Eco Hotels: Marina Bay Sands

Hotels, especially large ones, have a huge impact on the environment but this Singaporean hotel is committed to achieving sustainability. The Marina Bay Sands is one of the most photographed and recognized hotels in Singapore. With beautiful and futuristic looks on the outside it’s what the hotel is doing inside that really counts. In 2014, Eco-Business announced that it was the first Southeast Asian venue to receive the ISO 20121 certification. It’s the international standard for sustainable event management with efforts to reduce carbon emissions and ensure environmental protection. Prior to that, the hotel had also been honored with the Green Mark Gold Award. This award is given to eco-friendly buildings that display exceptional efforts in reducing energy and resource consumption, improving indoor environmental quality, reducing waste and the potential environmental impact and provide clear plans on continuous improvement.

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The hotel sees up to 25,000 visitors a day in its gaming complex alone and attracts some 45 million visitors every year. One of the challenges faced by the management is how to improve sustainability within its restaurants. As a result, Marina Bay Sands partnered with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to ensure that they’re achieving sustainability standards and contributing to ocean conservation. WWF explained that Asia is the biggest consumer of seafood globally which contributes to the ongoing issue of over-fishing. Commercial fish like tuna and groupers are being threatened by detrimental practices and it not only affects the balance of aquatic life, but the livelihood of coastal communities who rely on fish.

To address this, Marina Bay Sands is switching to more sustainable sources of seafood and working on eliminating restaurant food that include endangered species. By 2020, half of its seafood dishes will be coming from certified sustainable sources. The resort has already made tremendous efforts in substituting salmon, tilapia, prawns and other seafood with more responsibly sourced varieties. In addition, the hotel also donates $1 to aquaculture farms in Malaysia for every participant that they get to sign up to their new environmental initiative, It’s Easy Meeting Green.

Marina Bay Sands has 2,560 rooms and suites, convention centers, theaters, a shopping mall, restaurants, and even a museum inside the complex. But its main attraction still remains its famous Infinity Edge Pool. The strategic placement of the pool makes it feel like you’re swimming on the top of the world and ensure that it is a truly unforgettable experience. Supported by high efficiency plumbing fixtures and a sustainable water recycling system, you don’t have to feel guilty about experiencing this luxury service.

Located in Marina Bay, which is the center of tourism in Singapore, the Sands is surrounded by a beautiful promenade with various commercial and residential buildings lining its streets. It’s home to the popular shopping mall Marina Square as well as the giant Ferris wheel, the Singapore Flyer. The world’s largest floating stage, The Float at Marina Bay, can also be found here and Coral outlines that over the years it’s hosted soccer games, concerts, live shows and various exhibitions. The Float also provides an exceptional view of Singapore’s skyline with the three towers of Marina Bay Sands taking center stage.

Marina Bay Sands is certainly raising the bar for many large-scale hotels to commit to more environmentally-friendly practices. They continue to show that luxury doesn’t always have to equate to waste and it is possible to leave a minimal footprint on the environment no matter how vast a building.

The Sands Corporation which also owns The Venetian and Palazzo in Las Vegas is a hotel brand with a 1000% commitment to sustainability. We sure hope more brands follow suit. For more on eco-friendly hotels around the world, check out Castle of the Rockies, our review of the Fairmont Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Canada.