CHANGE
By BARBARA BOHN , MANAGING EDITOR
Part of Six Senses ’ responsible F & B purchasing includes buying food produced locally whenever possible and keeping packaging to a minimum or reusable . It limits suppliers to those who agree . For many Six Senses resorts , growing organic vegetables and raising chickens and goats means the supply chain is as short as the walk to the garden .
“ The cost of shipping cabbages to the Maldives is huge ,” he notes . “ For us , local sourcing and self-producing food – there ’ s probably a better return on investment than most for us because most of our resorts are quite remote .”
That includes Energy Star-rated kitchen appliances and building relationships with local fishermen , which Six Senses Laamu Hotel in the Maldives polices and supports at the same time : It promises to buy an entire catch if it meets sustainable criteria . As a result , Smith says , bycatch – capturing fish of the wrong species along with the regular catch – has effectively been eliminated .
So have plastic bottles . Six Senses ' bottling facilities provide filtered , mineralized water on site . The high initial capital cost pays off in the long term . “ Sustainably managing
“ Twenty years ago , when we started bottling our own water , it was revolutionary ,” says Jeffery Smith , Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas ’ director of sustainability . The company built water-bottling facilities on its resort premises , including the Six Senses Laamu in the Maldives ( above ) – a high initial investment that pays off in eliminating what Smith estimates is hundreds of thousands of plastic bottles . “ Sustainability is part of the product that we believe our guests want .”
your supply chain makes sense ,” he says .
Wasteful packaging winds up costing the company on the back end at disposal . “ You need the highest-quality foods for your guests ,” he says , “ so there ’ s not always that many suppliers to choose from . That ’ s a challenge for the whole industry .”
START SMALL Maxime Verstraete , Hilton Worldwide ’ s vice president of corporate responsibility and ADA compliance , says the company uses its buying power to work with farmers and manufacturers and starts with the end in mind .
“ It could be having one , two or three hotels starting a program , and then growing , perhaps on sourcing ,” Verstraete says . “ The more hotels we put on a program , the less the financial impact because we are able to lower the product cost .”
Case in point : a company in Texas that sustainably and responsibly farms shrimp , but couldn ’ t support demand from multiple properties . “ I was all excited about it ,” says Marc Ehrler , Hilton ’ s vice president of
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