Mr Tenius planting the tree
SINGAPORE – As part of its corporate development, which is geared towards sustainability, Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts succeeded in reaching its first milestone, receiving the official ISO certificate for Swissôtel Management GmbH on 19 April 2009. The ISO 14001 (environmental management) and OHSAS 18001 (occupational health and safety) standards, through which the processes and management tools needed for the group-wide implementation of the “Sustainability at Swissôtel” initiative are put in place. Swissôtel Hotels & Resorts’ efforts on sustainability are divided into four main areas: environment, guests and partners, employees and local communities. The group’s objectives in the area of environment are focused on reducing CO2 emissions, improving waste disposal, using energy and water sparingly, and optimising the entire value chain.
In line with the corporate objectives, Swissôtel Merchant Court is highly committed to actively minimising its effect on the environment to ensure the health and safety of our customers, team and all other stakeholders.
To demonstrate the hotel’s commitment to sustainability efforts, a tree was planted by Rainer Tenius, General Manager of Swissôtel Merchant Court. The hotel’s team members and invited guests gathered at the hotel’s courtyard to witness Rainer Tenius as he planted a Chinese Fan Palm (Livistona Chinensis).
The ceremony was graced by the owner representative of Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels, Mark Brannigan, auditors from the Swiss Association for Quality and Management Systems and the Director of Special Projects, Thomas Bastian who were then in Singapore to facilitate the process of the ISO audit and achieving sustainability for the Swissôtel properties in Singapore.
In fact, since the hotel’s opening, it has been a tradition for each General Manager at Swissôtel Merchant Court to plant a tree at the courtyard.
“Tree planting may be a small effort on our part to save the environment. However, it signifies our commitment to achieve overall sustainability to the environment, our customers, team members and the community”, said Rainer Tenius.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
