Sustainable everything possible

Sustainable everything possible

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE

For John Edward Roberts, sustainability does not just equate to green initiatives. For the Minor Hotels' Group Director of Sustainability and Conservation, it means the eco-friendly mindset that is embedded into even the smallest part of daily life.

Anantara Golden Triangle's herb garden for the kitchens.

"To me 'sustainable' is when my seven-year-old looks at food left on the plate and talks about food waste, something he might have learned from us, or sees litter on the road and talks about land pollution, something school taught him."

And the same, he said, should be applied to sustainability on an organisation's operational level.

'Sustainable' is when I am contacted by a staff member in an operation somewhere in the world with an idea that allows us to use fewer resources or a request for certain sorts of waste to up-cycle;' he added. "Or when our central purchasing department in Bangkok proactively searches out low-impact products and pushes to find places for them in the operations."

Minor Hotels are prime examples of businesses that take sustainability to another level, starting from the use of natural resources and materials towards the end of the operation, like recycling and waste management. Minor Hotels, according to Roberts, have been gearing towards sustainability for almost a decade now, following the Green Growth 2050 Global Standard which has been developed to meet the needs of tourism and travel businesses that seek today's solutions to the issues driving social, cultural and environmental change, and move beyond the one dimensional solutions of yesterday.

Roberts recalled the Minor Group's first Anantara certifications back in 2008, which saw plastic drinking bottles replaced with refillable glass bottles in guest rooms and restaurants, biodegradable garbage bags used back of house as standard, paper use reduced to the minimum that their accountants will allow, and refillable amenities bottles in the bathrooms. Ten years on, Anantara and Avani Hotels and Resorts have stopped using plastic straws in all their accommodation since January 1 this year -- an initiative that is quite a splash.

Anantara Medjumbe's large PV solar installation.

"It is almost like a habit now," said Roberts. "We hardly thought it was worth noting when our other amenities 'went green' with sustainably-produced packaging and bamboo toothbrushes or we stocked only reef-friendly sunscreen as a brand standard."

Minor Hotels have also implemented the use of renewable energy at some of its properties. The Cardamom Tented Camp on its 18,000-hectare wildlife corridor in Cambodia, for example, is 100% solar powered. Anantara Medjumbe Island Resort in Mozambique has a very large solar installation and the business is currently negotiating with one for the Maldives that should provide all the daytime power for the Anantara Veli, Dhigu and Naladhu Maldives Resorts. In Anantara Golden Triangle in Chiang Rai province, the hotel's irrigation pumps are solar powered and they have long had solar water pre-heaters for their laundry and staff showers. The
laundry system saved so much gas it paid for itself in three years and is still going over five years later.

Hotels, of course, generate huge food waste. But Anantara has a way to reduce the waste even before food is produced. Anantara Siam in Bangkok is currently working with a company called Winnow to help cut food waste at source which has saved about 1.6 tonnes of landfill in the first six months -- equivalent to 300 plated meals per month.

Plastic straw-free drinks at Anantara Sathorn.

With the Winnow technology, the hotel is able to cut food waste by automatically measuring what gets thrown away and receiving data that helps chefs reduce overproduction. The system comprises a set of digital scales and tablets connected to the cloud, making it quick and easy for chefs to measure food waste. Teams then receive daily reports highlighting where waste is occurring, thereby providing insights that can make their operations more efficient and sustainable.

"Elsewhere we add to the famous 'Reduce, Reuse, Recycle' by composting food waste for gardens to grow herbs for the kitchens, or donating it to local pig farms. All of our elephant dung at Anantara Golden Triangle goes to our local organic farm, Million Fields, as compost and we are looking into industrial composters where that is not an option."

"In some operations we're able to donate used cooking oil from the kitchen to a local diesel maker and then use their product on-site. So if you follow our elephant camp tractor around, you're liable to get a whiff of something that smells like a mixture of rice whisky and crispy pork skin crackers but it is good for the environment;' added Roberts.

As ecosystems provide a buffer against the worst human excesses, direct conservation should be treated as a commitment. As for the Minor Group, its plans are endless.

"We'll be opening a watchtower in early December to help villagers stay safe while monitoring elephants, some eating their crops, in a village next to Khao Yai. We are currently working on making life safer for some new ranger stations on reclaimed, ex-encroached land in the same forest complex, but way out in Buri Ram where elephants, after years of conflict, are very angry. We also have plans to start a full Human Elephant Conflict research programme in Kanchanaburi early next year with some great scientific partners driving it. We are also looking at a couple of projects on Samui where our Four Seasons coral project has bought together local communities and government authorities. The thought is to extend that collaboration to seagrass and other coral reefs under the auspices of Anantara and Avani."

And their initiatives on conservation and sustainability are not limited only to Thailand. Overseas, the Minor Group, for instance, has a new resort in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates where the owners have turned over a large area of wetland and coral for conservation and are building a Discovery Centre to help preserve the local environment.

"The idea for sustainable operation becomes embedded in the organisation or the future and that, if you take away all the newly acquired 'green' connotations, is actually the definition of sustainable."

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