Travel Jun. 23, 2011 - 05:08AM JST ( 2 )

TOKYO —

The Peninsula Hotels announced Wednesday that The Peninsula Tokyo’s general manager, Malcolm Thompson, presented a check for 42 million yen on behalf of the hotel group to Ryouichi Hattori, Director General, Organizational Development Department, Japanese Red Cross Society.

Thompson expressed The Peninsula Hotels’ commitment to support the continuing efforts to rebuild the Tohoku region, with Hattori stating that “100% of The Peninsula Hotels’ generous donation will be donated to the national grant disbursement committee, of which the Japanese Red Cross Society is a member, for distribution by local prefectural governments as cash grants to families affected by the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami.”

The funds were raised through The Peninsula Hotels’ HOPE for JAPAN campaign, a three-pronged initiative that ran between March 21 through May 31 at each Peninsula hotel across Asia (Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Bangkok and Manila) and in the U.S. (New York, Chicago and Beverly Hills), comprising a donation for each guest stay, a special Japanese-themed Afternoon Tea with 100% of the retail price being donated and “The Tree of 1,000 Cranes” where guests were invited to make a minimum donation of $5 (or the equivalent in local currency) and receive an origami crane to hang on the tree.

Joining its sister hotels in their goodwill gesture, The Peninsula Tokyo’s signature art piece by Keisen Hama is adorned with 1,000 cranes, comprised of 100 cranes from each of the nine Peninsula Hotels and The Peninsula Hotels’ headquarters in Hong Kong.
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‘Save Energy for Japan’

The Peninsula Tokyo will launch “Save Energy For Japan” from July 1 to Sept 22. With the Japanese government requiring various industries, including hotels, to reduce their energy consumption this summer by 10%, The Peninsula Tokyo is taking the initiative to reduce its energy consumption by 15%.

“Save Energy For Japan” includes hotel staff wearing “Cool Business” attire uniforms, the first international luxury hotel in Tokyo ever to do so. Staff sporting custom-made white polo shirts with The Peninsula Tokyo’s “Save Energy For Japan” logo will allow the hotel to reduce its energy and water consumption in laundering uniform jackets and dress shirts, as well as permitting office space temperatures to be raised and thus reducing the need for air conditioning.

With the guest experience being unaffected, additional efforts include turning off the hotel’s exterior lights, changing more than 500 interior lights to Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs), reducing the use of office and parking area fluorescent lights by 50%, reducing the temperature of the indoor swimming and vitality pool by up to one degree, consolidating the food supply in refrigerators to reduce the number of operating refrigerators and more.