ENGLISH
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
SUSTAINABILITY 2022 AT HOTEL ICON
Ever since we first started Hotel ICON IN 2011 we wanted to do things the right way. As our ambitions have grown, we’ve focused on building a hotel and restaurant companies with real integrity, to show that you can be successful while prioritising the things you care about most. For us, that has always included championing electric vehicles, reduction of plastic bottles, solar energy, regenerative agriculture and proper management of pastureland that offsets and removes carbon from the atmosphere, sustainable fishing practices and local seasonal sourcing.
Hotel ICON has just applied to been awarded Asia No. 20 hotel in the 2021 TripAdvisor Travellers’ Choice Awards, where practical and sustainable measures over and above are praised and well received by guests.
“I am very satisfied with the room (handwritten welcome message, free minibar, drinking water, comfortable chair, sustainable materials, etc.)” Paolo Z, Aug 2021 on TripAdvisor, where practical and sustainable measures over and above are praised and well received by guests.
As COP26 kicked off in Glasgow in November 2021, we want to let you know about sustainability at Hotel ICON, and our plans to go even further.
Over the years we perhaps haven’t talked about the work we do behind the scenes, which ranges from coffee capsules recycled, EV mileages or recipe ideas, to 100% of our food waste being sent to anaerobic digestion where it’s turned into bio gas and water, or the oil in our deep fryers being used to power vehicles; a total estimated 698 thousands plastic bottles saved since year 2019 by using filtered drinking water tap in guestrooms and wall mounted bathroom amenities; natural sunlight, variable speed drivers water pump for chiller plant, and motion sensor LEF light bulbs saved an estimated annual saving of 1.05million kWh, equivalent to seven thousand tons of CO2e reduced (which is 350,000 trees must grow in one year). However, these things need to be discussed more.
This year we switched the entire The Market restaurant over to green energy with solar panels. We already installed solar panel to power our Vertical Green wall since 2019 reducing our footprint by the equivalent of taking 165 gasoline cars off the road for a year, planting sixteen thousands trees.
We’re really proud to say that we’re going even further by minimising and offsetting our carbon footprint to become 50% more carbon neutral in 2022, and we are signing up to the United Nation’s "Race to Zero”, with a goal to become a 'net zero company' (an even higher bar than carbon neutral) by 2030. We’re already experimenting with a zero carb guest floor and zero carb guest room with our partners at Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
This year we’ll put 100 of our managers through carbon literacy training and we’re setting up green teams in the hotel restaurants so all staff can get even more involved in cutting emissions, waste and food waste and constantly making improvements - big and small - across the company and the supply chain.
In line with our current eco-friendly culture and initiatives, we are happy to announce the next step in our journey by partnering with Infinity Innovation to supply us with a sustainable uniform solution. This covers two important areas that will continue to reduce our global carbon footprint.
Fabrications: As we move into 2022 our goal will be to replace existing uniforms with a solution that will include certified recycled fabrics and certified fabrics made from recycled plastic bottles. By using recycled polyester instead of regular polyester it saves the environment further by reducing carbon footprint from the manufacturing process; using significantly less energy and water consumption, thus creating much lower CO2 emissions.
Technology Eco-advantage: We are taking a 360 degrees view of the sustainability challenges that exist today by building sustainability as a competitive advantage. By only make what we need, we creates a zero waste approach. These technologies enable profitable solutions that create a positive impact through development, production, customisation and replenishment.
This initiative promotes sustainable materials, low impact manufacturing and investing in a sharing circular economy. We continually aim to minimise our environmental impact while sustaining the business and communities we serve.
We are excited about this project because we are not content to simply do well, we want to do good. Hotel ICON is a hotel with a special purpose and as such, our commitment was not only to education, but also to develop an operation that is innovative, responsible, care for our guests and far wider than that. We wanted a model hotel business we can be proud of – whether that is making sure the food we serve is as good as possible, or that everyone who works with us enjoys what they do. We hope that from time to time you feel as proud to be part of it as we do.
Richard Hatter
General Manager
Hotel ICON
