Six Senses has been on a journey to eliminate plastic from its properties ever since the brand was founded in the mid-1990s. By the time plastic had become a dirty word in 2016, single use bottles, straws and disposable packaging were long gone, and Six Senses was already taking pioneering steps towards eliminating more complex and challenging plastic items.
This Journey to Plastic Freedom has been recorded diligently by Six Senses sustainability teams and today Six Senses has announced it will be sharing this operational intelligence with the wider hospitality industry.
Neil Jacobs, CEO of Six Senses, said: “Sustainability is a defining characteristic of what luxury means to us. We are sharing our playbook with other hotel groups because the issue needs collective action if we are to make a real impact on our environment. If that means sharing our trade secrets with the wider industry, then so be it. What we know from our years of experience is that sustainability doesn’t have to be to the detriment to guest experience. This playbook only tells half the story. The real legacy will be how our journey is embedded within further afield and who knows, potentially become part of life for all hotel operations.”
The Six Senses Journey to Plastic Freedom Playbook has 82 tried and tested solutions to plastic items in the four main areas of a hotel’s operations – housekeeping, back of house, food and beverage and spa. Items being eliminated range from bags and toothpaste tubes to coffee capsules and brooms. The playbook also shares ten lessons about how being environmentally and socially responsible can be successfully married to uncompromising hospitality, efficient operations, profitability, an outstanding guest experience and high levels of satisfaction and engagement among colleagues.
As part of IHG’s luxury and lifestyle portfolio, Six Senses has shared the Journey to Plastic Freedom Playbook with 6,400 IHG hotels across the world. The next step is for Six Senses is to share it with the wider industry. There will be a webinar on Wednesday November 6 for anyone working in the hospitality industry who wants to learn more and from that date, the playbook will be available to download online.
HOW IT STARTED: WAKE UP AND SEE THE PLASTIC
Following a successful plastic-free pilot at Six Senses Laamu in 2016, the brand commissioned a group-wide inventory of every plastic item within its operations. To its surprise, even though it was eliminating tens of thousands of items, the numbers kept going up.
Jeff Smith, Six Senses Vice President of Sustainability, puts this down to the fact staff members were becoming more aware and able to identify the plastic around them. He said: “There’s no way to sugarcoat it. Eliminating plastic items can be difficult, but it is rewarding. We launched an education and awareness campaign which comprised six training modules. It opened the company’s eyes to the plastic it hadn’t ‘seen’ before. No item was too large or small to be nominated for eliminating. That said, it’s one thing to identify items for eliminating and research better alternatives but quite another to get hosts to do without a material that made their life easier and more efficient. We now have 82 solutions for plastic items which we know are viable alternatives. Every single time a plastic item is avoided in a Six Senses hotel is yet another good news story.”
82 SOLUTIONS ACROSS FOUR MAIN OPERATING AREAS
Thanks to an intense training campaign for all staff, the Six Senses solutions to avoiding plastic have been met with enthusiasm, creativity, and further innovation across the world. Solutions have come from the ground up from empowered colleagues at all 27 hotels. Among those who have contributed to curating global solutions are Dawa Tshering, Restaurant Manager at Six Senses Paro, Bhutan who led the country’s first-ever natural beeswax wrap production as an alternative to cling film. Other plastic-free heroes include Wellness Director Anupam Banerjee, who introduced plastic-free slippers at Six Senses Spa Zighy Bay, which can be entirely recycled onsite.
Jeff Smith added: “Our ethos has always been about learning. We wanted to tackle the entire lifecycle impacts of plastic from extraction of crude oil through to transportation, chemical leakage, and carbon and climate impacts, before we even hold that plastic item in our hands. This learning has given us rich intelligence in the form of tried and tested solutions. Rather than keeping those solutions to ourselves, we want to share them with the entire industry. When working together, we hope to go further.”
The Six Senses Journey to Plastic Freedom Playbook has been written and edited by Six Senses in-house sustainability leaders in partnership with industry stalwarts including Rachel McCaffery, CEO of the sustainable tourism consultancy Green Case, Ally Dragozet, CEO of the marine consultancy Sea Going Green, Phil Bloomfield, Founder of communications agency Ready to Bloom and Jo Hendrickx, Founder of Travel Without Plastic.
Rachel McCaffery explained: “It can be overwhelming to face up to how much material you use, and the cost of plastic alternatives can add up. But when compared to the cost that long term plastic is extracting from wildlife and our own health, is it a change you really can’t afford to make? What was most encouraging was the engagement from Six Senses guests and hosts. Some solutions were initially viewed with suspicion but have quickly become guest favorites, such as our toothpaste tablets.”
AN INVITATION TO JOIN THE MOVEMENT
Six Senses focuses on eliminating plastic, rather than just recycling. Pollution from plastic occurs during production, extraction, use and disposal. By the time it is recycled (if it gets recycled), much of the environmental damage is already done. Six Senses knew from the outset that its suppliers would be critical stakeholders, which is why all purchasing teams and suppliers were brought on board with the vision of the brand to become plastic free and invited to share the pledge to eliminate plastic. Six Senses learned it was not alone in its concern and suppliers were open to implementing alternatives and collaborating to develop workable solutions.
To register for the Six Senses Plastic Freedom Webinar on Wednesday November 6, click here. All attendees will receive a downloadable PDF copy of the playbook.
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