Urban hotels and island resorts embrace farming – and redefine guest experiences – as they work towards a more sustainable brand of hospitality.
Today, the hospitality sector is integrating on-site farming into their operations – not just to reduce their reliance on imports from abroad, but also to cater to an increasing demand for sustainably-driven stays. In land-scarce Singapore, these initiatives are especially crucial. Two hotels by PARKROYAL COLLECTIONS are doing their part to transform the way they source, prepare, and incorporate ingredients into their offerings — translating them into elevated dining experiences for their guests. Meanwhile, neighbouring countries are also engaging in green initiatives in their bid for a more sustainable path. Take for example, the island resorts in Koh Samui (Thailand) and Langkawi (Malaysia). The family-owned wellness resort of Garrya Tongsai Bay Samui has been practising sustainable efforts since the property was established in 1987. In Malaysia, The Ritz Carlton Langkawi is also doing its part with the setting up of their own herb garden and the conservation of native sea cucumbers. Traditionally, the people of Langkawi have used sea cucumbers for medicinal purposes. However over-harvesting is harming the local marine ecology. Find out how these hotels are faring in a world hit by global warming.
From Soil To Plate
PARKROYAL COLLECTION Marina Bay’s rooftop hosts one of the largest urban farms in Singapore. Simply dubbed Urban Farm, this space houses over 60 varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers.
Urban Farm’s output provides about 20 percent of the hotel’s requirements. Aside from staples commonly used in Asian cooking, such as Thai basil, chilli padi, pandan leaves, and butterfly pea flower, the farm is also home to exotic variants like the shining bush (peperomia pellucida), which is used in parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America as traditional medicine to treat conditions like high blood pressure and insomnia. Familiar herbs such as sage, mint, and rosemary are also on the list, while another section of the farm is dedicated to fruits like bananas and passionfruit.
Exemplifying the farm-to-table concept, the ingredients are used across all its dining outlets — from Peppermint to Peach Blossoms. Vegetables, including sweet potato leaves, eggplants, and Brazilian spinach are used in stir-fries and curries, while the shining bush is ideal as a subtle garnish and substitute for coriander. Edible flowers serve as pretty embellishments, adorning cocktails at Portman’s Bar and adding both visual appeal as well as a unique dash of flavours.
Taking its sustainability initiatives one step further, the hotel’s culinary team also plans menus months in advance, opting for seasonal greens so that vegetables can be grown at the Urban Farm, or sourced from locally owned suppliers that practise sustainable methodologies.
Cultivating Sustainability
As a leading green city hotel, PARKROYAL COLLECTION Pickering’s lush environs – encompassing vertical spaces, terraces, and courtyards to create a verdant, high-rise garden – are a testament to sustainable development done right. Rooftop solar panels generate clean, renewable energy, while its vast collection of plants acts as a green lung, helping to absorb heat and improve air quality around the building.
Complementing this environment-friendly approach is the hotel’s urban farm. A charming oasis of green with stunning views of the city, the space brings the hotel group’s trifecta of farm-to-table, farm-to-bar, and farm-to-spa concepts to life by reducing the hotel’s reliance on food deliveries and ensuring only the freshest ingredients are used in preparing their dishes and wellness products.
The farm hosts over 50 types of plants, including wild betel, wood sorrel, and peppermint, alongside familiar aromatics used in Asian cuisine such as kaffir lime, chilli padi, and curry leaves. While the selection may vary depending on the culinary team’s requirements, all ingredients – that are used in preparing the sustainably-sourced dishes and eco-friendly cocktails served at Lime Restaurant and Bar – are chosen for their flavours and nutritional value.
Among the most-used herbs are mint, basil, as well as stevia, a natural sweetener found in some of Lime’s exquisitely handcrafted cocktails. Try the Passion Punch – a pleasantly fruity concoction made from stevia leaves, quinine extract, butterfly pea flower, and wild passionfruit. The Mexican tarragon flower is another popular garnish, the bright yellow petals provide a pop of colour in the barramundi dish, which is available on Lime’s ala carte menu.
