Banyan Tree’s sustainable development consists of several group-wide programmes focusing on environmental conservation and empowering local communities through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. In addition, each individual resort carries out its own specific initiatives designed to meet these goals within a local context.

“Social responsibility is about creating value for a community,” says Claire Chiang, Banyan Tree’s managing director of retail operations. “Through partnerships, business and communities can create more value than the sum of the individual parts.” 

FIRST PROJECT
In 1992, the company’s first project saw an abandoned tin mine converted into Laguna Phuket, a large tourism development and site of its first Banyan Tree-branded property in 1994. Since then, CSR has been championed and projects are only considered if business, social and environmental goals align.

In 2001, Chiang founded a retail subsidiary, Banyan Tree Gallery, to work with village cooperatives and not-for-profit agencies in producing traditional handmade crafts. The initiative provides employment opportunities while giving visitors greater exposure to the area’s culture and traditions. This year, the conservation programme saw environmental management officers appointed to monitor levels of power and water consumption and waste production.

REDUCED EMISSIONS
The goal is to reduce carbon emissions by ten per cent per year per resort from 2007-2010. Swimming pools and Jacuzzis use non-chlorinated water, and wastewater is treated and recycled for irrigation. Refuse is treated at in-house incinerators or collected and sorted for recycling.

“If an organisation makes a claim, such as being carbon neutral, we as stakeholders, should expect this organisation to be able to provide us with evidence,” says Laura Weeks at World Wildlife Fund. “The most obvious form of evidence is a report that demonstrates some kind of independent assessment or oversight.” 

Banyan Tree Holdings is also a founding member of the Singapore chapter of the UN Global Compact – the world’s largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative. In accordance with Compact’s disclosure goals, a sustainability report is also circulated with its annual report. The comprehensive guide includes performance results and outlines ongoing and future CSR projects. 

Banyan Tree currently uses self-evaluation to measure performance, but has long-term plans to secure third-party assessment for the Conservation programme.