MINISTER'S MESSAGE AT GREENOTELS DELHI CONFERENCE

BUREAUCRATS DISCUSSAPPLICATION OF POLICIES

Vol. 2 ISSUE 8 September 2018

Conveying his message, Tourism Minister of State - Shri K J Alphons

said "man is the cruelest animal on the face of earth...”. Find out more

on what he said...

PLATFORM PLATFORM

PRIME MOVERS

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GREEN BUILDINGS ARE THE WAY FORWARD

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LEMON TREE HOTELS' INTRODUCES NEW EMPLOYMENT IDEA

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www.greenotels.com

Terming it 'inclusiveness & not charity' Rattan

Keswani talks of a new initiative...

September Issue 2018

Engineers and architects discuss on

building green. Read more...

Anand Kumar and Devesh Chaturvedi talk about

policies and trends in the space of hospitality

and tourism industry. Check it out...07

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DOWNLOAD THEAWARD APPLICATIONFORM ATwww.greenotels.com

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Vol. 2 ISSUE 8 September 2018 |

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Minakshi Agarwal

Our Planet Is Angry...

The earth is trying to tell us something: We are a species in deep, deep trouble. No matter how much anyone dismisses the reality of global warming, minimize its impact or offer false solutions, the rapidly intensifying storms and their unpredictable paths are screaming out that our climate is changing. Heat waves are cooking the ground we walk on. The loss of lives and business is unparalleled and is happening right in our own backyard. Kerala is one such case in point.

Climate change is not rocket science, you warm the atmosphere it’s going to hold more moisture, you get larger flooding events, you get more rainfall. You warm the planet, you’re going to get more frequent and intense heat waves. You warm the soils, you dry them out, you get worse drought. You bring all that together and those are all the ingredients for unprecedented wildfires.

In our recently concluded GreenOtels conference in Delhi both the Minister and the Bureaucrats present were of the mind that if the individual does not change no amount of legislation will help, for the individual will find a way to work around the legislation.

My perspective on that is that the individual

will change due to scarcity of resources, as was the case in Cape Town or due to increasing consumer pressure and awareness but legislation and businesses cannot wash their hands off the role they have played in bringing about the climate crisis and thereby the responsibility they carry to find solutions.

In fact, with individuals steeped in ignorance and businesses driven by bottom lines it is left to the government to take large-scale measures that are vital to ensuring a better future for all and protect people and the environment from the true costs of harmful products and activities.

While there has been progress on clean energy, it is inadequate and sporadic compared to the urgent needs. We need dramatic escalation with clear goals — keep fossil fuels in the ground, use agriculture and wetlands to sequester carbon, deploy renewable energy, build climate justice infrastructure and transition to a new economy based on sustainability, democracy and equity.

Let me know what you think at minakshi@greenotels.com

P.S. I am sure all of you have received information about the GreenOtels Award being held at the end of this year. Hotels across the country can compete to win in categories which examine their carbon/energy footprint, their water stewardship, their waste reduction, their community impact and their role as a responsible employer. Download the Award nomination forms at www.greenotels.com

Our aim has been to make GreenOtels as collaborative as possible, believing that a

diversity of perspectives enriches the work. We have reached out to experts, to

professionals and promoters in hospitality as well as companies engaged in sustainable

development to help make the big shift towards a sustainable future.

