HOTEL INDUSTRY : CHALLENGES OF RETROFITTING TO ACHIEVE BETTER SUSTAINABILITY

Abstract

Singapore has strongly embraced the notion of environmental sustainability since the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) introduced the Green Mark Scheme in 2005. Almost thirty existing residential and commercial buildings have retrofitted and achieved the Green Mark award. However, the local hotel industry pales in comparison with only 1 hotel receiving it. Hence, this dissertation seeks to find out the challenges and issues of retrofitting existing hotel buildings and make appropriate recommendations that could be useful to assist the hotel industry in achieving better environment sustainability. The major challenges found from the three case studies of retrofitted hotels, namely The Regent Singapore, Shangri-La Hotel and Conrad Centennial, include the following: (a) the difficulty in getting stakeholders’ agreement; (b) the perceived lack of government incentives; (c) employees inadequate training; (d) business disruptions and (e) difficulties relating to equipment selection. This study recommended several proposals to improve the course of retrofitting, and they include introducing a Green Manual for hotels to guide in such retrofitting efforts, financial support in the form of subsidies and funding from the government, environmental education to build awareness and highlight the necessity for a sustainable built environment, and finally, benchmarking tools to enable hotels to assess and chart themselves in terms of environmental performance. The study found that the benefits of retrofitting to achieve better environmental sustainability were unanimously recognized by the hotels, specifically in relation to enhanced corporate image and cost-savings. Therefore, the next steps would be to equip the hotel industry with adequate support in various ways to enable more existing hotels to take on such retrofitting projects and play their role in achieving environmental sustainability in the country.