As part of its efforts to achieve carbon neutral status, The Maslow Sandton has partnered with GreenDreams in order to offset the carbon emissions generated by the use of its meeting and conference rooms. The GreenDreams initiative has been developed by the Climate Neutral Group which helps hotels take action on climate change.
The carbon offsets will be used to fund the Wonderbag project, which provides communities with access to greener, safer and more reliable energy to cook their meals. “The Maslow Sandton cares about the environment and takes to heart its obligation to operate in a sustainable manner. As the need for lighting, catering, heating and cooling in conferencing venues contributes to the generation of greenhouse gas emissions, we wanted to limit the impact of these operations on the environment, with the goal to make our venues carbon neutral,” says Ashwin Jose, General Manager at The Maslow.
“Both business and leisure travellers are becoming more responsible about their travel choices, and are looking for convenient ways to green their travelling as much as they can. Also, an increasing number of companies are looking for conference venues that are carbon neutral. We are excited that the Maslow Hotel Sandton has joined an ever increasing number of hotel chains across the world that are taking action against climate change”, says Nishanthi Lambrichs, Programme Manager for GreenDreams.
The Wonderbag is an innovative, South African-born product that relies on heat retention cooking to reduce energy demands. Once food has been brought to the boil using a traditional heat source, the pot is placed in the Wonderbag to slow-cook without using any additional energy. It is also a great tool to keep hot items hot, and cold items cold.
“We have various initiatives underway to improve the resource efficiency of our operations and we are also pursuing carbon offsetting. By offsetting the carbon emissions generated by our meeting rooms and conference facilities with the Wonderbag™ project, we are making strides towards being carbon neutral while supporting a sustainable project that is aimed at improving the quality of life of people in our local communities. About 22 485 people have been reached with clean cooking thanks to The Maslow’s contribution in carbon offsets,” says Jose.