USAID clean energy program to help regional hospitality sector

CASTRIES, St Lucia -- The United States government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Caribbean Clean Energy Program (CARCEP), is supporting energy efficiency across the region’s hospitality sector with a series of energy efficiency workshops.

The second in this series was held in Saint Lucia on March 16-17. The forum attracted a cross section of management, operations, and maintenance personnel drawn from approximately 30 local hotels under the membership of the Saint Lucia Hotel & Tourism Association and the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association.

The two-day training educated participants on the value of energy conservation and assisted them in implementing energy efficiency and renewable energy measures on hotel properties. They also benefited from a practical demonstration of USAID CARCEP’s energy efficiency benchmarking tool, which can be used to track electricity, fossil fuel and water usage; compare consumption data and identify and quantify the value of the energy efficiency investments.

USAID CARCEP program development specialist and certified energy management (CEM) trainer Owen Gunning said, “Participants received useful tips and were exposed to innovative ideas to help them reduce their energy usage and electricity bill.”