It used to be that we chose a hotel based on three things: service, price and location. Now we ask something more: Is it green? How green?
The greening of hotels has been happening for the past decade, but in just the past year, we have seen a revolution in green accommodations in the United States and abroad.
Greening a hotel is a particular challenge in Asia, where industrializing countries are paying more attention to growing their GDP than sound environmental policy. That doesn’t mean the green revolution isn’t making inroads, though.
The InterContinental Hong Kong has been one of the green hotel revolutionaries in Asia. On a recent trip to the waterfront hotel, perched on Victoria Harbor, facing the infamous Hong Kong island skyline, Tonic was able to experience the property’s green makeover and chat with the team. Harvey Wong, the director of engineering who also heads the hotel’s Green Committee, and Stella Wong, the hotel’s director of events, are both responsible for making the property more green each year.
Tonic: Why is greening so important to the property now?
Harvey Wong: We recognize our responsibility as a global citizen and the growing need for environmental conservation. At InterContinental Hong Kong, we want to ensure that we are not only in line with industry best practices, but are a leader in this area.
Tonic: Do you feel your hotel has been ahead of the greening curve in Hong Kong?
Harvey: We feel that we are leading the way for other hotels in Hong Kong and Asia … and we will ensure that we stay on course with our green initiatives. InterContinental Hong Kong was one of the first hotels in Hong Kong to participate in the EarthCheck program (rebranded from “Green Globe” in 2010), an environmental organization which helps to calculate and then validates the carbon claims of the largest accommodation providers on the planet and guides them in their sustainability initiatives.
EarthCheck is part of EC3 Global, an internationally-recognized advisory group which provides a pathway and comprehensive range of products to set, manage and achieve sustainability targets for various industries.
InterContinental Hong Kong was also the first hotel in Hong Kong to achieve the EarthCheck Silver
Certification in May 2009. After maintaining Silver Certification for five years, we can then achieve Gold Certification status. We hope to achieve the Gold in 2014!
Tonic: You were also one of the first hotels in the region to embrace low-carbon menus. How have guests responded?
Stella Wong: Not only do we now offer our event clients the option of low-carbon menus, InterContinental Hong Kong was the first hotel in Hong Kong to offer CarbonCare Event solutions to its meeting and event customers, in partnership with Carbon Care Asia. Upon request, Carbon Care Asia can provide the hotel’s meeting and event clients with a variety of carbon care solutions and packages — including a simple event assessment, carbon measurement, suggestions for carbon reduction, plus options of carbon off-set, along with official verification options.
We just launched our “Low-Carbon Menus” for events last fall, so this is still a new initiative.
The hotel’s Executive Chef, Graham Burst, and his team have designed the low-carbon menus with the guidance and certification from Carbon Care Asia. Menus include food items such as vegetables and fruits that are in season in the Asia Pacific region, as they are generally lower in carbon footprints. If tropical fruits are included in the menus, they also come from the region.
In particular, we are getting more requests from our overseas corporate clients for green and low-carbon options.
Tonic: So you think being green really matters to your guests?
Stella: Yes, we are finding that more and more of our global, overseas corporate clients are asking about our hotel’s green initiatives in the initial contracting process. Just as we are asking our suppliers and vendors to be compliant to our green policies and procedures, more corporate clients are asking for our compliance with their company’s green initiatives.
Tonic: How will the hotel continue to go green in 2011?
Harvey: To maintain our Silver Certification, the hotel focuses on four main areas: energy and water conservation; solid waste management (including glass bottle recycling); harmful substances management; and green purchasing. It requires great initiative and effort to build staff awareness of these policies and procedures and their commitment to follow them. In this area we have great support from our Learning and Development department. Structured training is conducted for all hotel staff on the above areas; and individual department heads conduct Green Globe training, specific to their areas of responsibility.
To find out — or book your stay! — visit the InterContinental Hong Kong’s website.
Photos courtesy of InterContinental Hong Kong.