Introduction | Our journey towards sustainability
At Siloso Beach Resort (SBR), we like to see ourselves as a very special hotel when it comes to sustainability and environmental values and I would like to highlight what I mean by this:
Our Vision of a Sustainable Business
Even before SBR was conceived more than 10 years ago, it was decided that it would become an eco-hotel. This hotel would not only adopt unique sustainable features in its design, but also act as a showcase of best sustainable practices to all our stakeholders.
Coming from a construction background, I have noticed first hand over the years the level of very significant impacts that this sector has on our environment. It was our vision that perhaps the construction of a hotel, which showcases how things can be done differently while still remaining a viable business model, could play a significant role in progressing towards a less impactful industry sector.
Since this vision was first conceptualized, we have gone a long way and are still growing strong into what has become our journey towards sustainability.
Going beyond preserving the vegetal coverage and its inhabiting biodiversity, the buildings were constructed in a way that:
• Maximise natural lighting through an open concept
• Maximize natural cooling through efficient design as well as the implementation of unique features such as what remains (to the best of our knowledge) the longest self-maintained roof top garden in Singapore
• Making use of a very significant amount of re-used materials in the built structure
• Making use of the natural shape of the terrain (for example, our landscape swimming pool has been placed on top of an existing maintenance road)
• Rainwater harvesting and purification passive features
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At SBR, we believe that real sustainability can only come from good initial design to minimize environmental impacts and maximise energy efficiency through passive means. This is what we are actively trying to promote.
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The Construction Phase
This journey did not start without major obstacles. At the time of construction, our vision of a sustainable hotel was seen as very unusual by many of our contractors and stakeholders and it took determination and passion to proceed in making it a reality, the way we wanted it to be.
Perhaps one of our strongest and most unusual determination was to preserve all the existing trees on site. The location on a forested part of Sentosa and on a hill side did not prove easy. In order to preserve these trees, we had to apply most unusual construction techniques. These measures have allowed us to construct a 200 room hotel while preserving over 200 fully grown trees and planting another 450 trees post construction. At SBR, the trees are literally integrated within the building’s structures.
Donations
We regularly donate to various environment or social related causes should it be in the form of sponsorship of events, direct donations or providing facilities.
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We have donated to various environmental and social causes including a single donation of half a million dollars to the National University of Singapore for the purpose of raising funds to bring real dinosaur bones to Singapore.
Special Projects and R&D
SBR has embarked on a range of special projects that many might see as unusual in a hotel environment. Some of these projects include:
- Roof top gardening: where we produce our own vegetables organically using an experimental worm composting system that we manage on site. Part of the production goes back to our F&B department.
- The display of real dinosaur bones on site in order to promote the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum and outreach on conservation issues.
- Numerous environmental outreach messages onsite through various means such as mascots, display panels, in house environmental TV channels and more, which we use to promote awareness on the most pressing global and local environmental issues such as global climate change, pollution, biodiversity losses, water conservation and so on.
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Credentials
SBR is the winner/recipient of serval awards due to our sustainable practices :
• Singapore President’s Award for the Environment
• The Singapore Honorary PUB Watermark Award (2014)
• ASEAN Business Award for CSR
• Singapore Environment Achievement Awards (Top achiever)
• The Singapore Sustainability Award
• Singapore Special Mention CSR Award
• The first hotel in South East Asia to be certified as an Eco Hotel from TUV Rheinland (international certification body)
• The first hotel in Singapore to be certified under the Singapore Environment Council Eco Hotel Certification Scheme (we served as the model to develop this scheme)
• One of the first hotels in Singapore to join The UN Global Compact and numerous other recognitions.
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Post-Construction
Following the success of the construction phase, it quickly became apparent that much more could be achieved than just growing the business without further consideration for the environment. On the contrary, we had to take advantage of this unique position to continue on our path of sustainability through retrofitting and Cleantech investments.
As such, numerous initiatives and investments have gone into further reducing the environmental impacts post-construction. To site a few:
- Water minimization through numerous water saving features including an elaborate water treatment system. This system makes use of an underground natural spring reservoir which was discovered during construction (all the water for gardening and other applications such as the pool is not making use of any precious tap water but instead uses a natural resource that we have the chance of having on site);
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- Energy use minimization through smart appliances (best in class energy efficient lighting solution) but most notably through the early investment in a heat exchange system which was one of the first to be installed in Singapore.
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Management and Outreach
The next logical step in our journey towards becoming a more sustainable business model was to relook into our management to incorporate sustainable practices at all levels of operations. This was already implemented since the beginning but we went into a great deal of effort to revamp our policies and staff training methods to push the concept of sustainability even further and making sure that it is well integrated and communicated throughout the organization, not just as guidelines, but more like a corporate culture.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
CSR was the most visible change in our outreach initiative. The level of commitment to outreach on sustainable initiatives through our CSR programs is truly an achievement. SBR has since been running successful outreach programs to various schools and organisations.
Some of our most visible outreach platforms to date include the Biodiversity.sg platform (www.biodiversity.sg) as well as our successful Eco Tours which we use to communicate our practices to various stakeholders (to date more than 10,000 people from sectors as diverse as schools, universities, corporations, government agencies…have undertaken our eco tours).
We regularly outreach on global environmental issues through our contribution to various media platforms including www.eco-business.com (one of Asia-Pacific’s largest environmental business communities). We are regularly featured in press releases as well as articles and blogs on sustainability best practices not just in Singapore but increasingly on an international level.