KNOWLEDGE ASSOCIATESBharat Malkani, E.C. FHRAI

CB Ramkumar, Our Native VillageGarish Oberoi, President, FHRAI

Niranjan Khatri, iSambhavParam Kanampilly, Concept Hospitality

Sanjay Sethi, ITC HotelsSteve Borgia, President, ESOI

ADVISORY PANELAmitabh Tyagi, The Taj Hotels

Arun Bahadur, The Oberoi HotelsAshish Rakheja, AEON Consultants

HC Vinayaka, ITC HotelsSanjeev Saxena, DLF Home Developers

Shankareswaran Jayaraj, RelianceSunil Relia, JLL Building Operations

Vikram Choubal, Marriott International

CORE COMMITTEEBENGALURU

Ajay Nayak, ITC Gardenia Bhaskar Masineni, The Leela Palace

Jagadish Itagi, The Ritz Carlton Murali Panicker, Taj Bangalore

CHENNAI N Ramamoorthy, ITC Grand Chola Hotel

HYDERABADAshok Hemrajani, Minerva Group

DELHIAnil Kumar, The Imperial

Neeraj Kaushik, The ClaridgesRahul Prabhakar, ITC Maurya

Rothin Banerjee, Taj PalaceSuman Majumder, Hyatt Regency

JAIPUR M Kannan, Oberoi Rajvilas

Siddhesh Khatu, ITC RajputanaVinay Paliwal, Jai Mahal Palace

MUMBAINilesh Mhatre, JW Marriott

Prashant Pawar, Oberoi Hotels & Resorts Prashant Vaidya, Hotel Sofitel

Praveen K Sharma, RenaissanceShailesh Kumar, JW Marriott

MAHARASHTRA AND GOA MAY FOLLOW KERALA WARNS ECOLOGISTMADHAV GADGIL

As Kerala battles the worst flood in a century, noted ecologist Madhav Gadgil rings an alarm bell for Goa and Maharashtra which he said, might face the same fate if proper precautions were not taken.

Gadgil, who headed the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), claims that although “the rainfall intensity in Kerala, in Maharashtra and in Goa are different. But the environmental concerns remain the same as there is intense construction activity in all these areas.''

Talking of the laxity on implementing environmental norms he said, "The central government is actually bending over backwards to make sure the National Green Tribunal does not function properly.”

The way forward is clear according to Gadgil, “people must take charge, exercise their constitutional rights and steer the state to a path of environment and people-friendly development by reining in environmental abuse.”P

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CHIEF ENGINEERS’ ASSOCIATION -KARNATAKA CELEBRATE THEIR 1ST ANNIVERSARY!Karnataka Chief Engineers Forum is celebrating their first anniversary on 7th October 2018 at Golden Palms Avenue. The gala function, followed by dinner for the CEs of Karnataka is an event for the entire fraternity to come together and have fun. Here, for the first time, the families of hotel engineers are also invited. Adding to the enjoyment, the forum has also organised a dance competition where ten hotel teams will compete to show case their dancing skills!

Surely, many other cities will take a leaf out of this forum. Let the celebrations begin...Way to go Karnataka!P

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LEMON TREE HOTELS PROVIDE EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY TODIFFERENTLYABLED

Lemon Tree Hotels is now focusing on 'ODIs' – opportunity-deprived individuals to join their workforce. The hotel chain is hiring individuals with physical and mental disabilities, as well as people from economically and socially deprived backgrounds.

Speaking on this initiative at the H&FS National Housekeepers' Convention, Rattan Keswani, Deputy MD Lemon Tree said thatthis was not a planned strategy but an adhoc decision by the MD, Patu Keswani who hired two kids of a friend; who were speech impaired. These kids, without thought were placed in the laundry room and kitchen stewarding where they had no contact with the guest. A few months down the line, the kids’ parents came with flowers to thank Patu for having given their children a job despite their disability. They shared their growth report in terms of happiness and self satisfaction.

The job gave them a reason to live they said, a reason to feel good and this really impacted Patu, who, being a voracious reader started

to read about disabilities and found that almost 10% of the world's population has some disability - speech and hearing, Downs syndrome, autism, physical handicaps - the list goes on, however, nobody talks about it. These people feel that they have no reason to live and most die before the age of 45 due to depression and lack of self-worth.

Lemon Tree Hotels then consciously started hiring people with speech/hearing disabilities and went on to add employees with Downs syndrome, visually-impaired, and acid attack victims as well. This was not charity and they have never used this as a marketing peg but their endeavor is much bigger today and they have witnessed that these employees are working fabulously in their hotels.

Rattan shared that, they have still not been able to work with those inflicted with autism but are finding ways to do so. Alongside, they are trying to incorporate trans-genders in the work force as well. He added that this of course, meant addressing our own unfounded fears and biases of people who are different from what we are. Acceptability is definitely higher when it comes to the youth while the older generation is uncomfortable being served or in contact with the differentlyabled – this is what we need to work with.

