Located in the bustling and densely populated city of Mumbai, the financial and commercial capital of India is the Kamat group of hotels. The group is an old and established organization which has its roots in a chain of restaurants popularly called 'udipis'   which are located in various parts of the country. The group has now expanded and has restaurants in many international locations like Japan, Singapore, Belgium, the UK and the USA. The ethos of the group has always been to provide to its patrons the best quality food at the most affordable prices. Over the years the group has branched out into the hospitality industry and today operates two eco friendly hotels which are located close to the new business districts of Mumbai.

The Orchid Hotel  and The Lotus Suites  are the group's two hotels in Mumbai that  are aligned closely with the group's mission statement  which states that they are committed to enhancing the guest experience while setting a new standard of environmental responsibility by conserving valuable natural resources and educating, enlightening and motivating their staff and cultivating valuable community relationships.

The group's flagship hotel, The Orchid which is Asia's first certified eco-friendly five star hotels is located adjacent to the domestic airport in an area of Mumbai called Vile Parle This 245 room hotel has been constructed with great care and thought for the environment. The earth friendly efforts of the Kamat group have been well documented and  recognized by a number of international environmental organizations which have conferred a slew of awards  on the group for their numerous eco friendly endeavors .

The Kamat group operates the customer loyalty program at their various hotel properties called the Orchid Evergreen Club. Customers earn points for all their eligible spends at the hotels. Once they earn a sufficient number of points they can use the points for rewards like a holiday package or they can donate the points that they earn to a Green Account. This Green Account funds the various eco friendly causes that are supported by the Orchid Hotel like beach clean ups at various beaches around Mumbai.

Orchid Eco construction and Operational activities

Enviroconstruction

• The building that houses the Orchid Hotel was built with great attention to detail and adheres easily to the environmental ethos followed by the Kamat group. The hotel was designed in a way that 72 of its 245 rooms would face the central atrium. These rooms are thus not directly exposed to year round sultry heat of Mumbai and hence do not need to be constantly cooled by the air conditioning unit.
  
•  This central Atrium also has been designed with a natural skylight and sports double layered domes that help reduce the heat and the noise pollution yet allow adequate natural light to filer through.
  
• The swimming pool of the hotel is located on the roof top of the hotel. This four feet deep water body acts as a natural insulation from the constant heat which is characteristic of the hot and humid weather of Mumbai.
   
• The structure of the hotel was built using environmentally friendly concrete and its internal walls are made of QED panels which are made from fertilizer waste rather than red bricks. Red bricks  are made by excavating the topsoil of the earth and in using walls made of fertilizer waste, the hotel has avoided contributing to the erosion of the top soil. These wall panels are durable and do not need to be cured and plastered repeatedly. 

Water Conservation at The Orchid

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• The hotel strongly follows the three 'R' policy of reduce, reuse and recycle and makes a concentrated effort to conserve its water consumption.
  
• The hotel has installed aerators in all the taps in guest bathrooms and in the kitchens. These aerators increase the water force and reduce outflow and thus save water.
  
• The cisterns and flushes used in its bathrooms are also designed with the aim of reducing wastage of water and thus conserve valuable water resources.
  
•  Wastewater produced by the hotels activities is treated and reused in the air conditioning plants and gardening activities of the hotel.
  
• The hotel has installed a drinking water treatment solution called Aquazone which uses ozone to purify its water rather chlorine as is used elsewhere. Ozone reduces to oxygen and is a relatively eco friendly way to treat water.

Interiors

• The interiors of the hotel have been constructed using rubber wood. All the rubber produced in the world is derived from latex which is sourced from rubber trees. When these rubber trees are fully grown and mature they no longer produce latex and hence they lose their value and are often destroyed. Rubber wood is then derived from these rubber trees and is treated with chemicals that preserve timber so that it can be used for interiors rather than be destroyed.
  
•  The designers who conceived the interiors of the hotel also used Medium Density Fiber Wood which is derived from treated waste stalks of the cotton plant for various interiors of the hotel.
  
• The specialty restaurant of the hotel the Vindhyas has been created using woodwork that has been recycled from old buildings.
  
• The Hotel rooms are all equipped with triple glazed windows which block out the searing heat of the sun and thus help to reduce air conditioning costs. These windows also prevent fabric and furniture colors from fading by blocking the UV rays of the sun. These windows  effectively block the noise pollution from one of India's busiest airports which is located in the vicinity of the hotel. 

