Room for change

Ascott Limited has always maintained that sustainability will be a long-term driver for the hospitality industry, and more so for the long-stay business. It aims to make all its global properties green by 2030, use more renewable energy and significantly reduce its carbon emissions, energy and water usage intensities.

Moreover, Vincent Miccolis, Regional General Manager, The Ascott Limited, Middle East, Africa, Turkey & India tells Vinita Bhatia that by incorporating green elements to its buildings, the company is creating sustainable residences that are both comfortable and energy efficient. These translate to cost efficiencies for its guests as well as resource and operational efficiencies for Ascott.

How and why will sustainability be a long-term driver for the serviced apartments business?

Sustainability is core to everything we do at The Ascott Limited (Ascott). As a leading international lodging owner-operator with a presence across 190 cities in over 30 countries, we recognise the role we play as a responsible corporate citizen. We are committed to do our part for the environment and the communities we operate in globally.

Customers, investors and governments are increasingly incorporating environment, social and governance (ESG) considerations in their purchase, investment and policy decisions. As a wholly owned subsidiary of CapitaLand Limited, Ascott is aligned with CapitaLand’s 2030 Sustainability Master Plan, which was launched in October 2020, to elevate the Group’s commitment to sustainability. 

How are millennial guests pressurising this sector to be more accountable when it comes to sustainability and tackling climate change? 
Younger travellers today are conscious of their own environmental footprint. Customers are increasingly factoring sustainability on top of other factors such as price, location and service quality when making choices on their accommodation offering.

The hospitality industry is one of the biggest contributors to environmental impact. As a sustainably responsible brand, Ascott launched Go Green @ Ascott in 2012 to change the way we operate and to be more mindful about our environmental footprint. Sustainability is integrated into every stage of our properties’ lifecycle, from investment to design, development and operations.

This includes incorporating green elements into our buildings, creating sustainable residences that are both comfortable and energy efficient. We seek to ensure that our systems, equipment and vendors adhere to green specifications and have developed green operating practices group-wide such as going digital and paperless as much as possible.

We recently enhanced our ‘Ascott Cares’ commitment to provide stringent hygiene and safety standards, wellness support and implement sustainable practices. This encompasses our overall commitment towards caring for our guests, our staff and the environment.

Is it possible to mitigate any negative impact on the guest experience while opting for an environmentally sound business model?

The foundation of hospitality is built on customer experience. Sustainability or ‘sustainable thinking’ is not a deterrent and must be viewed as a business strategy. As properties and brands strive to be more sustainable, it creates an opportunity for us to differentiate our product and helps improve retention.

Has there been a predominant shift in guest decision-making process from a price-led one to sustainability led? 
To track and monitor the impact of our properties’ initiatives and overall customer satisfaction, guests are invited to participate in our Guest Satisfaction Survey upon checkout. Through this, we collect, monitor and track guest reviews from more than 170 OTA and review sites in over 45 languages.

These metrics along with insights from guest feedback allow Ascott to benchmark and respond by making the necessary operational and service improvements to create a better customer experience for our guests. As guests become more eco-conscious, it helps to know that our greening efforts are widely appreciated by our guests.

Caring for the Earth is not something we can do alone. Ascott also encourages our stakeholders, including guests, staff and partners at our properties, to adopt environmentally sustainable habits through various initiatives. 

In India, important events like ‘World Environment Day’, ‘Earth Day’, ‘World Water Day’ etc., are commemorated with guest activities so that they welcome our Go Green initiatives and carry it with them whenever they travel. It also creates a talking point among guests and residences – so we can raise awareness and reinforce our commitment to going green.

Serviced apartments target a niche market. What options can operators adopt on their sustainability journey across their entire operation – from supply chain to waste management?

At Ascott, we focus on four areas – saving water, saving energy, reducing the use of paper and reducing waste. Let me outline what each of our properties have done in this regard.