Rattan further drove home the point that, there are a whole lot of people available who we will never consider for the job. On one hand we will hire a housekeeping assistant who has passed the 8th grade but not the 7th, why? If anyway, they all need to be trained, why not hire someone who has done grade 3 or 4? Most of these kinds are not educated enough because their parents could not afford it but however, are keen learners. Hence, Lemon Tree Hotels now hires 15-16 people with disabilities and 5% from economically challenged backgrounds and the group wants to increase this to 25% in coming few years!

He concluded by saying that there is huge potential out there that can take care of all our manpower needs - a lot of people that you haven't thought of. The hotel chain also plans to involve the LGBT community.Way to go!P

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Vol. 2 ISSUE 8 September 2018 |

“If we start looking at waste as wealth and take into consideration the examples of organisations practising it and decide to do it on a scale...times will be better.”

- Niranjan Khatri, founder of iSambhav

Rattan Keswani - Lemon Tree Hotels

KARNATAKA

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ON-GROUND POSTBY ECOLOGISTBHARADWAJ ON THEKERALA FLOODS

V.K.Bharadwaj, a co-founder of SuryaGram, a permaculture guided eco-village initiative and a Fellow of Anant National University researching built-environments and ecologically sustainable human-scale living practices recently visited Kerala and shared with GreenOtels about the current situation there - "My first impressions after 12 hours in Kochi, Kerala, observing and probing status on ground-level flood relief work is as follows:

1. Many quasi-urban types have lost all and do need help.

2. Many rural folk (the Wynaad tribal types and similar) have lost their (apparently shanty) homes In the normal course they are very self-sufficient and can recreate their own shelters off bio-mass materials quickly but are now being crippled and spoilt with money, food, and resources off relief funds making them abandon their built-in resilience.

3. Received reports of Government officials at ground level doing two things (a) siphoning off relief resources which have encashable potential after the heat subsides and (b) endorsing exaggerated damage reports in exchange for a percentage (5-25%) commission off the eventual Government compensation.

4. Overload of relief materials with inadequate distribution channels, many of which can be considered inappropriate eg. single-use thermocol glasses (which will increase non-degradeable waste in the area), loads of non-degradeable sanitary napkins, loads of toilet tissue rolls for populations that have never used paper to clean their butts, and so on.

I am open to changing these perspectives if someone is willing to share facts that point otherwise." P

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“LET US THINK DIFFERENTLY, LET US GET INDIA WORKING”SAYS MINISTER ALPHONS AT GREENOTELS DELHI

Running a marathon between the parliament and boarding a flight, Shri K J Alphons - the Tourism Minister of State did find the time to make his presence felt at GreenOtels North India Conference 2018, held on the 3rd of August in Delhi.

Though short on time, he was clearly committed to the cause of environment and sustainability and began his talk by saying...

"Man is the cruelest creature on the face of the earth. Unfortunately, there are world

leaders who think there is nothing called global warming. They are in that position, they are the world leaders. What to do!”

Each of us, in big ways are contributing to disturbing the universe. The other day I was in Wayanad and a man came to me and said “These elephants are big menace. Please do something to shoot them.”

I asked him a simple question...“Did he come to you or did you go to them?”

You are destroying forests, their habitats and then you complain he is causing a trouble!

He continued, "We don’t need to go to some African country to see the situation, come to Kerala! Kerala receives the highest amount of rainfall in India. Exactly after two weeks, there is a drought; my home state. Why? Because we don’t care!

In Kerala, in one acre of land you get 40 million litres of water. How do I know? Because I was the commissioner of wet management in 2003 in Kerala. I organised the first environment rally in Kerala for rain water harvesting. We eventually got legislation making rain water harvesting mandatory at homes. But everybody cannot initiate this."

