{"id":4537,"date":"2020-03-31T05:54:57","date_gmt":"2020-03-31T05:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.secret-retreats.com\/blog\/?p=4537"},"modified":"2022-08-21T21:40:46","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T21:40:46","slug":"how-to-run-a-sustainable-hotel-in-the-himalayas-and-how-not-to-waste-a-good-crisis-marcus-cotton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.secret-retreats.com\/blog\/general-info\/how-to-run-a-sustainable-hotel-in-the-himalayas-and-how-not-to-waste-a-good-crisis-marcus-cotton.html","title":{"rendered":"How to Run a Sustainable Hotel in the Himalayas and How Not to Waste a Good Crisis | Marcus Cotton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How do you ensure the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of an ecolodge<\/strong> nestled high up in the Himalayas? What are the challenges involved in running an eco-friendly lodge and how to resolve them using locally viable solutions? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marcus Cotton<\/em><\/strong>, co-owner of the Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge<\/a><\/strong> in this interview illustrates what it takes to build a thriving hospitality business with a focus on local community well-being and environmental protection. He shares practical insights about hiring locals, social development initiatives, welfare activities and creative approaches towards achieving sustainability. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The professional training and\neconomic opportunities provided to people from surrounding Nepali villages are\na testament to his commitment to the empowerment of the locals.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Marcus, Tiger Mountain Pokhara Lodge<\/a> in Nepal is widely praised as a real treat for environmentally conscious, discerning travellers, and a worthy example for other accommodation providers to follow. What makes the lodge so unique and successful in offering sustainable, authentic experiences?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think we have several advantages. First, our location; with such an awe-inspiring Himalayan panorama, all (our guests and staff, we all gather to take the same pictures!) are uplifted on a clear morning by the sight of the snow peaks. Like Switzerland\u2019s iconic Matterhorn, we have Machhapuchhare (Fishtail) framed right in our main doorway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coupled to that are our small size (only\n18 rooms) and our almost zero staff turnover (all except of one have been with\nus for over 10 years and most of them from the start, 22 years ago). After all,\nit is that amazing team of dedicated staff that actually realize and implement\nour sustainability and authenticity. Add to that a wonderful heritage from\nTiger Tops (Tiger<\/em>) and Mountain Travel Nepal (Mountain<\/em>) pioneers since\nthe mid-60s in conservation tourism and our \u2018founding fathers.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authenticity is, like ecotourism, such a right word but has become so over-used as to be devalued. This is a shame as there is an authenticity \u2013 we sum it up in the concept that, even if we had no guests, we would do things just the same \u2013 this is who we are. Heritage and continuity are vital, as the processes of being sustainable and being original or authentic take time to evolve and mature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, superficial\nthings like zero-plastic can be implemented rapidly, but the deeper psychology\nand ethos can only evolve over time. I think also, we dare to be a bit\ndifferent, and do not follow standard tourism\/hotel patterns, structures, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do you put so much focus on\nsustainability at Tiger Mountain Lodge?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because it is\nright!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, and all the team, sustainability\nis non-negotiable. If one is in a business for the long term, then\nsustainability is an inherent part of your strategy and corporate DNA. Well, if\nit is not, you are not going to be sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like the various\naide-m\u00e9moires around, be it People \/ Planet \/ Profit or The Long Run\u2019s 4 Cs:\nCommunity, Conservation, Commerce and Culture \u2013 these provide focus and a\nframework to guide decisions and visions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inspiration\ncame from my youth in England, seeing a village flora prepared by my mother in\nthe Second World War when evacuated to stay with friends in rural\nBuckinghamshire and one summer holiday I tried to replicate this at our home\nonly a few miles away \u2013 and could only find half the flower species. Some\nfifteen years later, repeating the exercise floral diversity had fallen a\nfurther 50%. This shock, coupled with the drive for agriculture on an\nextractive and for-the-subsidies approach, struck me as inherently wrong and a\ndangerously short-term approach. Time and events appear to have proved me right\nand the world has woken to the global environmental threats we face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leap forward to\nthe late 1990s when I had the immense privilege to live and work inside the\nthen-named Royal Chitwan National Park, heading up the incomparable staff team\nat Tiger Tops. There I saw, from the inside, the amazing diversity, richness\nand unutterable beauty of the subcontinent\u2019s wet sub-tropical jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being able to\nsupport the Department of National Parks and Nepal Army in their protection of\nthis global asset, while, concurrently, providing livelihoods and social\nsupport for communities surrounding the park was an amazing and deeply\nfulfilling challenge. As was meeting so many \u2018big names\u2019 in conservation and\nrelated fields and sharing experience, ideas and concepts. Having the wonderful\nDr. Charles (Chuck) McDougal as a mentor, guide and incomparable tiger\nconservationist iconoclast living at the lodge was the icing on the cake. No\none could have a wiser, kinder or more mischievously funny guru.