Considerate Luxury
16 Sep 2019 • By Ashish Golcha
Image Courtesy: Kengo Kuma & Associates
Luxury excites everyone, but luxury comes at a cost... if thought over sensibly - it is at the cost of future generations from the environmental hazard that it causes. Buckets and mountains of laundry, air conditioning in huge areas, plastic bottles, wastage of resources like paper, water and endless other things.
Realisation I say, is the more important part of the wrong. In recent times, there have been small initiatives taken to go green, which were very much visible at the ITC group pf hotels and the Aloft hotel chain of Starwoods and many more slowly catching up in numerous ways to other hotel chains. The ones with lasting impressions were:
Aloft Hotels: Throwing towels on floor that require change and placing the tent card to change sheets have now become a basic norm in a lot of hotels. The recent adaptations have been glass water bottles replacing the plastic ones. Another noteworthy one has been having segregated dustbins for trash type. Such small differences give us customers the joy of contribution.
Abode Hotels: My recent stay at a boutique guest house called Abode was a pleasant surprise because it was not only environmentally conscious but also making a difference in numerous ways to the less fortunate ones. This petite stunner of a hotel has been encouraging its customers to buy local products in their cafe, and using local, seasonal ingredients to make the food fresher and healthier while reducing the impact on the planet. Some material initiatives like light saving builds and cement tiles to keep floor space cool to absorb heat are some simple amazing principles known as thermal mass adopted by the hotel. The most impressive initiative by them is providing cab services by women from Mumbai who are either single mothers or are the sole breadwinners for the family. They also extend a hand to help them own their cars and become self-sufficient.
CGH Earth: One of the pioneers in this realization is CGH earth hotels. Their tag line says it all – Responsible, Sustainable and Authentic. You step in any of their hotels and you shall feel closeness to nature. No use of plastic bottles in any of their properties, they use only whole wheat in preparation of breads, keep locals involved in their immaculate hotel operations, make you feel very very close to nature and ensure you respect it too. This way of respecting the Nature, Culture and Community has led to an ardent list of followers of CGH Earth Hotels. Mr George Dominic has proven the fact that Green is fully convertible into Gold.
These hotels have set true examples to the meaning of the term 'Responsible Luxury' - a need of the hour ethos to integrate world class green practices in daily operations to deliver the best of luxury in the greenest possible manner. With this changing scenario, we hope to contribute to the environment in our own little way and inspire more people to become environmentally sensitive.