"It’s not about lack of laws but the anarchy of human minds" he said,

"Let us think differently. Let us get India working, Let us not say this is not how things are! Let us change dramatically and that is what we need to do…"

Alphons was extremely happy to know about GreenOtels and congratulated the platform by saying, "Keep it up! I think you people are the real saviours of the world. We have to work together and make things work. We should not say “this is how things work” but we must make them happen, let us take this forward."P

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Vol. 2 ISSUE 8 September 2018 |

INDIAN CITIES AND THEIR OVERALL EMISSION LEVELS

The report titled ‘The Urban Commute and How it Contributes to Pollution and Energy’, compiled by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) evaluated six megacities (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad) and eight metropolitan cities (Bhopal, Lucknow, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Pune, Kochi and Vijayawada) on how they fare when it comes to pollution and energy consumption from urban commuting places.

In terms of overall emissions and energy consumption, Bhopal was followed by Vijayawada, Chandigarh and Lucknow. Kolkata, which comes in at the sixth place on overall emissions, one among the six megacities. In fact, smaller cities such as Ahmedabad and Pune ranked below Kolkata

for overall emissions. Delhi ranked at the bottom of the table for overall emission. Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai fared a little better than Delhi. Mumbai, the report stated, had the highest GDP but a lower rate of motorisation compared with other megacities, proving that income levels were not the only reason for deciding a population’s dependence on automobiles.

In the study, with an aggregate of toxic emissions from urban commuting practices, such as particulate matter and nitrogen oxides, the cities were ranked based on calculations of heat trapping (Co2). The study took two approaches to rank the cities - one based on overall emission and energy consumption and the other on per person trip emissions and energy consumption.P

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“Nevertheless, the concept of sustainable development is now known - even amongst those who haven't accepted it - and it's recognized, debated and followed by an increasing number of businesses.”

- Maurice Strong

K J Alphons - Tourism Minister of State

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AT GREENOTELS DELHI CONFERENCE -BUREAUCRATS DISCUSS APPLICATION OF POLICIES AND BOTTLENECKS

Welcoming bureaucrats Anand Kumar - Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Devesh Chaturvedi - Joint Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare, Niranjan Khatri the founder of iSambhav aimed at talking about the application of policies, its bottlenecks and way forward.

Firing his first question based on the fact that globally industries are enforcing green supply chains Niranjan asked whether there was any move to make it mandatory for all future hotels to become green?

To which Anand Kumar exclaimed that the industry does not practice what it preaches. He said everybody talks about the principles of adopting sustainability but how many actually practise it? So yes, legislative measures must be taken to encourage more green buildings. The imposition of certain guidelines to classify a project as a green building will make everyone realise the necessity of it and there should be guidelines for retrofits as well. This will give a momentum to the green building movement.

Further talking on eco-ettiquettes front, Anand spoke about the battle of teaching tourists the basic code of conduct at certain places. He shared his experience and observation of how tourists behave exactly opposite to what has been instructed. For example- A clear “Don’t Feed Birds Here” sign managed to attract people for feeding birds at the same spot, while they were clearly instructed not to. Moreover, on seeking an explanation-the mass has often answered back explaining its a religious practice that their Pandit has asked them to follow. Adding to the discussion, Devesh spoke about how until a few years back, when global phenomenon like global warming and climate change were just emerging, India practiced eco-friendly habits in smart ways. Recollecting an incident at Kumbh Mela, he was a comissioner of UP at that time, he said - In a religious country like India, where people respect pandits more than they fear laws, we asked the priests to make sure devotees didn’t throw Puja materials in the rivers. When this was implemented, we had seen great results. Thus, Devesh said, there certainly is a ray of hope of bringing the

change. The smart question is - HOW?

Narrating a similar incident, Niranjan shared his story from Port Blair when the team had realised that being hotel-centric was not enough. Thus, to inculcate eco-etiquettes, the operators of water boats were instructed to not start the boat if any passenger did not carry their waste back; of course, all in a friendly way.

Post this, given that Anand represented the MNRE the discussion veered towards solar supremacy and Anand shared that by 2025solar prices will become affordable to all and we will be able to provide round the clock energy to all villages and towns.

Devesh Chaturvedi shared many anecdotes on the state of agriculture and farming including saying that, "We are refining our marketing and encouraging contract

farming." He urged the hoteliers to have direct dealings with the farmer's organisations to source the fruits, vegetable and farm products; forming a union. This way, farmers get the best price and the hoteliers get the best products.

