The sponsor has presented plans to address these impacts to ensure that the proposed project will upon implementation of the specific agreed measures, comply with the environmental and social requirements - the host country laws and regulations and the IFC’s Performance Standards on Social and Environmental Sustainability and environmental, health and safety guidelines. The information about how these potential impacts will be addressed by the sponsor/project is summarized in the paragraphs that follow.
- Social and Environmental Assessment and Management:
The Tala Bay Tourism Development, of which the Tala Bay hotel forms a small part, was subject of an environmental impact assessment which was published in 2001. Environmental planning and permitting for the project has been provided by the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA), and ongoing environmental inspection of the project is also undertaken by ASEZA. There is currently in Jordan a high-profile campaign to promote Aqaba as a business and tourism destination, and many of the internationally known chains are present or have projects under development.
Two hotels have participated in a national project “Good Environmental Performance in the Tourist Accommodation Sector in Jordan (GREENTAS)”. At these sites draft environmental assessments have been prepared, and discussions between the consultants and hotel staff to agree action plans will take place shortly. Another hotel has a developed an Environmental Action Plan under the “Green Key” initiative.
Ongoing environmental management activities depend upon the management company operating the hotel. All have systems to track energy and water use on a daily basis and to quantify waste production. One chain reports energy and water cost daily as a percentage of hotel revenue, and compares this figure with occupancy. Regular reports compare monthly use with the previous month, and with the same month last year. One hotel compares actual use with targets, and has a breakdown of energy use by function within the hotel. Others break-down and report energy use by outlet, and are therefore able, for example, to compare energy use in the kitchen or laundry with number of meals prepared or weight of laundry processed. As a reported above, three of the hotels are developing environmental action plans driven by recent environmental assessment. The company which will manage the Tala Bay hotel intends to develop an environmental management system at that hotel certified compliant with ISO 14001.
Environmental policies are in place at all hotels, and at hotel level the organization structure for environmental management is in place, and usually driven by the Chief Engineer.
Zara will develop basic environmental capability, such that it can promote more environmentally-benign design in new properties, monitor basic environmental characteristics of the properties it owns and drive continuous improvement through comparison of the properties.
- Labor and Working Conditions:
All hotels follow Jordanian legislation which essentially matches IFC’s requirements as expressed in Performance Standard 2. All hotel chains have, and apply, their Human Resources policies, and all have in-house human resources departments, reporting to the General Manager. Working conditions are documented in writing by the contract of employment which is signed on the first day of work. This provides a job definition, and defines the rights and responsibilities of both employee and employer. All management companies base employment on non-discrimination of employment or advancement, though in some cases this has been adapted to comply with cultural norms in this Islamic country, in that Muslim women are not employed to serve alcohol.
Employee grievance mechanisms vary according to management company. All operating companies have normal grievance channels through the departmental management hierarchy, that is through the supervisor, manager and so on. Parallel grievance channels are available through the hotels’ Human Resources departments and directly to hotel General Managers. All companies also have staff suggestions schemes which act as another grievance channel.
One company has an external “hotline” a telephone number to which complaints can be made to the company at regional group level, rather than at the hotel. Complaints so received would be forwarded to regional management, and then to the hotel General Manager for follow-up. This structure had been used in one case. Two of the operating companies undertake annual employee surveys, either on-line or through completion of a written questionnaire, in which all employees are required to complete a confidential survey, response being used to evaluate performance of hotel management.
Lost time due to accidents is monitored. All operating hotels reported rates of lost time accidents which appear high, but also reported that the injuries suffered were relatively minor in nature. Additional monitoring and comparison between properties will be undertaken in the first instance, and corrective actions developed on the basis of improved information.
- Emissions to Water and Air:
Emissions to air arise as combustion products from hot water and steam boilers used to provide hot water, laundry and (seasonally) space heating to the hotels. All hotels organize regular checks on combustion gases, though these are oriented to maintaining combustion efficiency rather than quantifying environmental emissions. Many of these combustion devices are too small to require monitoring according to local regulation or IFC guidelines, though some are not. Emissions to atmosphere will be measured for those devices exceeding the IFC General Environmental Guideline’s 3 MWth lower threshold, and actions taken to reduce emissions if shown necessary by this monitoring.
In Aqaba, Amman and Petra hotel effluents are discharged to well functioning municipal sewage collection and treatment systems. At the Dead Sea hotel, swimming pool filter backwash water is discharged to the storm water drainage system, and ultimately enters the sea. Although this water has high TDS, it is much lower in TDS than the Dead Sea itself. Effluent at the Dead Sea hotel are pumped to the hotel’s dedicated waste water treatment plant, where it is treated by aeration, settling and clarification, chlorination and sand filtration before being used to irrigate garden areas.
Hotel effluents at Tala Bay will be discharged to a dedicated waste water treatment plant to be used for the hotel, and after treatment as described above will be used to irrigate garden areas of the property.
At the Dead Sea hotel, and one in Amman, stormwater drains are adjacent to fuel oil storage tanks and could be contaminated in the event that a tank were to leak. Drainage will be revised to eliminate this risk.
All hotels’ laundries include dry cleaning machines. These are totally close systems, and consequently have very low solvent use.
