Atlantis, The Palm announces today that it has received EarthCheck Silver certification for two applications: the hotel and the waterpark. As Atlantis is a unique property home to Aquaventure waterpark, as well as the Lost Chambers Aquarium, Dolphin Bay and Sea Lion Point, it is important to note that the vast, all-encompassing destination – the size of 64 Wembley football pitches – submitted one for Atlantis, The Palm (under Accommodation- Vacation Hotel), and one for Aquaventure (under the Theme Park category). This allows them to be benchmarked against similar operations.
With EarthCheck recognised as the world’s leading scientific benchmarking, certification and business advisory group, it helps businesses, communities, and governments to evaluate their environmental footprint, improve sustainability and ultimately enhance business performance. Atlantis, The Palm’s incredible achievement is reflective of the hotel’s unwavering commitment to environment friendly policies in keeping with the world’s highest environmental standards.
The resort has a number of significant initiatives in place including recycling of waste, reducing energy usage and managing freshwater consumption, which all work towards positioning it as a leader in the unique worldwide group of sustainable tourism operators that are certified to EarthCheck Company Standard. Significantly, Atlantis, The Palm is the third hotel in the United Arab Emirates to achieve EarthCheck Silver, while seven other hotels in the emirate have EarthCheck Bronze certifications.
"Sustainability is high on the agenda of Atlantis, The Palm and to be certified in this field is something that we take very seriously. We are truly proud of this accomplishment that reflects our dedication to both environmental and social sustainability practices," said Timothy Kelly, Executive Vice President and Managing Director Atlantis Resorts. "We are excited to continue on this path to find new ways to increase our sustainable footprint across the resort," he added.
The process started a year ago when Atlantis, The Palm achieved Benchmark Bronze status from EarthCheck in October 2019. Since then their dedicated Green Committee has been working tirelessly to report high volumes of data and provide supporting evidence, together with preparing waste, energy and water management plans, creating reporting and auditing systems, and training and communicating their efforts to colleagues and guests.
Atlantis, The Palm were required to report data regarding their waste management, energy and water conservation strategies and CSR achievements, amongst others. Some of the notable achievements in 2019 were:
- Recycling close to 800,000kg of waste in 2019 including items like cardboard, glass, aluminium, paper and plastic
- Recycling 105,000 litres of used cooking oil in 2019
- Installing new technology to reduce freshwater usage in ShuiQi Spa by 80 per cent
- Reporting a consistent reduction in electricity consumption year on year since 2015
- Installing energy-efficient LED lighting to 60 per cent of the resort
- Feeding 22,3400 people by donating excess food to a charitable organisation
- Recycling used linens totalling 27,030 pieces weighing 23,321 kg
- Using biodegradable and eco-friendly in 50 per cent of cleaning products and pesticides products
EarthCheck does not only assess a commitment to environmental sustainability, but a commitment to social sustainability too. Atlantis, The Palm has a host of past, present and ongoing Corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes including their contribution to the "10 million meals project" and artist Sacha Jafri’s "Humanity Inspired" project which aims to raise AED 110 million to fund health and education, as well as raising funds to support natural disaster relief via the Emirates Red Crescent.