In the closing question on water harvesting and water woes of India Devesh mentioned that it is the next mandatory step that is in the pipeline for having water harvesting structures for the new buildings but Anand felt that we people as an industry just manage the system and so long as we are managing the system nothing will come out of it. We need to foresee from within that sustainability is essential, yes the water harvesting has to be done not just for satisfying the authorities but because it is the need of the hour. And, that is the reason we are meeting here at this GreenOtels conference to understand the need for each of us to be more responsible.

RAJINDERA KUMAR URGES THE POLICY MAKERS TO PROVIDE ALTERNATIVES BEFORE MAKING POLICY AT THE GREENOTELS CONFERENCE 2018!

Welcoming the fraternity of hoteliers and dignitaries from the government Rajindera Kumar - Executive Committee Member of The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India posed a perspective to the policy makers present at the conference that, “before implementing strict laws on plastic and urging to take necessary actions the government needs to introduce alternatives to plastic products”.

He also congratulated GreenOtels for undertaking the movement of bringing about a change and encouraging the hotel industry to adopt eco friendly practices.

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Rajindera Kumar - Executive Committee Member, FHRAI

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EXPERTS DISCUSS WHY BUILDING GREEN HOTELS MAKES BUSINESS SENSEAT GREENOTELS CONFERENCE

Taking a dive into the sea of yet another interesting agenda of - whether or not building green hotels makes business sense and, about how operators can make the case for green buildings with owners and investors; the panel discussion at GreenOtels North India Conference saw a vigorous discussion. The panelists Rahul Kumar (RKA), Ankur Choksi (Studio Lotus), SMH Adil (GEED India), and Sunil Khemani (Apostle Design Studio) - all leading architects, consultants and engineers of India spoke about the topic passionately and put forth their respective views and opinions. Moderating the session was the architect - Tanmay Tathagat of Environmental Design Solutions.

Setting the premise of the session, Tanmay put forth a beautiful fact that “There shouldn’t be anything called as green design” simply meaning that good designs must comprise the aspect of green construction and must not be termed as a value addition. Taking it forward from there, he left the panelists with a question - In a design practice, when you look at a hotel, does it really make a difference in your design approach when you say it’s a green project. And if yes, how does it manifest?

Rahul spoke from his experience that constructing green is not a choice but a

necessity of today. If industries don’t practice it, they will run out of business sooner or later. Giving Green movement the credit it deserves, he also mentioned the structure it has set for everybody to follow; it trains the younger generation, making it easy for them to understand the concept of green constructions. Because of this, today, we don’t think of constructing green buildings differently, it is something that we are anyway doing. So the approach does not change. However, things today are done in a much systematic manner and in the stipulated budget.

Further, giving a summary of what it takes to not just design a green hotel but to make sure it performs efficiently, Sunil said that the initial stage of building a property is really important and has to be planned according to the environmental needs. Giving an example he said - all of us know that the air conditioner consumes about 40 to 45% of energy in any property. Thus, the correct placing of the machine from a design and engineering perspective in the very initial stage will play a big role in the long term. Sunil also spoke about implementing costs explaining the fact that a building may qualify as a gold but upgrading it into a platinum is extra money, in terms of engineering services; which could be anything between 6 to 10% as of today, and was about 30% 5 years ago.

Once the building has been designed and operations are on, the key to sustaining greater energy consumption level would depend on pre maintenance; as most equipment are self driven and don’t require human intervention. So if the systems are maintained well, they certainly will perform for years to come.

On compromising luxury for design- Ankur was of the opinion that the idea is to create an alignment of thoughts between all stakeholders towards the end vision of the project. The attempt is to always execute in the best possible manner. So when we speak of luxury, we may not have used the most expensive material but we have put into use the flavour of local royalty.

Emphasizing how often he is been asked, Tanmay put forth a question of “What’s the latest or one technology/product/practice that a hotel can adapt to go green efficiently?” - a piece of lost puzzle hoteliers strive to put together and come searching for architects. Accepting that he often fails in helping hoteliers with an accurate answer, he further posed the question to the engineers;

who with their balance in technology and design aspect have a better sense of understanding.