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moving to Tiger\nMountain in 2001 provided me with another challenge \u2013 after all, being\nsustainable inside a premier national park is relatively easy, the regulations\nare all on your side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doing true sustainability outside a park\nand in a community with diverse and different aspirations was a whole new focus\nfor me and also for the lodge staff. Many of whom are from the local village.\nIt required a re-focussing that took some time and a slowing up to accept that\nthings taken for granted are not always the same for different communities.\nWritten differently \u2013 don\u2019t go like a bull at a gate!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which aspects of running the ecolodge sustainably do you find the most challenging?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A hard question to\nanswer, perhaps because the staff at Tiger Mountain are so enthusiastic and\nsupportive that it is quite easy!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For tangible\nissues, it can be difficult in the supply of suitable products \u2013 for example,\nthere are no effective eco-detergents for hotel laundry in Nepal. I tried to\nimport a leading European brand, but the hurdles proved insurmountable, before\nconsidering the cargo miles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Swiss winemakers support\na vineyard in Nepal, but they still have a way to go before we can confidently\noffer their product!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the\nintangible elements that are the challenge and can be complex\u2026 building the\npsyche of the staff to think sustainable, to be sustainable and to enthuse\nabout sustainability was perhaps the biggest challenge\u2026that subtle move from\nhead to both head and heart, as it were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you overcome those\nchallenges?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the supply\nissues, we just have to work around them \u2013 surface cleaner made from vinegar\ninfused with local orange peels being one example: kills the bugs, smells\nlovely and natural, uses local raw materials, provides local commerce, easy to\nproduce in our kitchen too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the\nintangible, I think it is persistence, reminding, learning together and growing\ntogether as a team. Inevitably there is an element of 20:20 vision with\nhindsight, so I can look back and see where we were; where we are, and how we came\nto be here \u2013 well, that\u2019s more complex as I know we are here, but I am not\nentirely sure how it happened! It did, it works, and we must have overcome the\nodd hurdle en route: leaped over, dodged around or flattened the hurdle?\nProbably a bit of all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to my answer\nto your first question \u2013 having a great staff team is key. Also, having\nsupportive guests who can see that one does not have to wear a hair-shirt to be\nsustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To your mind, which are the\nmain benefits of putting sustainability at the core of a hotel\u2019s business\nstrategy? <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A brutal focus on\nmoney to start! At Tiger Tops we were able to double operating (or gross)\nprofit just by being more sustainable in our stores and supplies: moving from\nexpensive imported canned goods to local fresh products, profit and pleasure\nfor our guests. Having a python voluntarily in the kitchen proved an\ninteresting and effective way to control pests too!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustainability tends to incur some capital\ncosts \u2013 for example to offset the use of LPG in our staff kitchens meant\nconstructing a bio-gas digester. So we had to work hard to earn the profits to\nallow us to invest. This will pay dividends environmentally and financially in\nthe years ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, we need\nto invest in special cylinders to be able to buy commercial CNG from a local\nsupplier, Gandaki Urja, that has just started production; CNG does not liquefy\nat relatively low pressures like LPG. Once we can afford this, we will offset\nor replace our guest kitchen LPG with locally harvested CNG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emotionally, knowing\nyou are doing what you believe deeply to be right, drives confidence throughout\nthe organisation and this has its own rewards across all aspects of the\nbusiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sustainability, or\n\u201cresponsible conservation tourism\u201d as I like to define it, has received an\nenormous global boost from the likes of Sir David Attenborough and Greta\nThunberg, as thought and activist leaders who have tapped effectively into\nmankind\u2019s deep unease with the state of the earth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, being sustainable is something our\nguests (and thus our paymasters) are increasingly seeing as the sine qua non<\/em>, a must-have of a\nbusiness.  This is no longer a niche element of tourism and as today\u2019s\nchallenges play out, it will move even closer to centre-stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you monitor\nsustainability at Tiger Mountain?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We both verify\n(audit against our own policy) and certify (audit against someone else\u2019s\nstandard). However, we do have difficulties with certification as it always\ntends to be a one-size-fits-all approach and takes little or no account of\nlocal diversities and ground realities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, we prefer independent verification which we do through Yardstick UK. This is a small enterprise founded by Jenefer Bobbin who did her postgraduate studies in Responsible Tourism at Leeds Metropolitan University under Professor Harold Goodwin. She came to work alongside us to develop a verification scheme primarily to counter greenwashing. We have continued with her to evolve this to a wider model \u2013 the process is ongoing \u2013 and we hope shortly to be able to integrate our sustainability actions with the relevant Sustainable Development Goals for the tourism business. With this we will lead on, I hope, to working towards carbon neutrality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For certification we currently use Travellife, an EU-based GSTC affiliate, achieving Gold standard in 2017 and we currently are awaiting the