Sealed Air India organises customer meet
Sealed Air held its Customer Meet on April 11, at the Optus Sarovar hotel in Gurgaon which saw many leading players in the industry share ideas through panel discussions, presentations, and networking on a large variety of topics. It was well attended by top end users from segments such as laundry, surface cleaning, washrooms, and manufacturing.
The panel members for the first discussion – Sustainability in Housekeeping – were Shipra Nair, Corporate Housekeeper-Fortune Park Hotels Ltd; Avinash Garg, Hospitality Consultant; Meenu Tognatta, Executive Housekeeper-ITC projects; Niranjan Khatri, General Manager-WelcomEnviron Initiatives and Ajay Dhar, Chief Engineer-WelcomHotel Sheraton. The discussion was moderated by Kevin, Professor at University of Toronto.
On the need to be conscious about sustainability, Shipra spoke about being conscious ‘right from cradle to graveyard’ of any product and gave examples of using sachets which are easy to transport instead of cans for easy end- of -use disposal, using i-cloud computing instead of using large computer servers which need to be kept in an air- conditioned space, and maybe donating linen to NGO’s after its life is over instead of recycling. She suggested a ‘take-back program’, whereby machine parts are reused, or put to some use, so that they do not go directly into the junk yard. Meenu asked the audience to think about using chemicals in such a way that these could go back into the environment and cause no further problems.
From the Engineering point of view, Ajay Dhar said that the main focus was on energy and water consumption. Speaking on 3R, Avinash stressed upon the awareness needed on how much water and energy was used. Putting the Indian hospitality industry in the global perspective, Khatri said we had some catching up to do.
Moving to the next point as to what drives sustainability in housekeeping, Meenu said that it depended on the individual and that the key drivers should be from the top down all the way to the grassroots level and then could work in reverse as well. Shipra added that the key drivers for her were the 3 P’s – Profit, People and Planet. The customers are globally travelled and so they expect no less in terms of quality of service and caring for the environment.
From the engineering side, Dhar also mentioned the three drivers – Profit, Social responsibility and Going Green, both on a micro and macro level. While there are many concepts we are all aware of, there may be only a few that we actually follow, so we all really need to do a little bit on our part to use these systems in the whole product life cycle. On the Procurement side, the key drivers are the consumer, repair and maintenance. The feedback from the the housekeeping staff about the working of the equipment is very important.
On the next topic of Educating the consumer, the housekeeping staff and others on Sustainability, Khatri agreed that it was an important issue and that all departments needed to take steps. This should also permeate down to people’s homes. The importance
of education is also felt on use and management of water. He gave the example of ITC, where in some men’s room, water has been disconnected and other methods of hygiene and cleaning are used.
Shipra added that they picked chemicals that did not require hot water, so they could save the non-renewable resources like water and energy. Also, in equipment, they look for those which have better filters; for floor machines they look for those that have lesser moisture and use less power. Another concept she brought up was a practice used by 150 Starwood hotels across the globe, (and similar ones by the Marriott, Intercontinental) the ‘Make a green Choice’. Here the guest is your partner in sustainability and the guest makes a choice if he needs daily housekeeping or not. If they choose a green method, they are either given a discount or additional loyalty points. They have also started a lot of projects where local material such as stone or bricks is used. The use of air- conditioners is also being minimised. “We all need to try to modify ourselves and our hotels to the environment and it is important that each one of us makes a difference as an individual.”
Khatri said that to engage the guests, they had introduced the concepts of Green banquets where the guests were given the choice of using daylight, tables or chairs without covers. The backdrops could be reused or donated. The Triple Bottom Line concept which started in 2002 takes into consideration three aspects- Economical, Social and Environmental.
According to Ajay, we need to go and really understand clearly the existing standards such as IGBC and LEED so that we can use right products such as paint with low VOC, or acceptable carpets adhesives, or regulate the amount of water per flush. Using microfiber pillows made from PET bottles (which actually feel like feather pillows) is a good example of recycling.
The second discussion, once again moderated by Kevin had Niranjan Khatri; Sanjay Verghese, Director-Materials, The Imperials; Nirupam Malhotra, Owner-Launderaids Commercial Laundry; Chandrima Chatterjee, Vice President-Le Meridian and Vivek Kulkarni, Laundry Manager-Leela Hotel.
Since laundry uses a lot of water and energy, the facility should look for chemicals which could be used at low temperatures. They also use biodynamics, where bacteria is generated in the laundry water and it is recycled and used in the WC’s and the cloak rooms.
Nirupam, who runs laundry units, said that the use of tunnel washers had drastically reduced water consumption and they could also reuse the waste water for gardening and put it back into the ground.
Sanjay Verghese said that while there was the need to make profit, we must still stay accountable to the environment and be open to evolving. The key is optimization of ulitization of resources such as water, which we will still continue to need at many levels. Vivek Kulkarni gave the example of Leela Mumbai, where there is a program for washing laundry at a lower temperature. He said it was fine to spend a little more upfront in the greener laundry equipment because there wouldl be benefit somewhere else.
Answering the next question as to where one can we get new ideas, Nirupam said he often got ideas from the internet and also from laundry exhibitions. It was agr
eed that we needed to know that solutions did exist and then be willing to consider these options for using water and natural resources.
How to ensure there is ‘less to wash’ is a collective program between guests and the facility and both sides need to partner. However, guests don’t participate as much as they wanted them to. Khatri added that bringing in Disruptive Innovation with choices like their green banquets were helping. But all this, should have the support of top management and such efforts should be rewarded and recognized. Last but, not the least, all best practices should be shared so that all work together for a cleaner and greener industry.
The third session in the evening started with panel discussion on ‘Productivity Enhancement – Key to Success’. Representatives from Facility Management companies like Bikram Chadha, MD-Impressions; Aneesh Kadyan, Director-Operations, CBRE; Parikshit Roy, MD-Compass India; Arun Behl, Associate Vice President-Delhi International Airport Limited and Vijay Aima, Vice President-Ambience Group were at hand to share their experiences. Diversey’s Smart Savings program was appreciated by the audience as a means to achieve better productivity. Again a lively Q&A session saw enthusiastic participation from the audience.
T Balakrishnan, Vice President-Diversey Care Business, AMAT made a presentation on Sustainability in India. The event was well attended and brought key issues of sustainability as, after all, as Bala rightly said, we are merely borrowing this planet from our children, so we need to ensure there are ample resources left for them.