Opinion Five star greenery

Can anybody imagine sitting in an outdoor restaurant during the day in the searing heat of Chennai,Mumbai or Delhi? Bangalore is a city increasingly speckled with monstrous buildings,all shiny chrome and glass. Many of these buildings house much evolved,world-class companies but their architecture has no eco-sensibility whatsoever. Contrastingly,the Royal Gardenia abuts a spectacular city lung space,the thickly wooded Cubbon Park,with its shady,flowering trees and lush grass. The hotel’s architecture has been conceived as a building set in a garden.

In a city where hundred-year old trees are being felled to make way for the metro or wide roads and where old buildings are making way for shiny apartment complexes and malls,the hotel is revivalist. Nakul Anand,an old ITC Bangalore hand and now the head of ITC’s Hotel Division,says the hotel’s challenge was to bring Bangalore back to Bangalore.

There are many green elements inside Royal Gardenia,too. The wind-cooled atrium lobby is suffused with natural light. Vertical hanging gardens span its sides. The walled gardens are novel and serve to be both maintenance-friendly and water conserving. A special glazing helps keep the natural light in while keeping the heat out. The multi-column Lotus Pavilion stands amidst lush gardens and water bodies,all fed with re-cycled water. “Grey” as well as “black” water from the rooms is treated and used for toilet flushing,air-conditioning,gardening and the fountains. The hotel even generates surplus re-cycled water.

In the garden outside,full grown trees were saved by replanting in soil stabilised with grouted nails. When it comes to maintaining and running the hotel,Royal Gardenia’s green score edges up further. The hotel’s water and solid waste discharges are close to zero. CO2 sensors are extensively used to manage the air-conditioning and ventilation. Green crockery produced with low-energy consuming technology is used at the restaurants. No electro-plated or coated ware is used in the kitchens. The wood and the carpeting used in the hotel are made of eco-friendly fibres. Room cleaning products are 100 per cent bio-degradable. The guest stationery in the rooms is made from 100 per cent recycled waste paper. Toiletries contain organic ingredients and natural spring water. Guests are provided with an organic “green robe”.

The Royal Gardenia’s green-ness has its share of shortcomings. For instance,the water in the swimming pool is chlorinated. Not many re-cycled materials have gone into building the hotel. The bed linen and sheets are not organic. But,the hotel claims,guests staying in its 292 rooms will leave lesser carbon footprints compared to any other hotel this size.

Granted,“luxury” hotels and eco-friendliness don’t really go hand-in-hand. Who can stay in a swank hotel,eat exotic food and imported spirits,and lie in cozy bed in a climate-controlled room and get a night’s sleep with a clear conscience? Yet,a beginning has to be made and Royal Gardenia is indeed a good beginning.

saritha.rai@expressindia.com