An overwater villa at Soneva Secret, opening in 2024.
Source: Soneva, Bruce Aveillan
Many hotels claim to be environmentally friendly.
But are they?
A quick and easy test is to search for two items, said Sonu Shivdasani, founder of hotel brands Soneva and Six Senses.
First, sustainable hotels should not have branded water of any kind, he told CNBC Travel.
“If you have incredibly filtered water and the tap water in most countries around the world is pretty pure, you don’t need branded water,” he said.
This not only reduces the number of single-use bottles, but is also healthier, he said.
“There are a number of types of water that can be very toxic because they are in areas where there is chemical pollution,” he said. Plus: “Plastic bottles are carcinogenic. You can imagine that plastic bottle sitting in a store for two or three months, getting hot and roasting.”
A better and cheaper option for hotels is to purify tap water and add electrolyte minerals such as sodium, potassium and chloride, he said.
Next, look for toiletries in plastic bottles, which Shivdasani called “silly.”
“You should really buy in large containers and then transfer them to ceramic bottles,” he said.
But that’s really the bare minimum, said Shivdasani, who sold Six Senses in 2012.
He is now focused on Soneva’s three hotels: two in the Maldives and one in Thailand, as well as another – Soneva Secret – scheduled to open in 2024 on a remote atoll in the north of the Maldives.
The resorts serve guests with locally grown produce, rely partly on solar energy and recycle 93% of the waste generated, said Shivdasani, who was honored in September with the inaugural Icon Award of the 50 Best Hotels for Responsible Luxury Tourism.
Shivdasani rejects the idea that sustainable business is more expensive.
“Ecology is economics,” he told CNBC Travel.
By relying more on solar energy than diesel fuel, Soneva resorts would save money in the long run, he said.
“Our bankers are very supportive of this,” he said. “The payback on this investment is approximately four and a half years.”
Shivdasani estimates his company saves $20,000 to $30,000 a year by making charcoal from fallen branches. Additionally, the on-site gardens deliver about $10,000 worth of vegetables per month – at market prices – to each resort, he added.
But Shivdasani doesn’t deny that sustainability – at this level – is more difficult.
“It’s certainly not easier. But it’s more interesting,” he said. “It’s harder, but it’s definitely much, much more fulfilling.”
As the tourism industry adopts more sustainable practices, one question remains: who will pay for it?
“Governments can create the context, but companies have to create the change,” Shivdasani told CNBC Travel. “We can do this by making small changes to the way we do business that may not impact our profitability but can have a big impact on people far beyond our borders.”
According to a Euromonitor International report published in August, almost 80% of travelers will pay at least 10% more for eco-friendly travel despite the cost of living crisis.
Soneva Fushi, a resort in the Maldives where Shivdasani and his wife Eva say they live about half the year.
Source: Soneva
Shivdasani said he decided to introduce a guest environmental levy after the company measured its Scope 3 emissions.
“I didn’t know what Scope 3 carbon emissions were,” he said. “Scope 1 and 2 are like the light bulbs, the air conditioning… Scope three are externalities outside the property.” [like] Guests fly in, supplies come in.
Companies often fail to report Scope 3 emissions, said Kelvin Law, an associate professor of accounting at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore who studies corporate sustainability and financial fraud.
“Missing one of three reporting areas might not seem like a big deal — but it is,” he wrote for CNA, since they account for the lion’s share of most companies’ emissions. “Omitting Scope 3 emissions reporting is like solving a puzzle without the largest piece – the picture is never complete.”
Shivdasani said that after Soneva determined that 85% of its carbon emissions were “Scope 3” emissions, the company implemented the 2% carbon levy. That was in 2008.
“That’s why we said we have to do something about it,” he said.
The levy has raised around $12 million for the Soneva Foundation, a British charity founded in 2010.
Proceeds were used to restore forests in Thailand, finance a 1.5 megawatt windmill in India (“to provide subsidized energy to the local community”), and purchase stoves in Myanmar and Darfur, Sudan.
“The cookstoves have been a fantastic investment,” he said, adding that they not only reduce carbon emissions, but also reduce the cost of firewood and the risk of lung disease. The latter causes an estimated 3.2 million deaths per year, including around 230,000 children under five, according to the World Health Organization.
In addition, the ovens produced a carbon surplus, he said.
“We now have two million surplus carbon credits, which is worth about $20 million,” he said.
The credits – which currently sell on the open market for $10 to $15 each – are certified and then purchased by companies such as Marks & Spencer, which use the credits to meet their own carbon reduction targets, he said.
The Soneva Foundation reinvests this money and uses it, among other things, to plant a million trees in Nepal and Mozambique, he added.
“It’s a small change, but it’s had a fantastic growing impact,” he said.