DAVAO CITY ? The next time you sleep at the Marco Polo Hotel here, indulge yourself in the comfort that the white sheets and towels you are using are green ? and you can help them become greener.

There are a few simple ways to do this, points Nigel Fisher, general manager of Marco Polo Hotel Davao. One must only follow the suggestions listed in a small green card that welcomes a client upon entering a room.

Note that this practice is not unique to Marco Polo Hotel Davao, but there is a conscious effort on the part of the hotel management to encourage their clients to take part in their efforts in lessening the use of bleach needed to maintain the white sheets and towels.

?We strongly recommend that if you are staying for a couple of days, instead choose that you will reuse your sheets and the towels. Imagine how much bleach, electricity and water we need just to maintain them. Now imagine how much we will be able to save if you help us ? so we need your help,? says Nigel.

Nigel says the hotel management is implementing green practices seriously, giving details and attention on rubbish generation, chemical usage and energy consumption.

And they have future projects designed to enhance in-placed practices that are environment-friendly. One of these plans is to put-up solar panels on the side of the hotel as a source of alternative energy, putting up of energy-efficient LED lightings, and planting of drought-resistant ornamental plants and shrubs.

This measures and plans were the reason why Marco Polo Hotel was recently awarded as the Asean Green Hotel Recognition Award in Brunei Darrusalam.

The only Mindanao hotel given the recognition so far, the green award gave Marco Polo Hotel Davao the acknowledgment for its effort in ?environmental sustainability and energy conservation that actively contribute to a greener world.?

?We are very happy to receive this recognition of our efforts in improving and maintaining the environment friendly strategies and policies of the Hotel,? Fisher says.

The other Green Hotel awardees are the Edsa Shangri-La Hotel, Makati Shangri-La Hotel, Shangri-La?s Mactan Island Resort and Spa, Hilton Cebu Resort and Spa, Nature?s Village Resort, Miniloc Island Resort Palawan, Lagen Island Resort in El Nido, Palawan, Sofitel Philippine Plaza, Manila, and Eden Nature Park and Resort in Davao.

The Asean Green Hotel Recognition Awards looked into the awardees practices and policies on environment, use of green product, solid waste management, energy efficiency, air quality management, noise pollution control, waste water treatment management and chemical substance disposal management.

Also, it gives importance on the awardees collaboration with the community and local organizations.

The Asean Task Force on Tourism Standards released the results of their organized search last December. The award was received by Tourism Undersecretary Oscar Palayab.

The Green Hotel Standard is one of the six Asean Tourism Standards being upheld for helping Asean tourism establishments be among the world?s best quality destinations.

Palayab says Marco Polo Hotel Davao is the first hotel in the city that earned the recognition.

?Green tourism being practiced by Marco Polo shows that Mindanao can make it? It shows that Marco Polo can pave the way. This is also proof that while the problem [environmental degradation] is urgent and crucial, we are not hopeful,? Palayab says.

Palayab says that it is hoped that other hotels in Davao and Mindanao will follow the way paved by Marco Polo.

?There is a growing niche of tourists looking for green destinations and that they are willing to pay much just so they can go to ecologically sound and protection sites,? Palayab says.