City of Dreams Manila goes above and beyond for sustainability

City of Dreams Manila has a strong belief that a sustainable future is a better future, and the integrated resort is stepping up its strategies to meet sustainability targets by 2030. This is in line with the goal of its parent company Melco Resorts & Entertainment. Despite the challenges brought by the pandemic, City of Dreams Manila is persisting with its projects that are anchored on its core values of service for colleagues, guests, community and the environment.

City of Dreams Manila’s sustainability initiatives

Melco’s ‘Above and Beyond’ sustainability plan, led by its Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho, includes ambitious goals such as carbon-neutral resorts and zero-waste resorts by 2030.

City of Dreams Manila’s sustainability efforts are focused on the environment (renewable energy, energy efficiency, zero waste initiatives, reduction in water consumption, recycling, digitalization of processes, sustainable gardening or organic urban farming); economy (sustainable sourcing and support to local small and medium enterprises) and social responsibility (looking after colleagues’ welfare, workforce diversity and training, and extending a helping hand to communities needing of aid through community development and volunteerism programs).

“We are committed to seamlessly integrate sustainability in our guests’ experience whether it be in our restaurants, in our hotel rooms, even in our gaming and entertainment facilities,” said City of Dreams Manila Property President Geoff Andres. “Inspired by the ‘Above and Beyond’ ethos, we will continue to progress further with our green undertakings and soldier on contributing to a more sustainable future.”

The resort’s dedication to sustainability was recognized with the 2022-2024 ASEAN Green Hotel Award, which was presented to the three luxury hotels in the property, Nüwa Manila, Nobu Hotel, and Hyatt Regency Manila, for their environmentally friendly principles including resource consumption reduction and local community involvement.

Melco has also been rewarded at the 2019 Sustainable Business Awards (SBA) Philippines for its talent development program for its employees in Manila and Macau, as well as its energy efficiency efforts to combat climate change at City of Dreams Manila.

Environmental efforts for a sustainable future

Renewable Energy

Since its opening in February 2015, City of Dreams Manila has been proactively engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives and projects focused on environmental protection.

This advocacy further intensified in 2019, with the launch of Melco’s global ‘Above and Beyond’ sustainability strategy, as City of Dreams Manila began implementing solar energy through the installation of 3,120 PV solar panels on the topmost floor of its parking building.

Being the first integrated resort in the country to utilize solar solutions, the property’s solar panels have been fully operational since the beginning of 2020 and can generate 1.2MWh at full capacity. On an annual basis, the panels can generate over 1,600 MWh, which is equivalent to the amount of CO₂ absorbed by close to 19,000 tree seedlings grown for 10 years or charging over 139 million smartphones in a year.

Reducing water consumption

In reducing water consumption, treated greywater is recycled in the property’s cooling towers. Filtered and monitored to ensure water quality meets the required health standards, the reused wastewater is estimated to save about 88 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of water or about 219,000 m³ annually, when business is back to normal, saving the same amount of water from the city’s supply.

Looking for more ways to reduce water consumption, the property’s laundry wastewater is also being reused for toilet flush in the employees’ locker rooms.

Elimination of single-use plastic

With Melco as a signatory to the Global Tourism Plastic Initiative, led by the Ellen MacArthur Foundation in collaboration with UN Environment, City of Dreams Manila continuously addresses the elimination of problematic plastic.

Since 2020, the property has started to transition away from non-biodegradable materials to sustainable alternatives, including the use of bagasse packaging materials for take-away boxes, resealable paper pouches for chocolates, cardboard boxes replacing acetate boxes, greaseproof paper for sandwiches, and more.

All gaming areas in the resort have eliminated single-use plastic bottled water, and hotel rooms now come with refillable, reusable, and convenient pump bottles instead of small toiletry amenity bottles.

Onsite water filtration plant

To bolster this initiative, the resort has installed an on-site water filtration plant and a bottling system with NORDAQ. This is projected to eliminate 11,000 single-use plastic bottles from hotel rooms per day, equivalent to more than four million single-use plastic bottles per year.

Other environmental programs

Various initiatives to reduce the property’s environmental impact include on-site vermicomposting to decrease food waste, herb gardening and the use of own herbs and spices at the property’s herb garden, collaborations with non-governmental organizations that recycle plastic, and eliminating soap waste through its “Soap for Hope” program.

City of Dreams Manila also implements food waste programs with the deployment of the Winnow system, an AI technology that aims to reduce plate waste and overproduction of food served at the employee’s cafeteria; recycles used kitchen oil from F&B outlets to be used as biofuel; and digitalizes products and services, such as using the Melco app for guests’ convenience in hotel and/or restaurant bookings, among other endeavors.

Economic sustainability

The resort also follows a sustainable sourcing policy, with 86 percent of its purchasing made up of local items in support of ethical and environmentally responsible Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

It adopts a holistic and sustainable coffee program for which it partners with local coffee farmers through the Philippine Coffee Board Inc.

The resort also procures rice that is 100 percent chemical-free and 100 percent traceable—from grain sourcing to planting and processing—from the fertile farmlands of Alangalang, Leyte through its partnership with Chen Yi Agventures, a fully integrated and sustainable rice business behind the brand Dalisay Rice, otherwise known as Renucci Rice.

It also sources fresh vegetable produce grown in hydroponics from Aba Pardes Agritech Corporation and purchases responsibly sourced seafood from local fisheries and farms through sustainable seafood companies such as Meliomar and SeaTraceability, Inc., both of which have business practices that are in keeping with the integrated resort’s vision to contribute to the protection of marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of communities that depend on them.

The implementation of a new P2P (purchase to pay) procurement system allows the property to achieve supply chain sustainability targets, such as going paperless in receiving and warehouse processes, among others.

One of City of Dreams Manila’s most recent sustainable initiatives is switching to a 100 percent use of cage-free eggs across all its restaurants. Cage-free eggs are known to be more food-safe, of higher quality, and at the same time, more humane to animals. The first among the integrated resorts in the country to fully adopt the initiative, the commitment was made possible through partnering with Lever Foundation, an international animal welfare non-profit organization that helps leading food companies in the Philippines and across the Asia Pacific Region in upgrading their protein sourcing for a more humane, safe and sustainable supply chain, with a particular focus on cage-free eggs. Currently, the property sources cage-free eggs from Bounty Fresh Eggs, one of the largest egg producers in the country.

Social Responsibility

To support the property’s sustainability efforts and emphasize the value of everyone’s participation in the property’s initiatives, City of Dreams Manila established a sustainability committee made up of employees from across departments to initiate sustainability activities.

To raise employee awareness and encourage responsibility, new hires are regularly trained about Melco’s sustainability programs, goals, and initiatives. Annual employee surveys help management improve its undertakings.

As businesses continue to navigate the uncertainties resulting from the pandemic, City of Dreams Manila continues to align its green activities with Melco’s ‘Above and Beyond’ sustainability strategy. It is firmly set on taking positive strides towards a more sustainable future by being a force of good not only in the tourism industry but also for the people and the planet.

All images: credit to City of Dreams Manila

Editor’s note: Hotels and resorts that are making notable efforts towards an eco-friendly future always get our attention and support. If you know of any sustainability-minded properties, email us at editor@travelasianow.net so we can feature their dedication to becoming sustainable.