The company’s sustainability strategy, led by Melco Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho, dubbed “Above and Beyond,” outlines ambitious goals, including carbon-neutral resorts and zero-waste resorts by 2030. As such, City of Dreams Manila’s sustainability endeavors are focused on the environment, including renewable energy, energy efficiency, zero waste initiatives and reduction in water consumption, among others.
Aligned with the goal of its parent company Melco Resorts & Entertainment’s (Melco) and armed with a firm belief that a sustainable future is a better future, City of Dreams Manila recently stepped up its strategies to meet its sustainability targets by 2030. Despite the challenges brought by the pandemic, the integrated resort has persisted in undertaking projects anchored on its core values of service to the community and care for the environment.
The company’s sustainability strategy, led by Melco Chairman and CEO Lawrence Ho, dubbed “Above and Beyond” outlines ambitious goals, including carbon-neutral resorts and zero-waste resorts by 2030. In adherence, City of Dreams Manila’s sustainability endeavors are focused on the environment, including renewable energy, energy efficiency, zero waste initiatives, reduction in water consumption, recycling, digitalization of processes, sustainable gardening or organic urban farming.
It also encompasses the economy through its sustainable sourcing and support to local small and medium enterprises and social responsibility, including looking after colleagues’ welfare, workforce diversity and trainings, and extending a helping hand to communities in need of aid through various 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. 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,” said Geoff Andres, City of Dreams Manila property president.
A testament to the resort’s commitment to sustainability is the 2022-2024 ASEAN Green Hotel Award presented to the three of the property’s luxury hotels–Nüwa Manila, Nobu Hotel and Hyatt Regency Manila, for their environment-friendly principles, which includes resource consumption reduction and local community involvement. Melco has also been recognized at the 2019 Sustainable Business Awards (SBA) Philippines for its talent development program for its workforce in both Manila and Macau, as well as its energy efficiency efforts to tackle climate change at City of Dreams Manila.
Environment
Renewable Energy. Since its opening, City of Dreams Manila has been initiating corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and efforts geared towards 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 initiated harnessing of renewable energy with the installation of 3,120 PV solar panels at 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 being reused in the property’s cooling towers. Filtered and monitored to ensure that 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 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 reported a substantial reduction of plastic waste through replacement of non-biodegradable materials with sustainable alternatives including the use of bagasse packaging materials for take-away boxes, resealable paper pouches for chocolates, use of cardboard boxes replacing acetate boxes, greaseproof paper for sandwiches, among others.
Single-use plastic bottled water in all gaming areas have been eliminated, and small toiletry amenity bottles in hotel rooms are replaced with reusable, refillable and convenient pump bottles.
Onsite water filtration plant. To bolster this initiative, the resort has installed an onsite water filtration plant and a bottling system with NORDAQ. This is projected to result in the elimination of 11,000 single-use plastic bottles from hotel rooms per day, equivalent to more than four million single-use plastic bottles per year.
For more information about Melco Resorts and Entertainment Philippines please visit: melco-resorts-philippines.com.
