Efficient energy management for coastal tourism activities

1. Efficient energy management for coastal tourism activities Luigi Bruzzi – Simona Verità – Johanna von der Weppen

2. TOURISM AND SUSTAINABILITY Mass tourism on Italy’s coasts substantially increases the antrophic pressure on natural resources Increasingly activetourist industry entails a rise in energy demand

3. LOCAL IMPACTS OF TOURISM ON PEOPLE AND ENVIRONMENT • They result from: • The intensive use of water and land by tourism and leisure facilities • Changes in the landscape coming from the construction of infrastructure, buildings and facilities • Air pollution and waste • Difficulties for nature conservation as tourists have access to more sensitive areas • Conflicts due to clashes between the tourist industry with other sectors (forestry, agriculture) • Delivery and use of energy • The disturbance of fauna and local people (for example, by noise)

4. OVERUSES OF WATER RESOURCES FOR TOURISM ACTIVITIES • Water, and especially fresh water is one of the most critical natural resources. • The tourism industry generally overuses water resources for hotels, swimming pools, golf courses and personal use of water by tourists. • This can result in water shortages and degradation of water supplies, as well as generate a greater volume of wastewater.

5. COASTAL TOURISM CAN PUT WATERRESOURCES AT RISK • Construction of hotels, recreation and other facilities often leads to increased pressure on sewage disposal facilities. • Many destinations have several times more inhabitants in the high season than in the low season. • Waste water treatment facilities are often not built to cope with the dramatic rise in volume of waste water during the peak.

6. ENVIRONMENTAL INDIRECT EFFECTS OF TOURISM • The main environmental effects produced by tourism are related to: • Transportation • Accommodations and hospitality services • Distribution

7. ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF TRANSPORTATION • Automobile and jet airplane have made travel accessible to a growing segment of the world’s population. • Transportation modes and facilities tend to have significant environmental impacts; all modes of travel require energy, most of which is provided by fossil fuels. • The burning of fossil fuels contributes to a number of environmental problems, including air pollution and global warming.

8. ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS OF ACCOMODATION The indicators for measuring quality of tourist destinations refer to the resources used: amount of water and energy consumed the volume or weight of waste generated the number of guests accommodated the number of rooms occupied the amount of green areas energy and water use in specific areas like laundry, the kitchen or the restaurant.

9. TOURISM AND ENERGY There is a growing demand for fuel / electricity for: • hot water supply (bathroom) • local transport • heating during cold season • demand for electricity for heat pumps or air-conditioning • lighting and public lighting • electric appliances (refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, washing machine, electric uses in offices)

10. THE SELECTION OF A TOURISM DESTINATION IMPLIES SOME QUESTIONS • what sites or areas are most suitable for tourist development? • how many visitors should there be in any place? • what sorts of tourist activity or development are suitable? • what infrastructure is necessary for tourism? • are there resource limitations which are relevant to tourism development? • what mechanisms are needed to control tourist operators and tourists?

11. SOME RESTRICTION CRITERIA FOR COASTAL TOURISM DESTINATION • a restriction on resort size to a maximum of 200 rooms. • a restriction on the maximum height of buildings to 12 meters. • hotels with over 75 rooms must install water and sewage treatment plants. • regional architectural styles be incorporated in the design of facilities. • facilities have at least 60 percent of their area given to landscaping.

12. COST-RATIONALISATION Use of energy efficient techniques: • improves the productivity and competitiveness of tourist services • ensures higher safety for guests and employees • motivates workers • improves the image of the service in response to the rising social interest in environmental sustainability

13. IMPORTANCE OF ENERGY MANAGEMENT IN TOURIST SERVICES • The importance of energy management in tourist services at the tourist destination is also demonstrated by the criteria used for environmental certification. • In order to obtain the European Ecolabel (2003/287/EC), 10 out of 37 mandatory criteria and 14 out of 47 optional criteria concerning energy must be fulfilled.

