I was invited to visit a green resort in Sentosa. I believe in
green but believe even more greatly that businesses are promoting “feel-good-green”
with no real content – yet another marketing gimmick. However, this time I was
wrong and it turned out to be a morning very well spent.
With very low expectations, I was firstly blown when I stepped
inside villas built on slits with tree trucks slicing from the floorboards and
out through the roofs. Some villas have as many as 13 trees trucks invading the
space, others have guestroom configuration that simply does not make sense
(since they were working around existing trees).
The most expensive villas were initially planned to be
located in prime locations facing the beach but because of existing trees
again, they were eventually built on a most unfavorable location with zero
views. Trees growing through the villas, though a great architecture features, can proof to be a water proofing nightmare. Insects
climbing through the gaps anyone? I can imagine a frustrated architect coming
to site everyday trying to solve structural and waterproofing details and of
course, all site survey plans are inaccurate enough to guarantee double the
project duration. I wonder if this project has bankrupted the architecture firm
in our ultra expensive time=money Singapore…
The care and considerations given to the primary forest was unbelievable.
Constructions of the 12 villas took 15 months with microbial piles hung by
cranes to ensure no trees/ roots were damaged from clearing. No trees were
killed or relocated or so we were told, but 10 trees died throughout the years. (can this even be real?)
Auditors were deployed throughout the construction period to
ensure workers preserve trees as a priority. The MD spoke passionately about the
common practice to unload trucks under trees because of the shade but doing
that compacts the soil and hurts the roots so it is a No NO. Contractors cannot
pour and wash concrete off near trees because concrete will poison the trees. Contracts
were written to bind owners themselves to the death of every tree instead of
contractors so that every effort is made to monitor. Such stories of
construction and their willingness to share details are both fascinating and bizarre…
Even if some of these stories are a brag, the intention and efforts to provide
this level of tender loving care is beyond wow. If not for the love of nature,
why would anyone bother to go to this extend?
The swimming pool was planned to sit on top of an old
monorail service road to again avoid digging and soil compression. They
rejected a chorine pool and opt for a high capital cost salt chlorination pool.
In fact, quote a bit of their green technology are hmmm… high capital cost…
However such efforts to ensure health benefits can get
unappreciated. We were told that some parents rejected the pool as unsafe for
their children because they cannot smell the disinfectant chlorine. Just goes
to show how we urbanites have forgotten what is good for us and actually find
comfort in daily chemicals.
Even small details like rugs in the rooms are made of
recycled plastic bottles. A technology they claimed to borrow from Tze Chi
charity in Taiwan. High grade rubber floor tiles on the corridors which I
wanted to steal were apparently designed and made by themselves (patented?). The
construction at the base to allow drainage solved a major health risk that
children in rubber matted playground flooring are facing. Anyway on the topic
of playground, I know of many parents who, in the name of safety, prefer rubber
matted playgrounds to old school sandy ground. I wonder if they know that playground
safety mats are toxic and as they bake under our heat, they release tons of
toxic chemicals that children breathe in. Their shed crumbs as they aged are also
an environment hazard to the eco system when washed into the water system,
indigestible to marine life. But I digress… let’s get back to the resort…
Their ultra successful recycling of vegetable and fruit
waste from the kitchen with worm compost program is actually the main purpose
of our visit. We have tried in our own resorts without much success and the 1
hour talk on these creepy crawlies alone benefited us a lot. As important as
sharing the technology of our Ah Gong and Ah Ma days, it is priceless they are
sharing their mistakes and failures.
Moving away from green, we were briefed on their CSR
programs. To my surprise, the resort employs twenty odd mentally challenged
staff. “Employ” may be an inappropriate word since they were not paid a monetary
salary but the resort provided them transfers, meals and swimming classes. To
me, that may be more important than dollars and cents - the sense of one’s self
worth and usefulness to society. Similar to their green efforts, this program
appears not to just scratch the surface. Managing mentally challenged people is
no easy task and on average, at least one incident involving them happen
everyday.
Many tripadvisor comments relate to unfriendly and
unresponsive staff. While I do agree that their “normal” staff are not up to
standards, only one review by a foreign family wrote that they knew about the
mentally challenged staffing program. And that is because they expressed the
lack of smiley faces to the GM who in turned told them about this program. Why
not state things upfront? Will it be better or worst?
We spoke about the intentions behind all these green and CSR
programs that the resort pushes. To which, the MD replied that they wanted to
see if a business that is both environmentally and socially responsible can be sustainable
in today’s world. A loud voice in my head went “ NO WAY!”
We were not given a straight answer but I think it is
between a yes and a no.
Yes, with their use of green technology, their extremely low
PUB bills for 200 keys is 65 times lower than one of their next door neighbor
of 100 keys. So impressive that PUB constantly check if their meters are being
tampered. Green does pay off….
But no, and this is purely coming from my personal
conclusions… deep pockets is certainly funding this property. Hotel is a
business that requires huge capital outlay and huge manpower resources. Staffing
is already extremely limited but I see substantial resources allocated into
promoting and maintaining green and very challenging CSR programs as opposed to
meeting daily operation needs.
Expectations. Expectations. It is all about managing guest’s
expectation. “We can get away with it because we are a 3 star hotel”…. True to
some extent until I started to ask around. Surprising, many of my friends have
stayed in this resort before! All knew that it is an eco friendly resort but no
one knows anything more of their green and CSR efforts despite having stayed
there. Like the response on trip advisor, non were too impressed. But when told
about all the amazing initiative the resort puts out, everyone exclaimed that
it would have made them see this property in a brand new light if only they
knew…
I am humbled to know that there are so many passionate
people out there who care/ do so much for our surroundings. Me in the same
industry and in a good position to do a lot more have never really started. I
am inspired to start acting straight away and I have a plan!
In a funny way, I cannot shake off the feeling that the
management team’s priority here is green and green education and their hotel a
mere vehicle to support/ fund greening. While I am searching for a green and
CSR model that is sustainable for a hotel business, I came home with a model
that the hotel business is used to sustain greening. Now that is a mind twist…