For Adil, it was about communicating clearly in the language of costs rather than announcing a particular technology or product to be efficient. Giving hoteliers a clearer picture of what they could gain in the language of money would make a lot of sense. Moreover, persuading them into understanding that a certain amount of expense leads to long-term benefits could simplify the scenario, Adil said. He put forth a few numbers that would help hoteliers directly understand the benefits attached to adopting certain advancements.

“I call it physics and finance of hotel business in India. Nobody talks about physics, everybody just wants to talk about finance. Physics has a lot of roles, it stays the way it is anywhere. And I am a firm believer of physics, sitting on the engineers' side. I did these 10 points for a hotel in Delhi...and these are very strong points that I’d like to share…”

Ÿ If you go by normal blazing say 25 to 40 % with a high performance glass, you save around 742Rs. per sq. ft. for 30 years of operation. So we’re saying the cost of ownership of the hotel for 30 years, I brought it to 742 sq. ft. for lifecycle. So having a correct decision done at the beginning of having a high performing blazing, with respect to current climate condition and an inflation of 4 to 6%, you will save around 742 sq. ft. Don’t trust these numbers, consider 20 - 30 % here and there.

Ÿ If you go by 50% and more kind of glass with high performing blazing, you will save P

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Vol. 2 ISSUE 8 September 2018 |

SMH Adil - GEED India

Tanmay Tathagat - EDS

Rahul Kumar - RKA (Rajinder Kumar Associates)

Ankur Choksi - Studio Lotus

Sunil Khemani - Apostle Design Studio

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238 Rs. per sq. ft. Again, a conventional building is going to be a building which is generally built; without any compliance, that is. This can be debatable, but this is how it works.

Ÿ If you insulate your hotel well, go by ECBC value, the kind of saving you will attain over the lifetime will be 1511Rs. per sq. ft.

Ÿ If you regulate your set point at 2 degrees higher than the practice of 23 in the hotel, you may save 3525 Rs per sq ft in the net present value in the lifetime of the hotel.

Ÿ If you maintain a set back in the unoccupied times, the number per night is 1Rs. per sq. ft.

Ÿ Very interesting part - if your ventilation system is loosely designed, you will not be able to track how much fresh air you end up using or losing; then obviously it is a higher probability that you will be losing 4661Rs. per sq. ft. in the net present value for the lifetime.

Ÿ If you provide a demand control ventilation in your hotel, you save 5100Rs. per sq. ft.

On the other hand, Tanmay, as an architect

felt that putting the cost language could restrict the liberty of the designers.

Rahul was of the opinion that as every building has a basic cost price for its construction, the additional expenses must be compared to the established base price to drive into a conclusion of whether or not the additional investment is beneficial. The problem may arise when the base cost itself is low.

To Tanmay’s belief, projects wherein the owner is the decision maker, factors like budget, implementation, overall management, and the performance are very smooth in comparison to any project where a developer, operator is involved; a difference in opinion or mismatch of interests tends to happen.

Further, making way for the Tourism Minister K.J. Alphons to be on stage, the panelists could not conclude the discussion, however, left everyone in the audience with enough pointers.

EXPERTS DISCUSS WHY BUILDING GREEN HOTELS MAKES BUSINESS SENSEAT GREENOTELS CONFERENCE

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RETROFITTING EXISTING ASSETS - CORPORATE HOTEL ENGINEERS TALK AT GREENOTELS DELHI

Bringing together the corporate engineers of leading hotel chains to share challenges and solutions towards retrofitting existing assets from an environmentally sensitive perspective - a highly valuable session with Arun Bahadur (The Oberoi Group), Darashbir Singh (The Accor Group), H C Vinayaka (ITC Hotels) as panelists was conducted at the GreenOtels North Region Conference on the 3rd August 2018. Moderating it was George Varughese (Advisor, Strategy & Planning) who made sure the session was engaging and insightful.

