SkyCity hotels to add climate change 'bible' to rooms

SkyCity hotels will be adding another book in the top drawers of its rooms soon. Photo / File

SkyCity hotels are introducing a different kind of bible to its rooms - a book on climate change.

The revelation was announced at a Climate Leaders Coalition meeting last night, when SkyCity chief executive Graeme Stephens said they were adding a new Gideons Bible to their rooms.

When asked about it on stage, Stephens said: "I hope I'm not being offensive. But I'm introducing a new Gideons Bible to our hotel rooms in the form of books on climate change."

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He said he had asked Meridian head Neal Barclay for advice about it.

"I said to him: 'I want a book that I can understand, that actually points to what I can do today, not some sort of nebula scientific concept'."

The practice of keeping a Bible in hotel rooms started in the late 19th century when three men who founded Gideons International in the 1800s spread the good news by distributing Bibles in hotel rooms.

Stephens received the climate change book - Drawdown - the next day.

"It's a great book because it's got lots of pictures.

"And you can read it on an aeroplane and you can read it for 10 minutes before going to bed.

"So it struck me that having books like that in our hotel rooms - for somebody who just wants to pick up on it relatively light, but reinforcing the message, that'll be the new Gideons Bible in SkyCity rooms in the next month or two.

"And we'll look to update to it...and we don't mind if a few get stolen. It's for a good cause.''