the new generation of green

CARBON OFFSETTING, STAYING LOCAL, CONSUMING LESS: BEING GREEN USED TO BE DOWN TO THE INDIVIDUAL, BUT THINGS ARE SCALING UP. INCREASINGLY, IT’S THE INTERNATIONAL CHAIN HOTELS AND LUXE FRANCHISES THAT ARE MAKING ENVIRONMENTALLY SAVVY DECISIONS THAT HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO CREATE A BLUEPRINT FOR WIDER CHANGE. WORDS: JULIA BUCKLEY

hen the behemoth announcement, Marriott declared that it, the ITP is a safe space for rival brands to Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) too, would ditch mini bottles. brainstorm together. “As much as they want to W declared in July it would be phasing So how did we get here? Past perceptions collaborate, they want to be as good as each out mini toiletry bottles in all its rooms over might have been that to keep things green other. So it’s good to see that spark, as well as the next two years, it made headlines around while travelling, we should stay in smaller, a spirit of sharing.” The group’s 16 members the world. What may sound like a small thing locally owned hotels. But leaving aside the represent nearly 25% of the industry. is actually no mean feat. IHG owns brands issue of ownership, and looking purely at The path to sustainability was marked out including , InterContinental and ecologically friendly initiatives, recently a long time ago, says Rajesh. A decade ago . There are 856,000 of those the big brands have really raised their game. the ITP developed tools to measure hotels’ rooms around the world that will see the Last year, Hilton pledged to cut its carbon carbon and water consumption and provide a bottles replaced with bulk dispensers. emissions by 61% and halve water usage by management plan; today, 20,000 properties “Any decision like that is a big one,” says 2030, in line with the Paris Agreement. In the use them. Hilton implemented a similar Catherine Dolton, VP of global corporate past decade, it’s already reduced emissions by monitoring system in 2008. responsibility — not least because IHG, 30%, water use by 20%, waste by a third and Although environmental issues have been like most chains, works on a franchise energy consumption by 21%. in the background for many years, Rajesh model, so the brand needed to convince Hilton also recycles 400 tons (362 tonnes) of says: “The topic is in the spotlight now, so owners to make the change. Then there soap per year and is removing plastic straws that’s accelerated the pace. But brands are are the practicalities to consider — how do and cocktail stirrers from its hotels. is all very large and the industry has a franchise you implement this system across 5,700 doing the same, recycling soap and shampoo structure, so new initiatives take a long time.” individually owned hotels? That’s one of the and donating it to communities in need Not so IHG’s miniature toiletries decision. reasons it’s a two-year pledge. — during the Caribbean hurricanes of 2017, Dolton says she first raised the idea with Keith As it starts the process, IHG is putting the 250,000 bars were donated to people in need Barr in spring 2019. By mid-summer, it was final touches to last year’s headline pledge by Clean the World, which works with both implemented, such was the urgency they felt. — that by the end of 2019, its hotels will chains. Hyatt also has a Responsible Seafood “Our executive committee has been very ban plastic straws. The move should save Sourcing initiative: 50% of its seafood served aware of how [environmental issues] are really 50 million straws going into landfill each globally must be sustainable. rising up the agenda over the past couple of year. According to CEO Keith Barr, large Although this might be the first time some years,” says Dolton. brands have a responsibility to protect the of us are hearing about these initiatives, environment and an opportunity to make brands have been taking steps for years. The The pressure’s on a real difference: “There’s always more we International Tourism Partnership (ITP) was At first glance, it looks like the pressure is can do to minimise waste, but the work founded in 1993 to encourage environmental coming from an increasingly urgent public we’re doing to reduce single-use plastic is responsibility in the hotel industry. It’s here mood. In a survey of 73,000 Hilton guests last a powerful example of how we can come that representatives of big brands can come year, 60% said hotels’ green policies affect together with guests, owners and colleagues together to share their initiatives. “There’s their booking decisions. Crucially though, to drive positive change,” he said at the definitely a bit of healthy competition,” IHG’s recent decision wasn’t only based on

time. Indeed, a month after IHG’s 2019 says director Madhu Rajesh, who says pressure from the general public. “More and MALDIVES JOALI IMAGE:

172 nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel November 2019 173 GREEN HOTELS GREEN HOTELS

