InterContinental Singapore - LED lighting and Peranakan design

Monday was a day of final meetings in Singapore for the team as three members (Peter, Connie and myself) were scheduled to fly out to Bali on Tuesday.  Our schedule was for Eva and Peter to visit the Regent Hotel in the morning, a 2:00PM team meeting with the High Commissioner of Canada, David Sevigny and Trade Commissioner Paula Murphy Ives, followed by a late afternoon meeting of Connie and myself at InterContinental Singapore.

InterContinental, Singapore

Last week we met with Holiday Inn Atrium another InterContinental Group (IHG) member hotel. Having a second meeting with another hotel in the same chain was really interesting though as IHG has incredibly progressive environmental and CSR requirements across the seven member brands.

Connie and my interview and tour of the InterContinental Singapore was with Mr. Jackson Wong, the Chief Engineer and CSR champion. Some of the environmental CSR highlights of our meeting and tour included:

1.     Viewing the 100% LED lit Man Fu Yuan Chinese Restaurant. The ambiance of the restaurant and lighting choice has immense esthetic and environmental appeal. The restaurant was actually featured in Lighting Today magazine for this project.

Those light fixtures are all lit with LED's

2.     Learning about the organic waste composter – a new project implemented about 2 to 3 months ago, the hotel processes all organic waste through the composter and then re-uses the fertilizer produced on the gardens

3.     Hearing about the hotel’s approach to bottled water – the hotel provides bottles only if requested, instead they offer jugs of ice water which most guests are happy with.

On a social CSR note – the InterContinental, Singapore has undertaken an amazing project in its renovation efforts of incorporating Peranakan architecture and design. The Peranakan people have ancestory of Chinese and Malay or Indonesian and have a rich culture with distinctive textiles and ceramics.  The design esthetic is phenomenal and brings a richness of experience to moving through the hotel space.

On a general note – our team has incredibly thankful for how friendly and helpful each of our interviewees has been in sharing their experience and perspective on environmental initiatives in the hotel industry. It has been inspiring to see the level of interest and engagement that each of our interviewees has.  As our active phase of data collection and conducting interviews has concluded and we start on report writing I can confidently state that our team has been blown away by the level of support we’ve received as well as the passion that our interviewees have for the projects they are undertaking.