Stating this to be a common problem faced by the fraternity of hoteliers, Arun was of the

opinion that a need of upgrading an asset arises when it comes through a source. This may be in the form of a request from the guest, sales or any other medium. Following which comes the hand of an engineer who then starts looking for solutions to incorporate new advancements with the currently given constraints. Speaking of this typically, he said, quite a portion of retrofitting is possible and factors like technology, skill sets, and correct training lead to implementation. Vinayaka put forth two major aspects of retrofitting the assets of a property. 1. Energy and 2. Attitude. Everything else, he said, can be taken care of. He believed that all assets have to be brought to a quality of equilibrium and thereafter be maintained, making sure each matches the quality and level of another.

The challenges that Accor faces in maintaining sustainable chain of hotels, as Darashbir said remains mainly in the daily operations. These include dealing with personnel that sometime may oppose a certain idea and educating people about the need of going sustainable in P

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Arun Bahadur - The Oberoi Group

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the very first place. He also mentioned that apart from retrofitting, factors like the daily maintenance, right training for execution, maintenance etc also matter a lot.

Understanding the mindset of management towards protecting their bottom lines, George asked tongue-in-cheek as to what is more important - Cost saving or Planet saving?To this, Vinayaka shared 3 Ps - People, Planet & Profit. He said these are triple bottom lines for any business, we as entrepreneurs - also have to have these equilaterals. One should not compromise with the other.

George candidly spoke of the fact that the question itself was a bit tweaked as one cannot be compared to the other. He went on to add that - suppose one had a BMW, would one love the car more or the mother? Planet earth is your mother and therefore this question of planet earth v/s business is very dangerous. People, Planet & Profit are like a tripod. If one leg is taken off - it will fall.

George posed the next question, "We have been talking about water saving and energy efficiency but what about plastic? How much of plastic is generated by hotels? Here, I see a bottle of glass but how many glass bottles do we supply in the guest rooms. Nobody is loving the planet - planet is not about saving our electrical cost because it is 10Rs a unit. If that plastic keeps going in your earth, there won’t be anymore water - but nobody talks about that.”

Vinayaka shared that few hotels have already started to make it a mandate. Also it has become a law in Mumbai, Delhi and some other states to eliminate plastic. Even the PM

has made a statement about the same. Few people in the industry have set internal benchmark because it is a genuine concern going on since many years. We cannot stop it completely but build and define road maps in keeping up with the country's goal to eliminate single use plastic by 2020 - 2022.

Darashbir felt that the elimination of plastic needs to start from ourselves. The moment we enter a restaurant, the steward asks which water you would like to have Bottled or RO - we very promptly say bottled water. So we need to start from ourselves... We should stop asking and taking the plastic bottles. At Accor, all the departments have started to implement “No Plastic” as we are working towards removing all kinds of plastics from the hotels. Hopefully, 8-9 months from now you will see us using all the recyclable material wherever possible. We need to cut the demand ourselves in order to put a stop to the supply.

One interesting question that came from the floor was that "the revenues while our seniors were working were totally different as compared to the current scenario. The

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RETROFITTING EXISTING ASSETS - CORPORATE HOTEL ENGINEERS TALK AT GREENOTELS DELHI

pricing for electricity was 6Rs which has come up to 10Rs now. But however, the ARR of the hotel still remains the same. There is a lot of financial pressure from the finance management to control the cost of HLP; while on the other hand we have to maintain the laundry also. We are spending 3 crore per year on laundry and getting a revenue of 30 lacs. So maintaining the quality along with maintaining green practice becomes difficult as all of us operate laundries with RO water, wherein 40% is the wastage. Thus, the challenge here is to either accept the green norms or to maintain the quality or to maintain the financial books of the company. What according to you is the most important?"

To this, Darashbir responded, "if chief engineers face financial crisis, they need to practice “stocking.” We need to use stocking of wind, solar, open access...whatever is available. State by state all these options are available. Thus, one can save from 0.8 paise upto 2Rs per unit; depending upon the government policy of the state. If stocking is practiced, the financial pressure can be well taken care of. Second point about the laundry - Yes, laundry is a big issue. However, one can use power chemicals that save upto 5-7% of power, which comes through carbon chemicals. By incorporating these methods, energy can definitely be saved, thereby reducing water cycles laundry cost.

