UNCOMMON SENSE
by Dr Nirmal Kishnani and Candice Lim

An eco-resort seems like a perverse notion in itself, a contradiction of terms. How can a resort be truly eco-friendly when, by the very nature of its business, it must site itself close to natural habitats and biodiversity, close enough to disrupt nature’s cycles with injections of waste and pollution? How do these exclusive, often luxurious, hideaways account for the tons of carbon dioxide emitted by well-heeled travellers jetting in from faraway places?

Common sense suggests that the label ‘eco-resort’ must be taken with a pinch of salt.

It takes uncommon sense then to battle these issues head on. At the Six Senses properties in Phuket, the person in charge of all things ‘eco’ goes by the job description ‘Social & Environmental Conscience Manager’. Arnfinn Oines, a Norwegian in paradise, starts by answering the question on carbon emissions.

At a Six Sense property, the hotel’s day-to-day operations can account for as little as 4 percent of the total emissions; the rest comes from guest travel to and from the resort. In principle it is easy for a hotel to purchase carbon offsets for the 4 percent, ignore the rest, and brand itself as ‘carbon neutral’. Instead, the Six Senses properties in Maldives took the high road; they sought to offset all emissions, including guest flights. This decision resulted in an intervention that is located far from the shores of Maldives: coal-fired energy for a small town of about 5,000 residents in Tamil Nadu, South India, is substituted with carbon-zero power from a Six Senses wind turbine. In its 20-year life, one Six Senses turbine will generate about 80,000 megawatt hours of clean, renewable electricity, averting the release of some 70,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Revenue from the electricity is divided between local community projects; the rest is put into a fund for more such turbines to come online in the future. Some of these community projects further mitigate carbon release, another 30,000 tons worth. Arnfinn says that plans are underway to achieve similar carbon offsetting programmes for other Six Senses properties.

The other question of what is natural—what to protect in the course of constructing and operating the resort—depends very much on the starting point of the development; in other words, what was there to begin with?

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