Air conditioning systems in existing properties is based on packaged water chillers and uses HCFC22 or HCF 134a refrigerants. When the HCFC22-based systems are due for renewal a non ozone-depleting refrigerant will be adopted. HCFC22 shall not be used at the Tala Bay Hotel.
- Water Consumption:
Designers for the Tala Bay Hotel report that while the property will use low-water consumption toilets, showers and faucets, water consumption of around 1 m3/guest night is expected. For luxury fully serviced hotels in a Mediterranean or tropical climate, consumption at this level is considered “high”. Water-using designs, including the potential use of grey water systems will be revisited for this hotel.
Water use for existing hotels ranges from 0.47 m3/guest night (excluding swimming pool replenishment) to 1.42 m3/guest night, which includes use for the pool and irrigation, from “excellent” to “excessive” according to Conservation International benchmarks. All hotels will revisit water consumption, and use existing management systems to reduce consumption.
- Energy Consumption:
Energy consumption of the hotels has been benchmarked, showing that electricity use is generally “high” or higher, while fossil fuel use is well controlled. The largest single users of electricity are the building ventilation and cooling systems, and opportunities to reduce energy use in these areas were identified during IFC’s due diligence visits. Zara will seek expert advice on revisions which may be possible, within the project timescale, to the design of the building and building services at the Tala Bay Hotel, and will commission energy audits of the other properties. Cost-effective recommendations arising from this process will be implemented.
- Community Health and Safety:
All existing hotels, except the Mövenpick Nabatean Castle were designed and are operated in accordance with NFPA codes on fire safety, and are therefore sprinklered throughout. The Nabatean Castle hotel by contrast has sprinklers throughout back-of-house areas, but fire suppression on the guest floors is through hose-reels and extinguishers, rather than sprinklers. All guest bedrooms have smoke alarms, and the building is of a heavy construction providing good compartmentation. The Tala Bay Hotel used a fire protection engineer to prepare a life and fire Safety master plan for the property which was incorporated into building design.
All hotels have implemented elaborate security precautions following the 2005 terrorist attacks, most visibly by restricting vehicular access and instituting airport-style security screening of all packages and persons entering the properties. Emergency response plans are prepared, and regular simulation exercises are conducted.
Potable water is supplied to the hotels as follows: properties in Amman are connected to city mains, but also tanker-in water to supplement the supply. Petra and Aqaba hotels use the municipal supply, and the Dead Sea hotel shares a well with other nearby hotels. City and tankered water supplies are considered of potable quality. The Dead Sea hotel treats its water before use in the hotel. All hotels however make daily checks of chlorine content and pH of potable water, and support this measurement by regular bacteriological tests.
Similarly, the chemical composition of swimming pool water is tested daily, and biannual bacteriological tests are undertaken.
Regular inspections are made for ‘legionella’ in the hotels’ domestic hot water systems.
Three of the existing hotels have recently started enhanced food safety assurance programs based on HACCP. Similar procedures to those at the existing properties will be adopted at the new Tala Bay Hotel, and all properties shall achieve ISO 22000 certification of food safety procedures.
- Land Acquisition and Resettlement:
The Tala Bay hotel will be built on an area of 6.5 hectares (ha), with the possibility to extend by a further 2.5 ha. The entire Tala Bay development will cover some 270 ha (expressed locally as 2700 donum, one donum being 1000 m2). The land, which is located between the coast road from Aqaba to the Saudi border and the sea, was bought from the government, and before acquisition did not support any habitation or economic activity. The development of Tala Bay resort will place around 2km of formerly public beach in private hands, and will therefore restrict access to this land. However, some 7km of public beach remains, therefore considerable public access to the beach remains. Moreover, continued public access to the sea at this point will be permitted for a modest fee.
- Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Natural Resource Management:
The existing urban hotels (Petra, Nabatean Castle, Aqaba and the two Amman hotels) are not considered to have adverse impacts on terrestrial biodiversity.
The Dead Sea Mövenpick, although it has existed for some ten years, was built on a site characteristic of a tamarisk shrub, and may be habitat for two further endangered shrubs, examples of which can be seen growing near the hotel entrance. The hotel will encourage the growth of these species on its grounds.
The Tala Bay EIA identified flora and fauna present in the Aqaba area, including acacia species, a red-listed shrub and two endangered lizards. However, the presence of such species on the development site itself was not confirmed. The project site is very similar in appearance to many other land parcels in the immediate vicinity which remain undeveloped, and for this reason is not considered to be of special biodiversity value. Impacts to mitigate possible adverse effects on terrestrial biodiversity are to control construction workers, to ensure that they do not cut trees for firewood or hunt illegally.
Tala Bay and the Mövenpick Aqaba can be anticipated to have some impacts on marine life to the extent that the tourists staying in these premises are likely to wish to participate in water sports activities. Water sports are provided by reputable subcontractors to the hotels, who operate in accordance with established codes of environmental good practice and are controlled by the ASEZA.
- Cultural Heritage:
Large-scale tourism to Petra risks causing damage to the very artifacts which attract the tourism. This is controlled by providing guides to visitors and groups, who to the extent possible promote appropriate behaviors among visitors. Jordan’s tourism police are also present within the archaeological site to, among other things, require appropriate treatment of the site.