Beyond dining, the hotel also leverages on the rejuvenating properties of herbs in its wellness offerings at St Gregory, its in-house spa. Varieties such as lemon balm, peppermint, and rosemary are used to prepare soothing teas, and as a herb bundle on the hotel’s Sleep Ritual Tray, delivering a relaxing scent to promote better sleep.
Samui’s Green Pioneer
Garrya Tongsai Bay Samui in Thailand is one of the resorts that’s been advocating sustainable practices, and wildlife conservation for about three decades.
The late Akorn Hoontrakul, who founded the resort, the first five-star hotel in Koh Samui in 1987, strongly believed in sustainable tourism even though the term was rather unheard of in those days. After he passed away in 2002, his son Thanakorn Hoontrakul took over the business and continued on Akron’s legacy and heritage. Since late 2022, the resort has been managed by Banyan Tree group, which has since continued to support the family’s environmental awareness and green projects.
Today, Garrya Tongsai Bay Samui boasts its own organic garden, which is located about a five-minute drive away. The garden grows vegetables and herbs that are utilised in the resort’s restaurants. For instance, guests can enjoy dishes that are beautifully presented, nutritionally balanced and highly satisfying at the resort’s newly rebranded EVOL restaurant. The ingredients in these dishes are largely sourced locally while about 20 percent comes from the organic farm.
Guests who sign up for the cooking class experience held on site by the resort’s chefs will get to visit the lush garden where a wide variety of fruits, herbs and spices such as galangal, ginger, lemongrass, jackfruit, mulberry, belimbing, banana, Thai basil, kaffir lime, eggplant, chilli, watercress, mango, and rosemary, are grown.
The organic farm is also where 100 percent of food waste from the F&B outlets in the resort, along with leaves and branches that are collected from the property, are turned into compost to create organic fertiliser and extracts for natural cleaning agents.
The latter, for example, are like fruit extracts (made of kaffir lime and belimbing) that are used as a bathroom floor cleaner, and fermented bio extracts from vegetable scraps for odour elimination. Pest repellent solutions are made from tobacco and herbs, and fermented fish extracts for liquid fertiliser for flowers. They also distil citronella extract from the citronella plant grown in the garden.
Beyond that, Hirokazu Kasuya, the resort’s sustainability manager has also organised eco-friendly activities for children, as well as a joint community cleaning programme with the neighbouring hotels.
Taking Steps For Conservation
The Ritz-Carlton, Langkawi hopped on the eco bandwagon by growing herbs and vegetables at the property’s Nibong Garden, which was created by the staff during the pandemic.
The team grows plants ranging from butterfly pea flower, ulam raja, wild betel leaf and Brazilian spinach, to lemongrass, pandan leaves, curry leaves, coriander and chilli.
Guests can explore the small garden during their three-hour outdoor cooking class experience led by the hotel’s team of professional chefs. Over at the Horizon Bar, the mixologist concocts a gin-based Botanist cocktail with Cointreau and green herb syrup and lime featuring fresh herbs from the Nibong Garden too.
The culinary team also supports local farmers by sourcing ingredients like duck from a farm in Perak (used in the Chinese restaurant Hai Yan’s Peking Duck) as well as working with Langkawian fishermen for the freshest catch.
Meanwhile, sea cucumber conservation efforts by the resort are one-of-a-kind. Led by in-house marine biologist Fadzli Luqman, the sea cucumber nursery is located near the resort's private beach. During their stay, guests are invited for a hands-on experience to learn more about the sea cucumbers, prized as a delicacy in Asian cooking. They will have the chance to understand the importance of this sea animal and its role in the underwater ecosystem. Dubbed the ‘vacuums of the sea floor’, sea cucumbers help to clean the sand and improve water quality. While roaming the ocean beds, these filter feeders pass sand through their bodies to digest and filter out sediments and organisms. The resort’s guests can opt to help release the mature sea cucumber back into the sea via a kayaking session.