Not one hotel from the Kingdom made the top 20 list of Greenest Hotels in Ireland as determined by The Green Hospitality Programme.

The Programme last month announced its top Green Hotels at the ‘Responsible Tourism Conference’ which took place in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Golden Lane in Dublin.

Based on 2013 environmental benchmark figures produced by hotels, The Green Hospitality Programme produced its first league table listing for the Greenest Hotels in Ireland, based on what Irish hotels are doing to reduce their environmental footprint using benchmarks for waste, energy water and carbon footprint.

Disappointingly, no Kerry hotel appeared in the league of TOP 20 Greenest Hotels in Ireland despite the important role, economic and social driving force that the tourism industry plays in the county.

While addressing students from the Tourism and Catering Department of IT Tralee this week, James Hogan, Director of Green Hospitality said: “For us in the Green Hospitality Programme it was both surprising and disappointing that Kerry hotels didn’t feature in our league table. We don’t know why there has been such a poor uptake of the Programme in Kerry, which is the key tourism destination and regarded as one of the greenest counties in Ireland.”  

One of the students suggested that the county was “already green enough”, which unfortunately isn’t the case, according to Green Hospitality benchmark data. This highlights that hotels in Kerry could be significantly Greener and could save thousands of euro in the process. On average Hotels save €35,000 in the first year of joining the Green Hospitality Programme.The greenest hotel in Kerry is the Killarney Park Hotel who has been involved in the Green Hospitality Programme for the last 6 years.  Dublin hotels are big supporters of the Green Hospitality Programme with 23% of hotels in Dublin signed up to the programme. In Cork the uptake by hotels 16% whereas in Kerry the uptake is just 5%.

The league table is the first of many initiatives to celebrate and recognise hotels that have made commendable changes to go green, and in turn make savings for their business. James Hogan of The Green Hospitality Programme spoke of the importance of the hospitality sector going ‘green’.

“Green hospitality has saved our members C35,000 per annum on average, through ‘no cost’ and ‘low cost’ measures. Reducing one’s environmental footprint by reducing waste is not only good for business but vital for the environment”

For more information, visit www.ghaward.ie.