result of our recent audit, late last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge for certification agencies\nis to come up with a scheme that takes account of locale, locality, and humanity\nand does not try to shoe-horn everyone into a single box. I believe this is\npossible but requires a greater focus on the auditor\u2019s discretion and local\nunderstanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel monitoring\nand knowing the facts of your performance is essential \u2013 for that all-important\nreality-check (pilots are taught early on to rely on their instruments, not\ntheir instincts), to justify and back up any claims made; to share with all the\nstaff and stakeholders to show what you are doing, what you intend, where you\nwant to go and how you hope to get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also an\nexcellent means of promoting and marketing the property and business, and a way\nto raise awareness and consciousness about sustainability in both tourism as an\nindustry and as individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A fellow lodge operator once asked me\nabout monitoring and what was the purpose. My answer was, whatever you want it\nto be. You can use it just for self-satisfaction and validation, for marketing,\nfor developing community support fundraising, all sorts of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current coronavirus\npandemic has been hitting tourism and travel business hard these past weeks.\nHow does it affect your business?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The current\npandemic has an inevitable and significant impact on our business, being in the\nheart of the tourism sector. However, long experience in Nepal shows me you\nalways have something going on! Political upheavals in 1990, 2006; Maoist\nInsurgency from 1996-2006; Earthquake 2015, etc\u2026!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sustainable and\nresponsible business has to manage these issues. I see everyone screaming for\ngovernment bail-outs (how is the government to pay for medicines, protective\ngear, etc., if we all have tax holidays?). What about shareholder bail-outs?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To me, the shareholders are responsible\nfor their businesses and must retain reserves and provide capital to cover\nthese issues, like now the coronavirus pandemic. Their genesis and specifics\nare largely irrelevant \u2013 we know there will be something and therefore the\nbusiness must be geared to covering whatever adverse issue arises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We all have an\nabsolute duty to our staff to support them in their careers \u2013 when the going is\ngood we hear much of this from business leaders\u2026..who go strangely quiet when\nheadwinds arise! It is not good enough to put out mealy-mouthed announcements\nthat \u2018protection and safety of our staff is paramount\u2019 while issuing forced\nredundancy notices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Tiger Mountain, we have \u2018been here\nbefore\u2019 and we will work our way through the current crisis. An absence of\nguests does not mean a shutdown of the ongoing show \u2013 there are many opportunities\nto handle matters we are often too busy to address \u2013 wider training options,\nincreased community liaison and idea-sharing, initiation of new conservation\nprojects, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apart from the many challenges\nthat COVID-19 poses, do you think this crisis also presents an opportunity? How\ncan we make the best out of it?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolutely, this epidemic has provided a perfect pause to review issues such as overtourism. It gives us time to explore better ways of doing things, gentler ways of diversifying tourism and a chance to promote sustainability in its widest remit to the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a golden\nmoment to listen \u2013 to our staff, our communities, our stakeholders and to see\nhow we can do better, how we can enhance our linkages, increase our beneficial\nimpacts and mitigate negative ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commercially, we\ncan explore different, alternative and diverse source markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine you are at a conference\nand someone approaches you who is just about to start with a lodge similar to\nTiger Mountain. What advice would you share, in terms of how to get started,\nand pitfalls to avoid?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I will share a\nstory about a gentleman that visited Tiger Mountain to talk about building a\nlodge on his land some 60 minutes away. Douglas and I had a long chat about\ntourism and wandered around the lodge grounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My concluding advice was, above all else,\none must get the environmental aspects right from the very start.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are things\nI\u2019d have loved to incorporate into the lodge design that were not and cannot\neasily be retrofitted. This, I am thrilled to say, he has done and way above\nanything I had imagined; he has set the bar high for small lodges in Nepal.\nBeyond that, it is essential to take time \u2013 as long as it takes \u2013 to listen to\nthe local community, understand their expectations, fears, desires, and\naspirations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far too many times\ntourism rides roughshod over local stakeholders or pays lip-service only to\nstakeholder concerns. This is perhaps tourism\u2019s Achilles-heel and an aspect\nthat needs far more focus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, be\nyourself, be your project, don\u2019t mimic others. I am still trying to understand\nwhat that ridiculous coloured runner 2\/3 way down the bed in most hotels is for!\nTo me, it serves only to show that the owners\/managers lack vision and are\ncopying\u2026 \u2018because that\u2019s what hotels do.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thank you, sustainability-leaders.com<\/a> and Mr.Marcus Cotton for this inspiring article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How do you ensure the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of an ecolodge nestled high up in the Himalayas? 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