrounding areas.

Rain water harvesting

ITC Maurya affected a Rain Water Harvesting (RWH) system backed by some state-of-the-art innovative techniques and technologies some two years ago. At the time, when the hotel was introduced to RWH system at an investment of about Rs 20 lakh, its seven bore wells were drawing water from 85 to 90 feet underground. In little less than two years, the water table has witnessed drastic recharge in the area around the hotel and the bore wells today have to draw water up to 35 - 40 feet under the ground.

Apart from recharging the water table, it has also provided critical irrigation to moisture starved surrounding areas. At the same time, the hotel has also reduced its dependency on bore wells, by reducing its overall water consumption. Half of the water requirement is met by New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC). “Our revised target is to further reduce our water consumption to 450 kilolitres by the end of this year”, says Haksar. If this target is achieved, it will mean a whopping 50 per cent reduction compared to the amount of water it used to draw a couple of years ago.

Active involvement needed

“To be effective, the active involvement of all concerned stakeholders is required in order to create a framework for an effective water management climate. We are currently in the process of overhauling and upgrading our ETP plant and once that is accomplished, its capacity of treating effluent and sewage water will increase significantly. The surplus treated water will be used by civic bodies like NDMC to maintain the greenery along the roads and flyovers in the vicinity, the parks, the Dhaula Kuan ridge area forests and other public areas in the vicinity,” says Haksar.

“Measures like inserting shower-like devices in the mouth of the water-hose to retard flow or closing half or three-fourth of the valve below the wash basin have been found to be highly effective. The hotel has invested in a sprinkler system, as the common watering practice is highly water intensive or wasteful.  These measures incur little or no cost,” says N Ramamoorthy, Chief Engineer, ITC Maurya Hotel.

“The hydropneumatic water distribution system under which water is distributed, helps in effective handling of demand-side-management. This  reduces unnecessary water wastage. It’s an automatic system and does not require manual intervention,” informs S Arunaachalam, Asst Engineer, ITC Maurya Hotel.

The hotel uses ETP treated recycled waters in horticulture activities, floor washing, fountains and cascades. These areas alone consume around 100 kilolitres of water per day. ETP treated water is also used in chillers and cooling towers, which consumes 150 kilolitres of water per day.

Another important measure the hotel has undertaken is Xeriscape. This is a form of landscaping in which plants like cactus are grown as these plants do not need much water. Thus, Xeriscape reduces water consumption drastically.