What goes into the designing and planning of some of the most environmentally friendly and tastefully designed villas in the region? Passionate hotelier and Alila’s Managing Director Frederic Simon chats with FuturArc Managing Editor Candice Lim, and shares his thoughts on what it means to be Green for Alila properties, and then some.

CL: How much management discretion do you have in terms of hiring firms such as WOHA and SCDA to achieve a particular (Green design) outcome of a property?

FS: In terms of Alila Villas, we are very cautious with the owners in terms of the capacity to bring in outside architects; we only work with architects whom we fully trust and who understand the vision of Alila Villas in terms of the space planning etc. Most of the time we recommend SCDA and WOHA, although we also keep an open mind to other great architects. We go through a controlled review process with the owners to ensure that the architect understands the vision. It’s not just about hiring famous or award-winning architects or how talented the architect is—obviously we need to work with talented architects to help us realise our vision—but it’s also about understanding the environmental values of Alila. This means adapting to the site; having a very strong environmental sense of destination; reducing the environmental impact; having the best site utilisation in order to create an overall atmosphere which is linked to the environment, linked to the destination, and linked to the community, while being as Green as possible.

We found out that today there is a growing sense of environmental management with all the architects we are working with. When we first approach the owners, we explain very clearly what the environmental policies are. When we develop the first concept there is always an environmental vision attached to that concept, and we found that so far this has always been exceedingly well received and so it hasn’t been a hard sell in a lot of ways. All of the partners we work with have always had that inside of them and they really want to protect the site, and most of the time, by reading and looking at our concept and understanding the concept better when we present it to them, we feel that we are often just verbalising what they are already thinking. And when we give it to the architects, we feel that nearly all of them take the brief positively.

CL: How much of the design concept is your own personal vision?

FS: Any project is a collaborative process and it is very important for a successful project first and foremost to have a very aligned vision. If you look at Alila, most of our projects are white field projects and most of the developers have already worked with us before. And if there are new ones, many of them approach us through referrals because they feel how we design and operate our property are aligned with what they want to do. So they are coming in with a very similar vision with what our properties already stand for. For white field projects, the site basically inspires you; we don’t think that a property has to be a certain way. It’s more about being able to understand the destination—the root of the destination and what the destination stands for. We also need to understand the market potential of a destination. From these two elements there would emerge a kind of a creative concept, an initial concept for us to envision what the guest experience should be, and to ensure that the guest experience is adapted to the market and the site, and obviously to the environment. The environmental part is overriding because the overall atmosphere we want to create needs to be respectful of the environment.

That is translated into a concept and that concept has an environmental content, a very detailed one particularly at the early stages—looking at maximising the site in terms of exposure and understanding the key that would create a certain impact on the environment—and being able to translate that into a brief with detailed environmental concerns that is then given to the architect who goes on to express that brief into a conceptual architectural plan, which is then reviewed. During the review, we look at the environmental checklist to ensure that from design process to material selection, we create the least impact on the environment.

CL: What does managing an environmentally conscious property mean to you on a personal level?

FS: Today you would have to be completely blind to not be conscious of the environment. When you visit a beautiful site or destination, you would have to admire what nature has given. When you start building you know there’s going to be an impact. What’s important to me is that whatever you do, it should have the least potential impact on the site. Whatever project I personally get involved with I want to be proud that this project is a good showcase of both how it’s been designed and built in preserving the environment as well as how it’s been operated to ensure that there are very strict guidelines of how the property is being environmentally managed.

And personally, I am more a believer of the ‘environ’ rather than the environment. The ‘environ’ for me encompasses both how well you take care of the physical setting, i.e., the environment—the earth, what nature has given, waste management, how not to pollute the surroundings etc.—and also the community part, which is the social aspect—how well your property benefits and continues to enhance in a very humble way the team, because most of our team members originate from where we are building our hotels. Most of them have years of tradition and culture and how well our hotels help express their culture through employment opportunities etc., and how their culture continues to evolve so as to bring a positive impact to the properties by their involvement.

I see a hotel as a catalyst between different cultures, and if it is done well, it opens up the minds of the guests, upon discovering the culture, and it also opens up the minds of the employees, and I think that is beneficial and it helps preserve and enhance the cultural aspects of the destination. Sometimes people say the Alila interpretation of a destination is contemporary, and it’s true that we have quite a contemporary approach to design, but while it might be so it is done with people who have done immense studies to understand the culture and letting it evolve. Our properties in Bali have received, of which I am particularly proud of, what they call the Tri Hita Karana. It means the three-party relationship between man and man; man and God; and man and nature. The Balinese community evaluates different properties and decides which ones they feel are in accordance with this overall theme. Alila Ubud and Alila Manggis have been very well scored, and that to me brings a lot of personal satisfaction because it shows that if your own community realises the work that you do is benefitting their own community, that’s the best ‘award’ you can get.

To be frank, I won’t be able to work for or manage any company that doesn’t make environmental consciousness a top priority; I wouldn’t feel well. We can always do better; it’s a continuous learning process. There are a lot of new environmental solutions, there is a lot of understanding of what proper environmental management is—it’s an evolving discipline, and I think we have a lot to learn. And I personally still have a lot to learn. But it is one of my fundamental values; I won’t be able to operate without it.

When Alila first came to being, did we have as articulated a vision as we have now about environmental policy? No. Was it ingrained into all of us? All of our partners are either from Asia or have lived for a long time in Asia. All of us know for a fact that we cannot create or develop a new management company without having a clear system or policy of management. For the past few years we have done a lot of research and looked at different options and worked with a lot of partners, we were the first hotel company in Bali to push for the Green Globe accreditation. And now it has become a benchmark in Bali—a lot more hotels have also followed suit.

CL: Alila’s environmentally conscious programmes and efforts for its properties have been highly commended, e.g., Green Globe certification. In recent years, more and more luxury brands have also taken similar steps to go Green. In your opinion, how much of this is jumping on the Green wagon, so to speak, for the sake of corporate branding? What does a company yield for going Green?

FS: One cannot misguide their consumers for long. The building of a brand takes place at two levels. The first level is the actual soul of the brand. The second level is the technical know-how of a brand. One cannot have a successful brand unless that soul is clearly defined and the consumer understands that soul, and also, the right know-how to implement it. We have to look at the overall awareness of environmental consciousness as a good thing. We have the chance to lead the generation to turn around and say we were the guys to influence everything that’s happening—we’ve got to be careful, take concrete action and protect Mother Earth because she won’t last forever unless we do something. The fact that Green has become the colour of the year, obviously there’s a lot of marketing angles in this, although there’s still a lot of grey in what proper environmental management is. There’s going to be revolution in the coming years, which is a good thing. The great thing is that the environment is becoming a marketing ‘tool’ that is needed—it means the consumer wants it and is becoming better informed. They are becoming more and more inquisitive about it.

I am not judging any brand because to be frank, whatever they do to improve its environment, whether it is enough or not, at least they are making their staff aware of the issue and taking concrete action, is a positive thing. If a brand wants to sustain using the environment as a marketing angle, there’s going to come a point where certain brands have to go beyond lip service because the consumers will realise it and they will lose brand loyalty if they cannot sustain it. I foresee a growing percentage of our generation making decisions based on whether they want to be associated with the brand that has the right environmental vision and who really implements it. I see future generations becoming excessively demanding on companies to do that. It’s important for companies today to incorporate that as a core value of what they stand for, and to do so in an intelligent way that benefits everything—the environment and the community.

This feature was originally written by Candice Lim for the 4^th quarter issue of FuturArc.