Vinayaka felt similarly and shared that at ITC 62% of electrical energy is from the renewable source. "Yes we have done our own wind farm, the energy consumed is from that. Now the cost has been reduced to about Rs. 2.20 paisa including operation, maintenance everything put together." He suggested that smaller hotel chains could incorporate a third party who is selling green energy to hotels. This facility is available. On saving water, he gave the ITC example that initially they had a cap of 1kl per room which was a benchmark, and now it is only 0.6-0.7. How was this made possible? By increasing the re-use probabilities. ITC started filtering the under ground water, collected it, filtered it, treated it, and used it for the back of the house. Same formula was also applied to flush, cooling tower, gardening etc.

Anil Sharma DoE of The Imperial shared from the floor that there is a lot of potential in saving energy through laundry. When we talk about changing or replacing old equipments with new technology the only major challenge is finance. So, outsourcing our laundry could be the best solution. He even suggested that one hotel can have a central laundry for all surrounding hotels. That way, all hotels could save on manpower, energy and capital costs.

Concluding the discussion, George said - Basically what we heard from the experienced panel of speakers, whether from the Indian Hotels or a Global group working with small owners, I think the point which they highlighted the most is the attitude and the leadership for that attitude. All of them being engineers said technology is no issue as of today. Yes, if you want to set the benchmark really high, there will be technological challenges, that is a different question altogether but at least to get to the current levels of where we want to get, technology is available. Also, costs can be managed, banks can be managed. As long as there is management will, there can always be a way.

We don’t need the government to come and tell us to do things or put a gun on our heads. When we go back home today, or go to our hotels.....it is a choice we have to make on our own. How are we going to take that decision, that asset, that belongs to us. It need not be environmentally inefficient. We can retrofit it at a reasonable cost and reasonable time to make it work in today’s day at least. P

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Darashbir Singh - The Accor Group

H C Vinakaya - ITC Hotels

George Varughese Advisor, Strategy and Planning

Disclaimer : Although we have taken every care to make the information in this publication as accurate as possible, we accept no responsibility for any inaccuracies or changes since going to press. All information here in is gathered from primary, secondary and tertiary sources.

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HEARD AT THE GREENOTELS - DELHI CONFERENCE

“Let us think differently, let us get India working...Let us not say this is how things are! Let us change dramatically and that is what we need to do…” - K J Alphons, Minister of State (Independent charge) for Tourism

“By 2025 the solar prices will be affordable and you will be able to give round the clock power through the solar energy.” - Anand Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

“Hotels situated in the hills or elsewhere can have a direct bargaining scheme with the farmers’ organization where fruits, vegetable and farm products can be sourced. This way, the farmers and the hoteliers get the best price for the products” - Devesh Chaturvedi, Joint Secretary, Deptt of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare

“Once the building has been designed and operations are on, the key to sustaining greater energy consumption level would depend on pre maintenance; as most equipment are self driven and don’t require human intervention” - Sunil Khemani, Apostle Design Studio

“I ask people what do you do with your money and they say we invest, save money for our future. I say the same principle applies to water also” - Niranjan Khatri, Founder of iSambhav

“There shouldn’t be anything called as green design. Good designs must comprise the aspect of green construction and must not be termed as a value addition” - Tanmay Tathagat, Environmental Design Solutions

“No law is good unless it is enforced” - Anand Kumar, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy

“Before implementing strict laws on plastic and urging us to take necessary actions the government needs to introduce alternatives to plastic products” - Rajindera Kumar, Executive Committee Member, FHRAI

“We cannot stop using plastic completely but build and define road maps in keeping up with the country's goal to eliminate single use plastic by 2020 - 2022.” - H C Vinayaka, Technical , EHS & Sustainability, ITC Hotels

“Physics has a lot of roles in hospitality industry but everybody just talks about finance” - SMH Adil, GEED India

“Planet earth is your mother and therefore this question of planet earth v/s business is very dangerous.” - George Varughese, Advisor, Strategy & Planning

"If chief engineers face financial crisis, they need to practice ‘stocking’...stocking of wind, solar, open access...” - Darashbir Singh, Director, Engineering Services, Accor HotelsP

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