November 2008 – Taj Hotels Resorts & Palaces announces its latest initiative to support sustainable tourism and environment management in all areas of the luxury hotel experience.

Under Taj’s new EARTH (Environment Awareness & Renewal at Taj Hotels) policy, a series of designated rooms will be available in selected city properties across the group: The Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi; Taj Lands End, Mumbai. Taj Bengal, Kolkata; 51 Buckingham Gate, London; Taj Connemara, Chennai; The Gateway Hotel, Bangalore.

The concept of an EARTH room will be to introduce environmentally friendly measures, without compromising guests’ experience of Taj’s signature hospitality.

In an EARTH room, small but significant steps will go a long way to preserving the environment. Lighting will be from energy efficient CFL lamps; snack bars will replace refrigerated mini bars; bedside night pads will be handmade and have recyclable pages (and if guests run out more pages are a call way). Instead of offering a selection of newspapers, the guests preferred ‘daily’ will be provided. Air conditioning will be pre-set at 24 C, saving up to 30% of energy consumed at lower temperatures. All EARTH rooms will be furnished with potted plants instead of cut flowers. Bath and bedroom linen will be changed ever other day halving the use of detergents.

As Taj looks to evolve its eco-measures, the list of EARTH rooms will expand across the group. The EARTH rooms are part of a series of initiatives driven under the Taj Eco Policy, and follows on from the Gangroti Glacier Clean-Up Expedition. The EARTH project reiterates the conscious efforts of one of Asia’s largest and finest group of hotels to commit to energy conservation and environmental management. EARTH has received certification from Green Globe, the only worldwide environmental certification programme for travel and tourism.

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