The latest move makes Machu Picchu Pueblo Other properties are working with their FIVE GREEN HOTELS the first hotel in Latin America to recycle direct environments. In April, Mashpi Lodge 100% of its solid waste. in the Ecuadorian rainforest doubled the size These days, even air conditioning isn’t a of the private reserve in which it sits to 6,200 HOSHINOYA KARUIZAWA, JAPAN given at the higher end of the market. Jade acres, with plans to reach 35,000 acres by In the forest an hour from Tokyo, this eco-hotel by Japanese Mountain, one of St Lucia’s poshest hotels, 2040. The move means everyone who stays chain Hoshinoya is powered by swaps air conditioning for a missing fourth there, or travels through Ecuador with its hydroelectricity, generated by wall, with open-to-the-elements rooms sister company Metropolitan Touring, will be the river that runs through the designed to draw in trade winds. Manager carbon-neutral — the growth of the rainforest property, and geothermal energy Carl Hunter leads popular sustainability tours offsets their emissions in a place that needs from onsite hot springs. It’s around the property. “Visitors not only pay protection (rather than other carbon offsetting 70% self-sufficient and uses no attention to our sustainability efforts, but wish projects planting trees in unsuitable places). fossil fuels. Doubles from £750. to learn more,” he says. hoshinoya.com Main shareholder Roque Sevilla’s reasoning “[Being green] is a given at the luxury end,” is stark: Metropolitan Touring’s 14,000 MORUKURU BEACH LODGE, says IHG’s Catherine Dolton. Hilton’s Danielle annual visitors generate around 25,000 SOUTH AFRICA Foster, meanwhile, reckons it’s down to tonnes of CO2. “It’s not enough to reduce In the De Hoop Nature Reserve, location. “Luxury hotels often have a tie to the greenhouse gas emissions resulting from 150 miles east of Cape Town, nature. You’re going there to see or experience our operations,” he says. “It’s essential to this lodge is entirely off-grid. something, and you want to preserve that for offset their carbon footprint and absorb the Electricity is generated by solar future generations.” difference by expanding the Mashpi Reserve.” panels, while hot water and Owners and CEOs of smaller brands tend to In Cambodia, designer-turned-hotelier Bill underfloor heating comes from be vocal proponents of environmental issues Bensley went so far as to buy 1,000 acres of pellet burner boilers. Wastewater is purified via an innovative take themselves, according to Rajesh. In the ITP, national park-adjacent land in Cambodia after on a septic tank, linen is washed she says, these brands can be more innovative, hearing that miners and loggers were after it. with biodegradable soap and but it’s when big brands get involved that a “Having spared the land from the prospect toiletries are made sustainably difference can be made on a global scale. She of clear-cut logging, the question was what from indigenous plants by local cites the leaders of Soneva and ITC Hotels to do with it,” says Bensley, who worked with women. From £478. morukuru.com — India’s third-largest chain, which goes as business partner Sokoun Chanpreda. “Our far as using jute (vegetable fibre) name tags for dream was to educate Cambodians that AQUATURM, GERMANY conference guests rather than plastic clip-ons conservation is smarter than extraction. We This quintuple-glazed former water tower on Lake Constance and urges guests to ditch suits and ties to help spent years coming up with a low impact generates all its energy from solar reduce the need for air con. model that would not only conserve and panels, hydrothermal and wind protect the land, but also create sustainable power and donates the leftovers Making individual changes opportunities for locals.” The result is Shinta to the National Grid. From £104. Of course, a one-size-fits-all approach Mani Wild, which, as well as being green, is more the issue of sustainability has been out information on a hotel’s environmental aquaturm.de to environmental issues can lead to 70% staffed by locals. “They now have an rising up from shareholders and colleagues credentials before booking. ‘greenwashing’ — banning straws isn’t so alternative livelihood to extracting from the ZURI ZANZIBAR, TANZANIA as well as guests,” says Dolton. And it’s not And green doesn’t have to be lean. We laudable if you serve poolside drinks in forest,” says Bensley. On the Kendwa beachfront, just an ethical agenda; it’s a business one, tend to think of hotel luxury in terms of fluffy this hotel uses 52% less energy plastic cups, and there’s no point bragging So, what’s the future, sustainability-wise? too. The mini bottles initiative will require robes, piles of daily changed towels and those than the baseline for green about recycling prowess when there’s Strawless hotels look like a given, as do cost upfront for owners as they invest in bulk mini bottles of upmarket toiletries. But it’s certifiers EarthCheck. Water little recycling in your destination. Carbon properties trumpeting their carbon-cutting