Mar 16, 2010

Hotel sets out on green mission

All set: (From left) Lai, Ahmad Faisal, Tang, Toh, Pravindran and Wilfred at a treeplanting ceremony to mark the Earth Hour launch at Dorsett Regency Kuala Lumpur.

OBSERVING an hour of darkness for Earth Day alone is not enough for the Dorsett Hotels and Residences in Malaysia. In addition to switching off non-essential lights at their five properties for an hour on March 27, the hotel group is also playing a more active role in educating its employees and the community about going green.

Its five properties — Grand Dorsett Subang Hotel, Grand Dorsett Labuan Hotel, Dorsett Regency Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Maytower Hotel and Serviced Residents and Dorsett Johor Hotel — carry out individual efforts to bring green realisation to employees.

Some of these include nurturing herb gardens, including organic food on the menu, switching to LED lights, introducing green floors, using food containers made from oil palm pulp and composting waste.

At Grand Dorsett Labuan, a project targeting schoolchildren in about 25 schools is in the works. The children will be educated on the environment and going green, as the hotel’s employees believe that a change of mindset begins at school.

Dorsett Johor Hotel is also making an extra effort by using green pepper in its cooking.

Group president Eddie Tang could not stop speaking about the green pepper and said it had a distinct and flavourable taste.

“People don’t normally opt for green pepper because it can only last for four days but they have managed to use these green peppers to make a good dish out of it,” said Tang, adding that the hotel put some effort in obtaining the green peppers from a nearby farm.

A major project for the group would be to replace normal light bulbs within the hotels’ premises to LED lights, despite slightly higher costs.

Currently three hotels — Subang, Labuan and Johor — have their own gardens that grow herbs like screwpine, lemongrass and mint. These herbs are also used in the hotels’ kitchens.

Group loyalty marketing director Kevin S. Pravindran said all rooms at the hotel had green cards to remind guests on minimising laundry to curb wastage.

For their efforts, long-staying guests will be rewarded with free breakfast at the coffee house.

In line with its re-branding project, the hotel is also converting two of its floors into “green floors”. The 24 green rooms will not have air-conditioning. Instead there will be ceiling fans.

The hotel is also looking at collecting rain water to flush toilets and for gardening.

Dorsett Regency Kuala Lumpur channels funds raised from the selling of recyclable items to its sports committee, which organises bowling, badminton and futsal competitions.

With so much going on within the group, Tang is positive that the group can make a difference in creating green awareness.

“We don’t know if we can save the Earth by switching off lights for just an hour but we do know that we can show the world that we can make a positive difference by being more responsible and prudent in our use of energy,” he added.

In fact, the group might go on to make the Earth Hour campaign a monthly drive by selecting one day in every calendar month as an Earth Hour day.

On March 27, all hotels under the group would switch off non-essential lights for an hour from 8.30pm. There are also various activities lined up leading to the event and on the day itself. This includes having the in-house bands play unplugged.