Six Senses shares 82 tried-and-tested solutions for reducing plastics in the hospitality sector

Six Senses gave a recent update on its Journey to Plastic Freedom initiative, announcing that it will be sharing the operational intelligence it has gleaned with the global hospitality sector.

The hospitality brand initially shared its Journey to Plastic Freedom Playbook with  6,400 IHG hotels across the world. 

Now that it is being offered to the wider industry, Six Senses scheduled a webinar on Wednesday, 6th November on sustainability via the playbook. This webinar is open to all hospitality professionals who wish to learn more about plastic reduction in their operations.

Likewise, from that date onward, the playbook will be available to download online. 

Six Senses chief executive Neil Jacobs remarked in a statement:  “Sustainability is a defining characteristic of what luxury means to us. We are sharing our  playbook with other hotel groups because the issue needs collective action if we are to make a real impact on our environment. If that  means sharing our trade secrets with the wider industry, then so be it. What we know from our years of experience is that  sustainability doesn’t have to be to the detriment of guest experience. This playbook only tells half the story. The real legacy will be how  our journey is embedded within further afield and who knows, potentially become part of life for all hotel operations.” 

82 proven solutions

Compiled into the playbook, the Journey’s findings translate into 82 tried and tested solutions for dealing with plastic items in the four main areas of a hotel’s operations: housekeeping, back of house, food and beverage, and spa. 

Items being eliminated range from bags and toothpaste tubes, to coffee capsules and brooms. The playbook also shares ten lessons about how being  environmentally and socially responsible can be successfully married to uncompromising hospitality, efficient  operations, profitability, an outstanding guest experience and high levels of satisfaction and engagement among  colleagues. 

Following a successful plastic-free pilot at Six Senses Laamu in 2016, the brand commissioned a group-wide inventory  of every plastic item within its operations. To its surprise, even though it was eliminating tens of thousands of items, the numbers kept going up.  

According to Six Senses’ vice-president of sustainability Jeff Smith, this was due to the way staff members were becoming more aware and able to identify the plastics around them. 

Smith said: “There’s no way to sugarcoat it. Eliminating plastic items can  be difficult, but it is rewarding. We launched an education and awareness campaign which comprised six training modules. It  opened the company’s eyes to the plastic it hadn’t ‘seen’ before. No item was too large or small to be nominated for eliminating. That  said, it’s one thing to identify items for eliminating and research better alternatives but quite another to get hosts to do without a  material that made their life easier and more efficient. We now have 82 solutions for plastic items which we know are viable  alternatives. Every single time a plastic item is avoided in a Six Senses hotel is yet another good news story.”

A cooperative effort

Six Senses’s Journey to Plastic Freedom Playbook was written and edited by its in-house sustainability leaders in partnership with industry stalwarts including Rachel McCaffery, CEO of the sustainable tourism consultancy  Green Case; Ally Dragozet, CEO of the marine consultancy Sea Going Green; Phil Bloomfield, founder of  communications agency Ready to Bloom; and Jo Hendrickx, founder of Travel Without Plastic.  

McCaffery explained: “It can be overwhelming to face up to how much material you use, and the cost of plastic alternatives can add up. But when compared to the cost that long term plastic is extracting from wildlife and our own health, is it a change you really can’t afford to make? What was most encouraging was the engagement from Six Senses guests and hosts. Some solutions  were initially viewed with suspicion but have quickly become guest favourites, such as our toothpaste tablets.”