Will Fujairah Become a Green City and Emirate?

In receiving the Green Globe certificate on behalf of Iberotel Miramar, the Area General Manager of Iberotel Hotels and Resorts, Mr. Ashraf Helmy said:

“It is an honour but it’s only the first step toward Fujairah becoming a Green Globe certified city.”

Mr. Helmy’s Miramar Hotel on Fujairah’s Al Aqah beach has gone through a comprehensive process to gain international recognition for environmental excellence but he is hoping that the entire city and emirate of Fujairah might begin the same journey.

Fujairah-Dibba Municipality Assistance
Mr. Hassan Salem El Yamahy, the manager of the Dibba Municipality was present at the award ceremony and Mr. Helmy paid tribute to the assistance that the Fujairah Government department had given to the Iberotel Miramar along the path to gaining Green Globe status.

When asked about the commitment of the Fujairah Government to environmental concerns Mr. Hassan Salem El Yamahy said that each new building or infrastructure project has environmental criteria that must be fulfilled before it can begin.

Fujairah a Green Globe Certified City?
Mr. Ramakrishna, a consultant representing Green Globe, explained that the standard criteria for a hotel or company to obtain this global recognition covers the areas of sustainable management, social and economic factors, cultural heritage and environmental concerns—in all a total of 339 criteria are looked at and a hotel or building needs to attain a minimum level of 51% compliance.

Mr Ramakrishna said:

“For a city [or Emirate] to be certified as a [Green Globe] ‘destination’, it would require similar criteria to be met as in the case of individual hotels. However, there would be several criteria which would not be applicable and many others that would be specific for a destination.”

Fujairah Starting the Journey
While individual new projects have environmental boxes that must be ticked in order to get the 'go ahead' from the government, there are city or emirate-wide concerns that Fujairah would need to embrace.

One first step in the journey for Fujairah would be to implement an emirate-wide recycling system for the management of its waste. At present householders put all their rubbish together into the rubbish skip and it is taken away for landfill.

The process of Fujairah city and emirate becoming a truly internationally recognized Green Destination would mean providing every residential precinct with separate receptacles to enable paper, plastic, glass, tin etc. to be recycled as is now the practice at the Iberotel Miramar (see photo).

This entire process might sound like a big cost for the city but as the Iberotel Miramar discovered, such a step and process leads to great savings.

Why Fujairah Should Go Green?
The ultimate reason for the city and emirate of Fujairah becoming a Green Globe certified destination was expressed well by Mr. Ashraf Helmy when he identified his own motivation for achieving the award:

“We have not taken these environmental actions to get certified but we have done it for the environment, for nature and for the wellbeing of our great, great grandchildren.”

Take a Look
Some pictures of the Iberotel Miramar Al Aqah Beach Resort in Fujairah, many of which illustrate the desire of the hotel resort to live in harmony with nature, are posted in this photo album.

Some pictures of the Green Globes Award ceremony are in this photo album.

Related
Iberotel Miramar at Al Aqah Fujairah Achieves High Environmental Standards, FIF, 15 December 2010.
Iberotel Al Aqah Receives Prestigious Green Globe Award, FIF, 14 December 2010.

Geoff Pound

This article is also posted on the Fujairah in Focus Facebook Page.

Image: “The process of Fujairah city and emirate becoming a truly internationally recognized Green Destination would mean providing every residential precinct with separate receptacles to enable paper, plastic, glass, tin etc. to be recycled as is now the practice at the Iberotel Miramar.”