The publish Designing for Day after today: How Accor’s Reema Diwan Is Redefining Sustainable Hospitality in India gave the impression first on TD (Shuttle Day-to-day Media) Shuttle Day-to-day Media.

India’s cultural variety signifies that each and every vacation spot has its personal unique parts to supply. Reema feels that sourcing in the neighborhood now not most effective encourages sustainable practices but in addition delivers an original and noteworthy visitor revel in that displays the real spirit of the area. Sustainable inns generally tend to have decrease working prices because of energy- and water-efficient methods, decreased waste, and better-maintained property. In an interview with TDM, Reema Diwan, Vice President – Design & Technical Products and services at Accor India & South Asia stocks extra at the evolving panorama hospitality—specifically round sustainability, Hospitality and design innovation.
Shuttle Day-to-day Media (TDM): With maximum travellers and corporates turning into extra discerning about sustainability, are you able to proportion with us how it’s being implemented to greenfield Accor tasks in India?
Reema Diwan (RD): Sustainability is a non-negotiable core pillar for Accor, and in India, we make certain it’s seamlessly built-in into each and every degree of our greenfield tasks—from design to operations. We center of attention on maximising calories performance via good development orientation, façade design, and high-efficiency MEP methods, whilst additionally incorporating renewable calories the place possible. In our fresh tasks, now we have followed leading edge paints, finishes, and fabrics that beef up sustainability, and collaborated with native communities—an way that now not most effective empowers them but in addition brings original, sustainable price to the venture. Notable examples come with the LEED-certified Pullman Chennai; Novotel Goa, Candolim, the place tasks similar to a reside façade exhibit sustainable design; and ibis Mumbai BKC, which options artwork created completely from recycled fabrics. We additionally emphasise the usage of reduced impact, in the neighborhood sourced fabrics, powerful waste control methods, and guest-facing tasks similar to good room controls and decreased single-use plastics. This holistic way helps environmental accountability, complements long-term price performance, enriches the visitor revel in, and strengthens group affect.
TDM: What’s being finished with regards to redesigning and renovation for Accor inns in India?
RD: We’re dedicated to strategically making plans the refurbishment of our inns, embedding new tasks that support sustainability whilst bettering the whole visitor revel in. As an example, many houses now function clever dashboards to watch and information useful resource intake, serving to us optimise calories, water, and waste control.
Renovation efforts additionally center of attention on incorporating energy-efficient MEP methods, in the neighborhood sourced and low-emission fabrics, and sustainable design parts that scale back the environmental footprint. Past operational performance, those tasks considerably toughen asset price, modernise public and visitor areas, and reposition our manufacturers strongly out there. Moreover, we combine native tradition and artwork anyplace imaginable, growing distinctive, original reports for our visitors whilst supporting native communities and making sure long-term sustainability advantages for each the resort and its setting.
TDM: Kindly give an explanation for sustainable leading edge design with regards to native procurement and cultural affect.
RD: India has developed considerably and provides a wealth of leading edge merchandise, permitting us to depend closely on native procurement. This way now not most effective brings native nuances into each and every venture, making it deeply tied to its location, but in addition is helping construct a compelling tale for visitors as a part of the whole design revel in.
A really perfect instance is the ibis Kinds Mysore, the place we embraced the theme of town’s wealthy heritage and wove it right through all of the design. All fabrics and finishes had been sourced in the neighborhood, making the resort in point of fact distinctive to its location. India’s cultural variety signifies that each and every vacation spot has its personal unique parts to supply. By means of sourcing in the neighborhood, we now not most effective inspire sustainable practices but in addition ship an original and noteworthy visitor revel in that displays the real spirit of the area.

TDM: Do proportion for our readers the present tendencies with regards to sustainable design and innovation.
RD: Present tendencies in hospitality design are taken with growing areas that now not most effective glance excellent and really feel excellent, but in addition do excellent. Biophilic design is at the vanguard, bringing nature indoors via cautious find out about of sunshine and wind, growing tactile, sustainable fabrics that fortify visitor well-being. This wellness-centric design is going past spa spaces, integrating convenience, air high quality, ergonomics, and conscious spatial layouts into each and every nook of the resort.
Nowadays, convenience is the silent hero of design—visitors would possibly not all the time consciously realize it nevertheless it shapes their belief of the distance, growing an intuitive sense of ease and pride. On the similar time, sustainable fabrics and energy-efficient methods are seamlessly woven into those designs, making sure that inns ship operational performance, environmental accountability and a memorable, holistic revel in.
TDM: How would you give an explanation for some great benefits of a sustainable resort venture which might price greater than an ordinary resort to an impartial hotelier’s greenfield venture, who would in the end get the valuables controlled by means of Accor?
RD: I wouldn’t describe a sustainable resort venture as essentially costing extra—if deliberate and performed accurately, it may well price the similar and even not up to a standard construct. Attaining this calls for meticulous making plans, in depth find out about, and patience to verify the venture is positioned optimally, from design and fabrics to calories, water, and operational methods. Whilst it calls for in advance effort, the long-term advantages are way more vital. Sustainable inns generally tend to have decrease working prices because of energy- and water-efficient methods, decreased waste, and better-maintained property. In addition they draw in the rising phase of aware travellers, who actively make a choice houses that align with their environmental and social values, bettering occupancy, visitor pride, and loyalty.
When the valuables is controlled by means of Accor, those sustainability measures are totally leveraged via our operational experience, international requirements, and emblem presence. This now not most effective guarantees clean execution but in addition strengthens the resort’s marketplace positioning, complements emblem belief, and in the long run improves asset price and go back on funding (ROI). In essence, embedding sustainability in a greenfield venture is not only environmentally accountable—it’s basically commercially smarter, turning in a resort that plays effectively lately and stays aggressive and related one day.
TDM: What’s it that you just love in regards to the hospitality trade and your position in it? Any phrases of knowledge for children intending to be on your sneakers.
RD: I think in point of fact lucky to like what I do—it drives me on a daily basis. The wonderful thing about the hospitality trade is that no two days are the similar. Every venture brings a brand new design, a brand new positioning problem, and a chance to discover what extra can also be completed and what’s subsequent for the business. Over the years, my revel in has grown past simply hospitality design—it now encompasses the strategic positioning of property, bettering asset price for homeowners, strengthening emblem recall for our corporate, and contributing to development a greater long run for our group.
My recommendation to kids aspiring to go into this box is to embody steady finding out, patience, and a holistic point of view. Don’t simply center of attention on design or operations in isolation; know how each and every resolution affects visitors, homeowners, and the wider marketplace. Be able to be informed incessantly, adapt to new tendencies, and suppose creatively. Most significantly, in finding pleasure within the paintings you do—pastime is the gasoline that may maintain you via demanding situations and make your adventure each significant and rewarding.

TDM: Kindly proportion 10 guidelines for everybody to develop into sustainable of their day by day lives.
RD: Listed here are 10 very important guidelines for everybody to develop into sustainable of their day by day lives:
- Apply conscious intake: Purchase most effective what you in point of fact want
- Empower group
- Improve native manufacturers: make a choice in the neighborhood sourced meals and items
- Minimise plastic use: give up single-use plastic and elevate reusable baggage, bottles and boxes
- Preserve sources, from water to calories
- Include nature
- Give protection to native nature
- Cut back and compost waste
- Select inexperienced shipping: stroll, cycle or use public transit extra ceaselessly
- Keep knowledgeable and unfold consciousness
The publish Designing for Day after today: How Accor’s Reema Diwan Is Redefining Sustainable Hospitality in India gave the impression first on Shuttle Day-to-day Media.












