GREEN ROOMS

Hangers The hangers used in guestrooms are made from pressed particle boards.

Fruits Why cut fruits when no one may wish to eat them? At The Orchid we do not place fruits in the rooms as, they would be wasted if not consumed by the guests. Instead, guests are prompted to ask for a fruit basket, which is then promptly supplied.

Amenities In keeping with our environmental theme, at The Orchid we use Herbal products, which are manufactured under an Ayurvedic license. These products are not tested on animals and do not contain any animal fat.

Master Control Panel This control panel in the guestrooms incorporates a unique feature known as the 'Green button'. On pressing the 'Green button', the thermostat of the air-conditioning unit is stepped up by two degrees. The saving in electricity resulting from the 2 degrees increase in temperature is translated into rupee terms and the same is displayed on the guest folio and profile. A certificate is then issued to the guest who has voluntarily participated in conserving energy. A database is maintained of all these guests and we develop a direct mail link with them, telling them about our ongoing environmental activities that they have helped support.

Laundry In order to reduce waste, we have reusable cloth laundry bags instead of the standard paper or plastic bags used in other hotels. Guests use these bags to send clothes for laundering and the clothes are returned in reusable cane baskets, wrapped in muslin cloth. A Laundry button is incorporated in the Master control panel, eliminating the use of 'Laundry pick up' tent cards.

Newspaper Newspapers at The Orchid are delivered in reusable cane baskets instead of the usual paper or plastic bags.

Shopping Bags Want to go shopping? Just for you, The Orchid provides a specially designed cloth shopping bag with the environment messages we believe in.

Eco Harvest As a special give away for all are dear guests, we have the "Eco Harvest". This is a basket containing an herbal pillow which induces sleep, a bunch of neem twigs, two aromatic oils & 5 age old herbs.

Pens / Pencils To prove our commitment to the environment, The Orchid uses eco-friendly pens and pencils. The eco-pens are made using recycled cardboard, reprocessed plastic and scrap wood. The cardboard, which is used as barrel, is free from chlorine usage in the manufacturing stage. The plastic as the head and base is made from reprocessed ABS (a thermoplastic material that can be recycled and/or remoulded). Scrap wood is obtained from discarded cases used for packing purposes. The eco pencils are not made of wood but of a non-toxic polymer with the use of natural fillers. Woodsaver pencils are made using a shaft, which is made of biodegradable materials such as talc, gypsum and clay.

Recycle Waste bins Guests can put recyclable waste in the special 'Recycle waste bins'. These have stickers to differentiate them and they are placed in all rooms.

Recycled Garbage Bags The garbage bags used by us are made from recycled plastic and plastic milk pouches.

Cut Flower v/s Potted Plants Why use dead flowers to bring a room alive? At The Orchid, you'll find cut flowers cut to an absolute minimum - instead living, vibrant plants help bring the beauty of nature indoors.

Carbon Paper No carbon paper is used at The Orchid Hotel, as the chemicals used in carbon paper are toxic and kill the micro-organisms that break down solid waste, reducing the volume of waste in the landfill.

Stationary With forests dwindling and the air we breathe under threat, every contribution helps. Which is why you'll find that all paper products at the Orchid contain at least 25% recycled content.

Slippers To further show you how down to earth our eco sensitivity is, even the stylish slippers in the rooms are hand crafted from natural reed.

Do Not Disturb, Make Up Room & Laundry Signs Having the DO NOT DISTURB and MAKE UP ROOM sign outside the door in turn reduces the waste that would have been otherwise generated by having DO NOT DISTURB signs made from paper. In phase II the Laundry sign will also be displayed along with the above two signs.

Paints The Orchid has demonstrated the highest level of environment sensitivity by using paints that are eco-friendly. The exterior of our hotel is a water based paint with negligible VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) content of only 0.0125% and the paint used for interiors has 0% VOC.

Boxes For Tissues, Cotton & Soap Suds Tissue boxes, jars for cotton balls and soap suds are made from NUWUD, as it goes with our theme, instead of the standard acrylic.

Water Flask & Glasses The water flask in the guestrooms are left empty and are filled after asking the guest for his preference of hot, cold or room temperature water, as water already filled and kept in the flask leads to guest perception of the water being stale, which in turn leads to a prompt request for replacement. The glasses too are turned upside down and kept in the tray, thereby doing away with having to wrap each glass in a plastic bag and consequently generating more waste for the hotel.

Anti Cockroach Herbal Treatment This treatment has been recently introduced and is the first of it's kind in India to eradicate cockroaches. This herbal paste contains extracts from herbs and the treatment is totally different from the conventional spray treatment. By using this treatment their are no health hazards, as there is no use of any poisonous chemicals. No cleaning is required after the treatment is done hence there is no wastage of water, detergents etc. This medicine is in the form of a paste and it is applied to all nooks and corners in the form of small globules in the area, which is to be treated. This paste can also be applied in refrigerators, ovens, toasters, microwaves, mixers and computers as it is non-poisonous.

Cloth Mats To reduce the waste generated by our hotel we use cloth mats instead of paper ones.

No Single Serving Items Used To add to the above, use of single serving items are done away with at The Orchid. Use of condiments like sugar sachets is replaced by using sugar cubes, jams, sauces, ketchup are served in preserve pots and butter chiplets have been replaced by butter curls.

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