A real estate, hospitality and philanthropic titan, Kabir Mulchandani is the storied entrepreneur behind the iconic FIVE Hotels and Resorts including celebrity favourite and Insta-famous, FIVE Palm Jumeirah, FIVE Jumeirah Village, the most reviewed hotel on Booking.com in the world and Switzerland’s ultimate dining and nightlife destination, FIVE Zurich.
As the Chairman and Founder of FIVE, Kabir discusses the ethos & sustainability commitments of FIVE while touching upon consumer trends pertaining to eco consciousness. He even emphasizes on the importance of applying a consciousness and innovation-infused framework which is focused on satisfying highest tiers of sustainability.
· How important it is for you to earn World-class accreditation and sustainability ratings for your properties?
“It is of elemental importance that we strive for the highest standards for our properties and company. Whether that’s achieving 100% LEED platinum certification for our operating hotels, receiving UL’s 3 Star SPIRE Smart Building rating (the first and only hotels in the world), or earning the highest 4 Star Plus mark from the Dubai Land Department, the point is our ratings are more than just that. They provide the inevitable validation of FIVE’s 360-degree, 365 day-a-year focus on environmental impact mitigation, resource conservation, life and property safety, connectivity, accessibility, and robust governance.
Of course, the recognitions do bear value, because our achievements unlock opportunities for our company to further accelerate sustainable development, whether in driving capital markets, industry innovation, community flourishing or consumer trends. FIVE’s sustainability commitments, and the resulting accolades, always point to something bigger than us.”
· How are you integrating sustainability with your luxury offerings?
“Consciousness and Innovation drive our approach to weaving a comprehensive sustainability into the fabric of FIVE’s luxury offerings. Compassion, responsibility, and proactivity shape our employee diversity and recreational programs, our suite of ESG policies, our health clinics, our robust corporate governance, our provision of natural amenities for guests, our curation of accessible and inclusive products – from our facilities to our menus – and of course how we engage with the community in our charitable and circular economy initiatives. Focusing on hundreds of touch points, FIVE’s consciousness of what sustainability means drives our internal and external stakeholder strategies.
Likewise, innovation forms the bedrock of our green building standards where we challenge ourselves to harmoniously implement energy and resource saving-technology while maintaining 5-star luxury comforts. This allows us to provide a top-notch experience that is optimized towards the environment and climate. Becoming the first hotels in the UAE to power 100% of our electricity through renewable energy stands as another example of how we align ourselves with future-focused strategies around sustainable innovation.
Ultimately, we believe in providing experiences for our customers that allow for a complete celebration of life. Therefore, we embrace the opportunity to maintain a luxury lifestyle and high energy entertainment ecosystem by applying a consciousness and innovation-infused framework focused on satisfying highest tiers of sustainability.”
· Have you seen any consumer trends that indicate a shift in consumer behaviour towards sustainability, eco-consciousness?
“Sustainability is rapidly growing in its recognition throughout the world. At a broad level, society’s understanding has grown exponentially in the past few years through increased education and communication. This certainly is aided by the public sector’s shift towards prioritizing sustainable development. However, the private sector continues to play a key role, particularly the collective influence of evolving individual preferences on product development. At FIVE, all our properties maintain the highest sustainability badge on Booking.com (Travel Sustainable Level 3) which has reported that guests are 73% more likely to book a hotel with sustainable practices in place. Likewise, our gourmet culinary offerings thrive from serving guests produce that are grown locally and certified to the highest sustainability standards - whether its Balfego tuna which can be traced to the boat and time or cherry tomatoes bursting with flavour and freshness due to their locality. Focusing on building channels to gauge customer feedback into our products and experiences will continue to refine our understanding of how customers think about sustainability within FIVE’s luxury and high-energy entertainment ecosystem.”
· What is the potential of ESG in the luxury, real estate and hospitality industry?
“Ultimately, Sustainable Development represents a team mission striving for the success of our planet. Accordingly, we should work together to pioneer breakthroughs that we look back on as improvements of our current society, not regressions drawn out of existential panic.
For FIVE, we interpret this by asking ourselves how we can continue satisfying consumer tastes and preferences while improving resource efficiency, innovation in materials and design, and a collaborative spirit that builds on synergies to act – be it between the public and private sector or across industries.
If you take, for example, FIVE’s ultra luxury and high-octane entertainment properties and consider our ability to certify all our hotels to LEED Platinum– that itself provides one example of what I am talking about. The entire US maintains 2050 LEED Platinum rooms as of 2022, and we now hold 1,350. So, there needs to be more adoption of our mindset and values to scale what is not only possible but already achieved by FIVE. This requires a consciousness to care about environmental impact mitigation, a commitment to challenging ourselves technically, and a collaborative spirit that relies on every team member to play their part.”
