Singapore makes room for nature-positive hotels
SINGAPORE: While many hospitality players in the world are deliberating how they can make their business greener, veteran hotelier Choe Peng Sum has already set his ambitious plan in motion to run hotels that contribute to biodiversity.

Such nature-positive hotels are a pilot project, the chief executive of Pan Pacific Hotels Group told The Straits Times in an exclusive interview.

A nature-positive process is one that reverses current declines in biodiversity so that species and ecosystems begin to recover.

So far, two of its eight hotels – Pan Pacific Orchard and Parkroyal Collection Pickering – are fully nature-positive by design.

The group is also retrofitting its existing properties to make them nature-positive.

To reduce its carbon footprint, the group installed green features such as solar panels and low-emissivity windows at several of its hotels during the Covid-19 pandemic, when occupancy rates plunged. Pan Pacific Singapore is now undergoing a review of solar panel installation.

“It’s more than just removing straws and plastic. It’s a lot of infrastructure, it’s a lot of money. Introducing all these is not cheap but we are really excited,” said Choe.

The 62-year-old, who took over as the hospitality chain’s chief in September 2019, three months before Covid-19 struck, is expanding his green vision to hotels in Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia.

Besides incorporating lush foliage in new hotels’ design, the group is also exploring carbon offsets through tree-planting in forested areas - something that is not yet the focus of most hotels.

Governments worldwide, including in Singapore, have pledged to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to limit global warming.

Carbon dioxide is a key greenhouse gas.

One of the most effective ways of removing carbon from the atmosphere is to plant trees.

Choe said the group has not committed to any specific net-zero goals, but is working towards an even higher standard called zero-energy buildings – what some would describe as mission impossible in the hotel industry.

These are properties that produce enough renewable energy to meet their own annual energy consumption requirements.“We’re not there yet because hotels burn a lot of energy, so we’re not up to the stage of zero energy – self-sustaining. We probably can get there when technology improves,” he said.

As it is, parent company UOL’s sustainability reports post-pandemic show this to be quite an uphill task.

The reports said energy consumption, Scope 1 and Scope 2 or direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and waste generated in the hospitality segment rose both in 2021 and 2022. Water waste dipped in 2021 before rising the following year.

The increases coincide with higher occupancy on the back of post-pandemic revenge travel, as well as a spike in events and banquets.

Choe noted that it is hard to keep consumption, waste and emissions low when business is brisk, but the group’s green measures matter. “Without these, it’s going to shoot through the roof,” he said.

For instance, Parkroyal Collection Pickering installed about 265 solar panels 10 years ago and the payback period then was about 15 years.

Now, solar panels cost half of what was paid then, with double the amount of energy stored. The payback period has also shortened to five years. The price of being green may have become lower in some aspects, but it is still a costly affair.

One has to pay more to convert an existing hotel into a green one than to build a new one. In conversions, the bulk of the costs come from having the infrastructure to support the green features, such as trees or an urban farm.

“The problem is 85% of our hotels in Singapore and in the world are existing hotels,” Choe said.

He noted that many hoteliers do not own the properties but in Pan Pacific’s case, it is the owner-operator, “so it’s a lot easier to just say this is what we want”.

Still, the winds of change are blowing, so Choe expects a lot more buildings and hotels to take more concrete action in the months ahead and not just stay at removing plastic bottles and straws.

A poll of 33,000 global travellers by Booking.com in 2023 found that 76% surveyed said they would look for sustainable hotels in the next 12 months.

This means more and more hotels need to be certified, particularly due to the problem of greenwashing, which refers to false claims of sustainability, Choe said.

At home, the Singapore Tourism Board and Singapore Hotel Association, through the hotel sustainability road map established in 2022, has recommended that 60% of all existing room stock here attain internationally recognised hotel sustainability certification by 2025.

The association has zoomed in on the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) certification that is renewed yearly after audits.

If anything, Choe’s move to shoot for the stars is starting to pay off for Pan Pacific – its eight properties in February attained the GSTC certification and it is the first local hotel group to do so.

Currently, people and businesses from the United States, Europe and Australia are very aware of sustainability, he noted, adding that Asian corporates are getting there. — The Straits Times/ANN
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While many hospitality players in the world are deliberating how they can make their business greener, veteran hotelier Choe Peng Sum has already set his ambitious plan in motion to run hotels that contribute to biodiversity.