Electricals

• The Hotel is equipped with energy efficient PL lamps which provide as much light as an incandescent bulb but consume less power than an ordinary bulb. The lights of a room also come on only with insertion of your key card in the slot and there is no chance of the lights being left on when you leave the room.
• The mini bars located in the rooms are equipped with a system called "fuzzy logic" which senses the load in the CFC free refrigerator and cools the load accordingly.
  
• The hotel's air-conditioning system has an STL tank attached to it which stores cold energy with in it during off peak hours. This stored energy is then used during peak hours and helps to reduce the load of the compressor and reduce the consumption of power. The heat generated from the air conditioners is also used to heat the water for guestrooms and the other areas of the hotel.
  
• The boiler of the hotel is also equipped with air scrubbers which clean the air which is released by the operational activities of the hotel. These air scrubbers help to dissolve the carbon dioxide which is contained in these fumes by spraying water. The water used in the air scrubber of the boiler is recycled water that is obtained from the hotel's sewage treatment plant. Similar air washers are used in the kitchen of the hotel.
  
• The control panel in each of the guest's rooms is equipped with a unique feature which is known as the green button. When you press the green button the thermostat of the air conditioning unit is stepped up by 2 degrees and the saving of electricity from this action is translated into rupee terms and is displayed on the guest's profile. The guest is then awarded a certificate for having taken part in the hotels green effort. In this way the Orchid hotel involves its guests in its efforts to save the environment

Operational Activities

The entire hotel's staff is involved in its green endeavors and there are a number of initiatives which are organized by the hotel's 19 member Green Team to involve and educate the staff about the management's green ethos. This green ethos is reflected in various operational activities of the hotel as well. Some of these eco friendly operational activities are as follows:-

• The Hotel has introduced an Interactive TV system where guest's messages are displayed and room service orders are placed and bills are also posted so as to cut down the unnecessary use of paper.
  
• The hotel also composts all its garbage and makes use of vermiculture  in order to achieve its r zero garbage goals.
  
• Hangers used in guest's rooms are fashioned out of sawdust while fruit baskets are replenished only on request in order to avoid unnecessary wastage.
  
• Guest amenities like news papers are delivered in eco friendly jute bags and laundry is also collected in reusable cloth bags.
  
•  Toiletries which are supplied in guest bathrooms are all Ayurveda certified products which are not tested on animals. The containers containing toiletries and products like tissue paper and cotton balls are also all fashioned out of medium density fiber wood instead of acrylic and pens and stationary supplied in the guest rooms are also fashioned out of used cardboard, reprocessed plastic and scrap wood.
  
• Guests are also given useful environmentally friendly cloth shopping bags to take on their shopping expeditions and are also given fashionable stylish slippers fashioned out of natural reed for their use during their stay at the hotel.

Eco friendly ethos extends to suppliers and community

• The suppliers of the hotel are all briefed about the hotel's eco friendly policy before they are placed on the panel of suppliers to the hotel. The hotel and its suppliers work together in this endeavor for a greener planet and they have together reduced packaging by nearly 48%. The hotel has also constituted an annual award for its 'Best Partner for Eco-friendly products' as a way to encourage its suppliers to follow earth friendly practices.
   
• The hotel in 2002 also setup an organization called the Orchid ALM trust. The trust's main objective is to create a cleaner and greener city in which the hotel is located. The trust aims to create environmental consciousness among its citizens and also seeks to motivate them to partner with local governing bodies in order to make the city a better place to live in. The trust has helped to set up Advance Locality Management bodies in various parts of the city of Mumbai.
   
• Anti plastic bag campaign.-The hotel also actively supports the Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation's ban on plastic bags. To support this cause in 2002, the hotel launched a competition in 250 schools of Mumbai, where children were encouraged to collect old plastic bags from their homes and neighborhoods and in exchange the hotel would give them reusable earth friendly cloth bags. The school that collected the highest average number of bags per child was invited to the hotel for dinner. This campaign was a  resounding success.
  
  These are just some of the comprehensive efforts made to conserve the environment that are undertaken at Mumbai's Orchid Hotel. These efforts are duplicated at the groups newest property also located in Mumbai and called the Lotus Suites.

 Images of the Kamat hotels and vermiculture originally posted on http://www.flickr.com by shaletan,gopalratham,premshreepillai.