2022 SDG Pioneer for Circular Economy Gabriel Tan: GUAVA Amenities Pte Ltd.

Environment

Founded in 2004 and headquartered in Singapore, GUAVA Amenities helps global hospitality chains, airlines, and cruise liners improve profits by embracing sustainability at scale. We provide guest amenities, healthcare supplies, and F&B consumables that are designed from the get-go to minimize waste, wastage, and carbon emission.

A single 200-room hotel can generate about 300,000 pieces of single-use plastic in a month, 20% consist of the hotel amenities. Based on the number of hotels worldwide of more than 189,000, the estimated amount of single-use plastic waste from hotel amenities is more than 10 billion pieces of plastics. This is a global crisis that requires a global solution.

Given that our value-add lies in being an orchestrator of global resources and our clients reach millions of people around the world, we feel a sense of responsibility to contribute toward the betterment of communities and the environment. Therefore, GUAVA has developed an entire suite of sustainable solutions, aimed at minimizing waste and carbon emissions, in line with the United Nations SDGs to address this.

To illustrate the benefit of our approach, the solution we put in place for one of our major hospitality group clients enable them to reduce costs by more than 20%, reduce waste by more than 12 tonnes, and also winning a prestigious sustainability award. This means positive financial, social & environmental impact.

In recognition of our sustainability efforts, we have been featured in a number of international media and received several awards with the most recent being the UN SDG Pioneer Award for Circular Economy. This award is a great encouragement for us and our ecosystem partners in continuing to advance the UNGC10Ps and SDGs.

As we help global hospitality chains, airlines and cruise liners achieve higher profitability and sustainability at scale, we look forward to collaborating with more like-minded partners, including in Thailand, towards Creating Scalable Sustainable Impact, Together

2022 SDG Pioneer for Circular Economy

Gabriel Tan

Director,GUAVA Amenities Pte Ltd. Singapore

To illustrate environmental impact in the hospitality industry, consider that a single 200-room hotel can generate some 300,000 pieces of single-use plastic in a month, says Gabriel Tan, director at GUAVA Amenities Pte Ltd.

A fifth of that plastic is hotel amenities and, based on the number of hotels worldwide, the estimated amount of single-use plastic waste from those amenities is more than 10 billion pieces of plastic, he says.

“We at GUAVA, being a supplier of guest amenities and related consumables to some of the world largest hospitality chains, airlines, and cruise liners, recognised the massive problem faced by the industry,” he told the UN Global Compact.

“This is a global crisis that requires a global solution,” he said. “Given that our value-add lies in being an orchestrator of global resources and our clients reach millions of people around the world, we feel a sense of responsibility to contribute toward the betterment of communities and the environment.”

Tan, the founder and CEO of GUAVA which provides guest amenities, health care supplies and food and beverage consumables designed to minimize waste and carbon emissions, was named the 2022 SDG Pioneer for Circular Economy by the UN Global Compact.

The yearly programme celebrates business professionals who are advancing and advocating for the 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

Tan said being named an SDG Pioneer was “a great encouragement and recognition.”

“I look forward to collaborating with more like-minded partners towards creating scalable sustainable impact, together!”

GUAVA is working with some of the world’s largest hospitality chains, airlines and cruise liners toward a number of 2030 goals - 50% carbon emission reduction at manufacturing sites, 90% plastics reduction through design innovation and material substitution and 50% waste reduction per property served through product innovation and packaging optimization.

The Singapore-based company has pioneered an ecosystem business model that focuses on decentralizing production and distribution directly to customers, without intermediaries, helping clients reduce waste by up to 90% and reduce costs by more than 20%, he said.

“There is a common misconception that sustainability is expensive, and thus many are reluctant to embrace sustainability,” Tan said. “Having identified this challenge early, I decided to focus on developing solutions that are not just sustainable, but also scalable and affordable at the same time.

“Doing so creates a strong incentive for customers to adopt our solutions and in the process also enables us to better engage employees and motivate external stakeholders to support our efforts in advancing the SDGs.”

At GUAVA, decisions are made taking the values of sustainability, scalability and affordability as critical considerations, he said.

“We only have one earth and the home to our generations ahead,” Tan said. “We have to start now, in order to help our future generations live a better tomorrow.”

source: https://unglobalcompact.org/sdgs/sdgpioneers/2022/tan