From having “Green Rooms” to rewarding guests with f&b vouchers for good environmental behaviour, hoteliers in Thailand are taking steps to “balance how to make money and how to be more green”, to quote Marisa Sukosol, executive vice president, Sukosol Hotels and chairperson, environmental committee at the Thai Hotels Association.
Speaking at a “Women in Sustainability” panel at PHIST, the sustainability event run by Phuket Hotels Association, C9 Hotelworks and Greenview, earlier this month, she said that sustainability is a “never ending” journey. “We started 30 years ago when we were certified by the Greenleaf Foundation and we want to pass on the commitment to the next generation.”
Specifically, at The Sukosol in Bangkok and Siam Bayshore in Pattaya, the group has rooms called “Hong Pak Rak Loke” ห้องพักรักษ์โลก – which means “guest room that loves and protects the earth”.
Kata Thani’s chief marketing officer Nantida Atiset, left, and Marisa Sukosol, executive vice president, Sukosol Hotels, speaking at PHIST, to Sumi Soorian, executive advisor of Phuket Hotels Association.
“It’s very poetic in Thai but in English, it’s just Green Room,” she smiled. At Sukosol, its Premier Rooms on the 12th floor have been remodelled. The website says, “Your green room is equipped with LED lighting, faucet water-saving aerators, reduced plastic use and waste separation, as well as energy-saving appliances (tv, refrigerator, hair dryer), unbleached sheets (sheets and towels) and locally sourced products in the minibar.”
She said that room category represents five percent of revenues. “We don’t see many Asians booking it, but a lot of Europeans and returning guests.”
Asked if she charged more for the Green Room, she said, “No, but it is a premier category.”
You could ask why every room couldn’t be green but Sukosol said, “It would be unrealistic.”
At Kata Thani, chief marketing officer Nantida Atiset said it puts flyers in guest rooms where guests can tick off the services they don’t require “and we reward them with f&b discounts or coupons”. She admitted there wasn’t a high take-up rate.
“Sustainability is a journey and it is up to our generation to change things. What we want as a hotel group is to create a positive impact on society – to positively influence our neighbourhoods and communities.”
Kata Thani was also working on measures to reduce food waste, speaking of which, in the exhibition area, a company called Food Waste Composter by SMS (Social Movement Solutions) was promoting its newly-patented composters, invented by Thaweesak Ong-iam, an organic farmer in Bangkajao, the ‘green lung’ of Bangkok.
Inventor of the Food Waste Composter, Thaweesak Ong-iam (left), with partner Arrut Navaraj of the Thailand Organic Consumers Association.
He explained to me how it works – food waste is put into the composter with microorganisms and coconut husks. It takes only 24 hours to turn the food waste into pre-compost which can be turned into quality compost and feeds for earth worms and black soldier flies. The latter’s larvae can be used as organic animal feeds. There are three sizes of composters with different capacities: 5kg (25,000 baht); 15kg (30,000 baht); and 25kg (35,000 baht). The Dusit Laguna Phuket is one of their pilot clients, said Arrut Navaraj, of the Thailand Organic Consumers Association, who is helping to bring the composter to market.
The sixth PHIST (Phuket Hotels For Islands Sustaining Tourism), held on September 4, also featured workshops around best practices around data analytics and waste management, as well as green financing, while panels covered trends such as glamping, farm-to-table and how to reduce the Chinese tourists’ footprint (when they return).
Sumi Soorian, executive advisor to the PHA, said the event highlighted three trends:
- Growing awareness and placing importance of local farming, sourcing locally and the know-how to do it
- Renewable energy – finding alternative solutions to lessen carbon footprint, and saving costs in the long run (a bonus)
- Increased appointment of dedicated sustainability and environment key leaders in organisations – a clear sign that organisations are taking sustainability seriously and adopting it in their SOPs and also KPIs.
For Bill Barnett, managing director of C9 Hotelworks, the key myth he wants to bust is, “Why do hotel developers think sustainable hotels are more expensive to build? Developers in South-east Asia most often think it costs more to build a green hotel and it’s a add on cost.
“Having sustainable consultants at the table can give you early benefits, using local materials in building, repurposing, and not shipping in cost imported items – lower developer costs. Also hotel valuations are increased by hotels with lower operating costs such as reduced energy, food cost etc, so when an owner has a valuation on cash flow, lower operated costs require higher asset values.”
He said Phuket was doing very well in the farm-to-table area, with five star hotels often having food costs of 28-34% and flying in ingredients from all over the world.
“Sourcing locally sees food cost reduced to 20-22% and carbon emissions are reduced. Part of ESG is community and helping local farms thrive which gives a positive impact for local farms, creates more entrepreneurial, small businesses and makes chef create more inventive menus vs typical hotel club sandwich fare.”
At PHIST, the island’s three top farm-to-table chefs – Rick Dingen, Executive Chef at Jampa Restaurant; Xavier Charest-Rehel, Executive Chef at Banyan Tree Phuket, who manages the Veya Pharm organic garden; and Tipaporn Phianthong, Head Chef of Banyan Tree Phuket’s Saffron Restaurant, held live cooking demonstrations.
As for addressing the issue of the Chinese traveller’s footprint, Barnett said, “For Chinese who want Instagram tourism, smaller footprint activities like glamping, farm stays and outdoor adventure offsets the mass impact. The pandemic is about getting back to nature and the Chinese love these types of products.”
Bjorn Courage, president of the PHA and general manager, Intercontinental Phuket, welcomed the development of glamping and tented accommodation. “It is wonderful to see the little to no negative impact on the environment of this “new” segment as well as the quick ROIs generated in comparison to more traditional accommodation types.”
He observed that there’s been an increase in recognition of the use of technology to help monitor energy consumption and subsequently identify ways to help reduce both cost and the negative impact on our precious environment.
“Solutions such as solar (renewable energy), new tech air/con units, sensors, pool sensors, etc not only enjoy greater demand, the understanding of this technology is better understood by the end users.”
He said he was pleased to see an increased interest and push for use of organic and locally grown/sourced food as well as the increase of eco-friendly producers developing sufficient needed produce.
“It’s nice to see the change of understanding what produce is readily available in the environment locally or domestically before concepts and menus are created, instead of the other way around which would subsequently increase the impact on the environment and carbon footprint.”
Featured image: The PHIST team celebrating a successful event.
Author: www.webintravel.com
published 2023-09-11 16:11:48
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