14. ECOLABEL MANDATORY ENERGY CRITERIA • The mandatory criteria dealing with energy are related to: • electricity from renewable sources; • coal and heavy oils; • electricity for heating; • air conditioning; • window insulation; • switching off heating or air conditioning; • switching off lights; • energy efficient light bulbs and sauna timer control.

15. ECOLABEL OPTIONAL ENERGY CRITERIA The optional criteria dealing with energy are related to: • photovoltaic and wind generation of electricity (2 points); • boiler energy efficiency (1 point) ; • boiler NOx emissions (1,5 points); • district heating (1 point) combined heat and power (1,5 points); • heat pump (1,5 points); • heat recovery (2 points); • thermoregulation (1,5 points) insulation of existing buildings (2 points); • air conditioning (1,5 points); • automatic switching-off of air conditioning (1 point) bioclimatic architecture (2 points); • energy efficient refrigerators (1 point), dishwashers (1 point), washing machines (1 point) and office; • refrigerator positioning (1 point); • automatic switching off lights in guest rooms (1 point); • automatic switching off outside lights (1 point)

16. CO2 PRODUCED BY TOURISM ACTIVITIES (MT) WTO Climate Report 2008

17. ENERGY USE & FOSSIL FUEL CONSUMPTION OF A TOURIST AT HIS DESTINATION *kWh thermal referring to a 100 mq apartment; **kWh electric

18. CARBON DIOXIDE EMISSIONS FOR TOURISM TRANSPORT MODES (Peeters, P.et al., 2004)

19. EXPECTED AIRCRAFT FUEL EFFICIENCIES • Modern aircraft achieve fuel efficiencies of 3.5 litres per 100 passenger-kilometre. • This corresponds to about 0,1 kg/person-km (same figure of slide n. 8 for distances > 2000 km) • The next generation aircraft (Airbus A380 & Boeing 787) use less than 3 litres of fuel per 100 passenger-km • This exceeds the efficiency of any modern compact car on the market

20. CO2/PERSON PRODUCED FOR A DESTINATION 1000 km AWAY (7 DAYS STAY)

21. RENEWABLE ENERGY AND ENERGY SAVING AT THE DESTINATION Solar panels for the production of hot water • Onem² of solar panel  heatsca. 100 l of water from 20 to 50 °C in a period of one day • One panel with a nominal power of 1 kW can produce more than 1000 kWh in a year = an individual’s annual consumption Every day energy savings (do not require additional investments) • halogen and fluorescent bulbs: lighting efficiency 40-60 times higher than incandescent bulbs.

22. DEMAND FOR SUSTAINABLE TOURISM The “Travel Analysis 2004” of the German Association for Tourism and Development (Studienkreis für Tourismus und Entwicklung e.V. im Auftrag des Umweltbundesamtes) found: • Of 7700 surveyed tourists, more than 3/4th considered a healthy environment and respect of local traditions as being very important • Tourists did not feel restricted by environmental regulations • Over 70% avoid destinations which suffer from urbanisation

23. TOURISM AS A FACTOR IN DEVELOPMENT OF COASTAL TOURIST DESTINATIONS Rapid expansion of international tourism: • employment creation  important motivation to reduce emigration from rural areas • spending by visitors in Italy has been increasing from 28,5 million € (2005) to 31 million € in 2007 Tourism can and should induce local governments to: • Improve infrastructure • Raise quality of life for residents • Contribute to local development

24. CONCLUSIONS • Transportation for tourism contributes importantly (75%) towards climate change effects. • Growing interest and need for assessing the environmental impact produced by tourism taking into account the whole life cycle. • The share of energy consumption of transportation in the Life Cycle of a tourist service is very high • Studies on the LCA of tourism services are considering the transportation phase in the framework of requirements requested for acquiring an ecolabel. • Tourist operators should promote beneficial measures for people using low-energy consumption transportation services.