Entry

ZANZIBAR : As green as green could be

Feb 17th, 2007 07:30
Harish Kohli, http://www.awimaway.com

Hello,
Building has just started on the world’s first ‘zero carbon’ five-star 
hotel in Nungwi, Zanzibar, Tanzania. Designed for Per Aquum resorts by 
award-winning London architect Richard Hywel, it is due to be 
completed next year.
Features of the complex include:
•a solar-powered restaurant
•hot water coming from pipes beneath solar panels
•guests’ beds cooled by cold-water pipes running through them
•reed-filtered recycled water
•a pioneering system for keeping bedrooms at the ideal temperature: 
walls shaped to draw in and channel cool sea breezes
•bricks made from reclaimed stone. 
Guests using in the gym will have an extra incentive to work off those 
excess calories: they will be used to drive turbines that create 
electricity.
The idea is that the buildings will be ‘environmentally conscious’ and 
at the same time the development will be commercially sustainable. For 
example, Per Aquum want to ensure that the resort is built and staffed 
by locals, who will be offered education and training.
Evans believes the development will ‘set a new standard for what is 
achievable’. 
Make a date for 2008 at the world’s greenest hotel.
And while you’re in Tanzania, how about a climb up Africa’s highest 
mountain, Kilimanjaro? It’s another way of having an amazing 
experience that uses your – renewable – energy without depleting the 
earth’s supplies. 
Harish Kohli
http://www.awimaway.com