Mohamed Ashour, Head of Commercial and Business Development of El Gouna said, “My honor to be part of Orascom Development family comes from the fact that we are probably one of the very few in the world that build integrated towns in every sense of the word taking into consideration the environmental sustainability aspect. He added “El Gouna has long been recognized as the Middle East’s first sustainable town since 2014, and this came as a result of the environmental efforts that the town has exerted.”
He further elaborated on El Gouna hotels, having environmental monitoring administration keeping up monthly reports, including the reported consumption of electricity, fuel, freshwater, irrigation water, and waste.
Ashour explained that El Gouna has collaborated with Ertekaa for years, which is a leading Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) company that manages El Gouna’s waste, through offering fully integrated, eco-conscious waste management solutions since 2014 where the total annual solid waste collected and compressed is 5,370 Tons yearly.
In addition, he talked about El Gouna’s latest initiative; “Preserving Mangrove Trees” which is the only species of trees in the world that can endure saltwater and help in filtering pollutants and trapping sediments originating from land. El Gouna decided to plant 2000 mangrove trees as first phase of a long term project, under the supervision of Ministry of Environment and Architectural engineer Gabriel Mikhail.
Finally, he added that El Gouna is the flagship town of the Green Star Hotel program (GSH), which is a national green certification and capacity-building program managed by the Egyptian Hotel Association (EHA) under the patronage of the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism. The GSH program offers an opportunity for hotels operating in Egypt to be internationally recognized for raising their environmental performance and social standards while reducing their operational costs.
