Six Senses Hotels Resorts Spas continues to be a leading sustainable luxury travel and wellness pioneer with its numerous sustainability initiatives. Each year since 2012, sustainability figures are gathered from all of the company’s properties. Led by Six Senses Vice President of Sustainability Jeff Smith, individual properties monitor their environmental efforts and contributions to local communities.
“The travel industry is growing at a rapid rate on a plate that has limited natural resources,” Smith said. “That means all hospitality leaders have a responsibility to stand up and be accountable for making a sustainable difference and achieving measurable results.”
See also: Sustainable Luxury Travel Post COVID
All Six Senses properties participate in Cornell University’s Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking program, which compares their performance against a global dataset of their peers. Each resort and hotel feature an Earth Lab that promotes sustainable living in inspirational and innovative ways. The space is used to host workshops that empower guests and community members to learn about and connect more closely with the natural world.
“Our health and wellness ethos is around making our guests feel better inside and out, so it makes sense for our social and environmental policies to make them feel good about their choice of vacation too.”
Six Senses has held several sustainability campaigns this year, including the #ProtectMaldivesSeagrass campaign headed by the Blue Marine Foundation and the Maldives Underwater Initiative at Six Senses Laamu. The campaign has convinced more than 25% of resorts in the Maldives to protect their seagrass meadows.
“Many resorts have joined the campaign and are now protecting this critical habitat; however, some resorts are still continuing to remove their seagrass. Support from the government, organizations and tourists is evidence that the practice of seagrass removal is finally ready to be put to an end,” said Charles Clover, executive director of the Blue Marine Foundation.
See also: Top 10 Wellness Retreats in the Maldives
Six Senses Ninh Van Bay launched a coral propagation program in collaboration with the Institute of Oceanography in Nha Trang to protect and preserve the pristine, yet fragile, marine ecosystem surrounding the resort. Andrew Whiffen, general manager of Six Senses Ninh Van Bay, said that the coral propagation program has been a great milestone for their sustainability team and partner organization.
“We love the opportunity to dedicate resources to projects that we care deeply about and that give back to our local environment and community,” Whiffen said.
With Six Senses’ goal of being plastic-free by 2022, Six Senses Zil Pasyon has introduced stainless steel straws as a new villa amenity. Six Senses Zil Pasyon has said no to plastic straws since its opening in 2016 and is now taking initiative to eliminate all single use plastic throughout its operations. A stainless-steel straw and its cleaning brush are placed in guests’ rooms for them to take home. General Manager of Six Senses Zil Pasyon said the initiative will encourage everyone to refuse plastic straws and use their metal ones which guests have brought home.
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“We would like our guests to take home not only memories of our island, but also new ideas on how we can all make small changes in our everyday lives towards a more sustainable future,” Leslie said.
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