Somerset Greenways Chennai and Citadines OMR Chennai purchased most of its electricity from an off-site wind farm and recently transited to operating with 100% Green Energy. In addition to this, it is also fitted with 70 solar panels on the rooftop, which are used to generate the hot water that is supplied to guest rooms.

We leverage technology and innovation to support our sustainability efforts. For instance, we use motion sensors in the common areas at Somerset Greenways Chennai, along with the use of energy-efficient LED lights.

In line with our vision to be a sustainable company, our properties come with a purpose-built Sewage Treatment Plant (STP), to ensure that 100% of wastewater is recycled and reused for secondary purposes. With the STP’s help, wastewater from guestrooms and F&B establishments is treated to tertiary standards and the treated water is reused for irrigation of the plants within our properties, water closet flushing and also used in the cooling towers of the central air conditioner. This allows us to save an average of 60,000 litres of water per day at both our properties.

Water plays an integral part in the greening process. In our India properties, we have reduced potable water use by over 55% from the calculated baseline requirements established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 through the installation of aerators for taps and low-flow flushes for the WC. 

What about working with sustainable suppliers?
Yes, in addition to purchasing certified green products from certified suppliers, we try to come up with more sustainable alternatives to existing practices. We are great adversaries of the take-make-waste model.

An example of this would be our recent remodelling and upgrading of our bath amenities offered at our properties in India. We were placing individual 30 ml bottles of bath amenities like shower gel, shampoo and body lotion in the apartments for our guests to use. This was not an eco-friendly option as the plastic bottles had to be discarded after complete or even partial usage.

We decided to shift to the eco-friendly option of keeping fixed dispensers in the bathrooms. We worked with Ascott’s approved global vendor and created a design for the dispenser, that suited Ascott’s brand standards. Along with the vendor, we created a practical and customer-friendly model that helped reduce use of plastic bottles.

Additionally, to reduce the use of single-use plastic water bottles, we’ve placed 20 litre bubble-top water dispensers in all the apartments at the 269-unit Citadines OMR Chennai and 187-unit Somerset Greenways Chennai. Although this activity required a considerable investment, the returns to the planet are much higher. With this initiative, we are able to save almost 6000 small plastic bottles from ending up in our landfills every month.

At Ascott India, we ‘greening our service’ by also focusing on reducing pollution caused by daily operations. We have recently shifted to using environment friendly AC coolant and biodegradable laundry detergents in order to minimise our impact on the environment.

Some sustainable operations that serviced apartments follow include changing to a renewable energy source, removing single use plastics or cleaning towels once a week. While they can implement these quick and easy processes as common practices, what are some revolutionary sustainability business processes they can employ to positively impact their future business?

In 2018, Ascott signed a Memorandum of Understanding with International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to pioneer a green certification for the serviced residence industry. It is part of the IFC’s Excellence in Design for Greater Efficiencies (EDGE) programme, an internationally-recognised green certification system. Since then, Ascott has obtained EDGE certifications for seven properties across Asia and Europe, including two properties which obtained the EDGE Advanced certification.

Somerset Greenways Chennai achieved the EDGE Advanced certification in December 2020. Somerset Greenways Chennai utilises higher thermal performance glass and external shading devices to reduce the amount of external heat permeating through the facade. It has upgraded its centralised air conditioning plant with energy efficient chillers and variable speed drives for its pumps and cooling tower fans. Along with the installation of heat pump and energy-saving light bulbs, Somerset Greenways Chennai achieved energy savings of 42% (1,565 megawatt-hour/year).

Since the opening of Citadines OMR Chennai in 2017, we have consciously taken several efforts to ensure that we minimize the property’s impact on the environment. Our efforts have been recognised and we achieved the LEED India Gold Rating for New Construction in 2019, a feat that only four other hotels in Tamil Nadu have managed to achieve so far. This is a coveted global rating that is awarded by the Indian Green Building Council.