dispensers, but over the long-term, the return been the luxury market that’s led the way comes from wells and the sea via offsetting, which many hotels do, is no initiatives. And you can expect to see many on investment is significant. The same goes with sustainability. Take, for example, Six onsite desalination, rainwater substitute for using sustainably generated more as standard, such as cork recycling for moves that dial down air conditioning and Senses — the luxe brand acquired by IHG in is harvested for irrigation, and energy in the first place, and although there (The Savoy currently does this), beekeeping introduce keycard-activated lights and LED February. Each property bottles water onsite the grounds are grass-free. The are numerous certifications schemes for (Fairmont St Andrews restored three acres of innovative air conditioning system bulbs — for an upfront investment, hotels and plans to be completely plastic-free by ‘green’ buildings, there’s little clarity around lawn to natural grasses for its 20,000-strong uses a quarter of the power that are going to save long-term. “There aren’t 2022. Even the toothbrushes in the amenity what each means on a property-specific bee population), and less water-greedy normal AC does. From £331. only moral and ethical considerations, but kits are made of biodegradable cornstarch. zurizanzibar.com level. It’s on the individual level, however, that gardens. For example, Blue Horizons Garden considerable financial ones too,” says Rajesh. Then there’s Soneva, which banned plastic hotels can make a huge difference, working Resort in Grenada replanted more than six “Being sustainable is smart business these straws in 1998 and bottles 10 years later and STOKE BY NAYLAND, SUFFOLK within their specific circumstances. acres of its grounds with drought-resistant days,” agrees Daniella Foster, senior director also has recycling facilities at all of its Indian This hotel in the Dedham Vale Take Blue Apple Beach House on the island plants and trees in 2014, while Atmantan, near of corporate responsibility at Hilton. “Times Ocean resorts. Meanwhile, Soneva Fushi, in AONB produces so much energy of Tierra Bomba, off Cartagena in Colombia. , uses only climate-appropriate plants are changing. We’re in an environment now the Maldives, turns polystyrene packaging into via biomass boilers, solar panels In 2017, owner Portia Hart launched the such as mango trees and chillis. where this is what our guests and employees construction blocks. and air source heat pumps that Green Apple Foundation, which sorts waste, Crucially, green initiatives will be factored it supplies the excess to the want, and investors are looking at it as well. Luxury Peruvian brand Inkaterra also has composts organic matter, converts cooking in at the planning stage, so hotels are built National Grid. Air is heated by Companies that perform well environmentally a sustainable focus, aiming to be entirely the pool and everything down to oil to biodiesel fuel and uses a glass pulveriser to be sustainable, rather than adapted do 20% better than those that don’t.” single-use plastic-free by the end of 2019. In cooking oil is recycled. From £175. to turn bottles into sand, which locals use retrospectively — something Madhu Rajesh With a long future ahead of them, more than April, its Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel donated stokebynayland.com to make cement. “Our logistics have been thinks is crucial for real change. half of Hilton’s employees are millennials or an organic waste treatment plant to the city developed around our location — this is an The other thing that can make a difference? younger. The brand was named number one in in which it sits — the gateway to the famous island with little to no municipal services,” Us. It’s time to alter our holiday mentality: turn its industry in 2018’s Dow Jones Sustainability ruined citadel. Everything organic — from says Hart, who hopes to create a replicable lights off, employ the air con sparingly and use Index. “There’s a groundswell building up,” food scraps to human waste — is turned into model for places where recycling is scarce. the same towel for a few days. IHG already she says. “Hilton shares are now being bought fertiliser, which is used to aid reforesting the “If we end up with glass-recycling centres on offers extra loyalty points for guests who PREVIOUS PAGE: Jetty, Joali because of our [green] performance.” In a Andean Cloud Forest and Machu Picchu Maldives the coast of Colombia, vermiculture [worm- forgo housekeeping — as with the toiletries, follow-up this year to its 2018 survey, a third itself. The hotel has also previously donated OPPOSITE: Inkaterra Machu Picchu aided composting] in the coffee region and expect others to follow. As Madhu Rajesh says: of 72,000 guests said that they actively seek a plastic compactor and a biodiesel plant. INKATERRA IMAGE: Pueblo Hotel, Peru plastic recycling in Bogota, that will be a win.” “We all have the ability to influence.”

174 nationalgeographic.co.uk/travel November 2019 175