A socially responsible Hotel
At Mulberry Boutique Hotel, we are constantly looking for ways to reduce our Environmental Impact, particularly since Cambodia is still a developing country, with limited recycling and waste disposal facilities. This is why a full sustainability and environmentally-conscious process is implemented at all levels of Hotel operations.
The most noticeable actions we take are detailed below. Reducing our waste and making our Hotel more sustainable is also a process that we think about on a daily basis.
“Any small effort can have such a big impact when repeated 365 days a year”
No single-use plastics
We do not use any single use plastics at Mulberry at all; bamboo straws for drinks, locally made tressed leaf boxes for take-away breakfasts, tote bags are handed for guests and staffs to avoid use of plastic bags. The few plastic bags we receive from suppliers are handed to Rehash Trash for up cycling.
We banned the plastic bottles in the Hotel; we do not sell any plastic bottles at the Restaurant/Lounge Bar, and we are fully participating in the Refill not Landfill initiative in order to reduce plastic bottles usage in tourism industry:
We provide the REFILL NOT LANDFILL aluminum canisters to all of our guests for free. The clients can also bring them back home after their stay. Our Hotel is also a refill station for anyone that wants to refill his bottle with water.
We are also committed to not use single-use plastic bathroom amenities; we do have our own brand for it, check our MULBERRY ESSENTIALS page for all details.
All the products are reusable, 100% biodegradable and sourced in Siem Reap Province exclusively.
We also have a Guest Laundry Service directly at the Hotel where we avoid the use of chemicals and plastic wraps for the guests. All the clothes from the guests are packed in reusable cotton bags.
Locally produced, locally farmed
At our Restaurant, vegetables of all sorts, herbs, fruits and spices are coming from local organic farming whenever it’s possible. We do use the services of Happy Co + Farm and other organic farms.
Our in-room coffee blend is also sourced in Siem Reap Province exclusively. The tea leafs are dried and homemade directly at Mulberry Boutique Hotel. All in-room amenities are then packed 100% plastic free.
Waste recycling
Our most noticeable partner for this is a social enterprise named Naga Earth. They do collect our cooking oil in order to make afterwards clean bio-diesel, soap, shampoo, cleaning products etc… We use all of their cleaning products + the clean bio-diesel in our Minivan and the Emergency Electric Generator.
In addition to that, we also give away our food waste from the Restaurant to local pig farms and we compost ourselves all organic waste at the Hotel (lotus flowers, vegetable crops etc).
Trained staff = happy staff = happy guests
All of our Team is composed of Khmer nationals, to whom we provide above-the-average salary wages, a fair service charge and a security in terms of Employment, in addition to a public and private Healthcare insurance. They participated in several educational programs, and also noticeably they all participate in the workshops from Plastic-Free South East Asia since we believe the best way to be an Environmentally-conscious Hotel as possible is to work towards it together by having the whole team fully informed and implicated.
Non-excessive Room cleaning, organic fluids only
When checking-in at the Mulberry Boutique Hotel, you will be informed that our Housekeeping observe certain codes when it is about cleaning your room. All linens and towels won’t be washed every day but upon request or at the end of their stay or every 4 days, unless you request it to our Team.
All cleaning products come either from Naga Earth or from Botanik Essence, this to make sure we avoid using the usual chemical detergents.
Our Environment
The team at Mulberry Boutique Hotel is also actively putting their efforts towards a greener and cleaner Cambodia.
Our staff is cleaning our neighborhood on a daily basis and the riverside of Siem Reap frequently, helped with like minded Hotel partners in town. We consider it simple corporate social responsibility and we do believe in raising awareness and that it’s our responsibility to educate the wider Khmer population by explaining them, exchanging with them.
Our Hotel is also doing several tree plantings in the city
We started to do this around 8 months ago and already planted about 60 trees in Siem Reap: in our neighborhood, in schools, on the Siem Reap riverside, in private lands. Pretty much whenever we are allowed to plant, providing shade, less dust and in the aim to make the urban areas of Siem Reap cooler. Most of the trees are paid through the Hotel’s revenue, creating jobs for Khmers in the tree nurseries.
All of our guests are also informed about it and asked if they want to participate in the plantings. We are sincerely hoping to continue this project for several years.
#greensiemreap #cleansiemreap
You can find more about Mulberry Boutique Hotel in the following articles:
Discover Magazine/Globe South East Asia – see pdf – read article
Travel Blog Expedia – read article
Kroma Magazine (Japanese publication) – read article
Clean Green Cambodia – read article
Medium – read article
Cambodge Mag – read article