The Singapore Hotel Association (SHA), with support from the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore (BCA), National Environment Agency (NEA), PUB, Singapore’s National Water Agency and Singapore Tourism Board (STB), jointly organized a half-day Singapore Green Hotel Award Presentation Ceremony and Green Hotel Seminar 2019. This biennial event was held on 21 August 2019 (Wednesday), from 1.45 pm to 5.00 pm at Concorde Hotel Singapore. The Guest-of-honor is Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources, Dr Amy Kor.
The objectives of the Singapore Green Hotel Seminar 2019 are to:
- Promote environmentally friendly policies, initiatives and practices within hotels
- Encourage hotels to embrace an eco-friendly environment for guests and employees through the sharing and learning of best green practices applicable to hotels
- Provide the platform for solution providers in the areas of energy conservation, water efficiency and waste minimization to share their expertise with seminar delegates
Held alongside the Seminar is a half-day mini-exhibition where hotel representatives may view the demonstration and the showcasing of green solutions applicable to the hotel industry.
Extracted speech by Dr Amy Ko:
Let me share some examples of exemplary practices by our winners. To reduce food waste, Mandarin Oriental has installed a food digester.
To sustain the momentum for collective environmental action, we designated this year as our Year Towards Zero Waste. We want to raise awareness of the need to move towards more sustainable consumption and production, and promote the adoption of circular economy strategies to overcome our resource constraints and turn trash into treasure.
Let me share some examples of exemplary practices by our winners. To reduce food waste, Mandarin Oriental has installed a food digester. Mandarin Oriental has installed a food digester, and conducts regular reviews of mini-bar items in hotel rooms to remove those with low demand. The hotel also provides reusable glass bottles in meeting rooms instead of plastic bottled water. Through these and other 3R measures, Mandarin Oriental successfully achieved a waste diversion rate of 13.7 per cent last year.
From 2024, large commercial and industrial food waste generators such as hotels and malls will be required to segregate their food waste for treatment.
From 2021, developers of new developments which are expected to be large food waste generators will be required to allocate and set aside space for on-site food waste treatment in their design plans and to implement on-site food waste treatment from 2024. These measures will be implemented through the Resource Sustainability Bill later this year.
Retrieved from Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources. (2019). Speech by Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for the Environment and Water Resources, at the Singapore Green Hotel Award Ceremony 2019, 21 August 2019. [online] Available at: https://www.mewr.gov.sg/news/speech-by-dr-amy-khor–senior-minister-of-state-for-the-environment-and-water-resources–at-the-singapore-green-hotel-award-ceremony-2019—21-august-2019 [Accessed 11 Nov. 2019].
Photo from Singapore Hotel Association. (2019). [online] Available at: https://sha.org.sg/news_events/news_details/4449/singapore-green-hotel-award-2019 [Accessed 05 Jan. 2023].