The world’s greatest motels and eating places are altering the best way they serve water

You may ask for a bottle of Evian or San Pellegrino on the three Michelin-starred Zen restaurant in Singapore.

However you will not get any.

The restaurant, which fees practically $500 per particular person for dinner, serves solely water from the Swedish firm Nordaq, mentioned govt chef Martin Öfner.

The restaurant’s meals and drinks are additionally made with water, from its broths to the fruit juices in its smooth drinks, he mentioned.

Zen is one in every of greater than 140 Michelin-starred eating places that serve Nordaq water, mentioned Johanna Mattsson, the corporate’s CEO. CNBC Travel. The water, which is purified and bottled on web site utilizing native faucet water, can be discovered in additional than 700 luxurious motels, casinos and cruise ships, she mentioned.

The corporate goals to cut back single-use water bottles within the hospitality business – each a budget plastic selection generally present in resort rooms, and bottled European mineral water of glass served in upscale eating places. The latter can journey hundreds of kilometers between its supply and its place of consumption.

“Transporting water on water doesn’t make sense,” Mattsson mentioned. “That’s what we wish to eradicate.”

Nordaq’s bottles are freed from plastic labels to allow them to be simply washed and reused, and so they have a large neck to allow them to be cleaned in common dishwashers, she mentioned.

The bottles are additionally properly capped and dated after being refilled, Mattsson mentioned.

Mandarin Oriental Singapore has had Nordaq’s faucet water system since 2023, with bottles current within the resort’s rooms, eating places, spa and fitness center.

Lodge supervisor Cindy Kong let CNBC Journey tour her bottling facility to see how bottles are washed, inspected, stuffed and sealed. She mentioned the ability might produce 500 bottles of purified water in an hour.

“Usually we take care of between 1,000 and a pair of,000 [bottles] daily,” she mentioned.

Nordaq is one in every of many firms lively within the premium sustainable water sector. Castalie water is obtainable in additional than 700 motels in France, in accordance with its web site, whereas Purezza water is served in additional than 5,000 institutions in 13 international locations, in accordance with the corporate’s LinkedIn web page.

Indian resort firm ITC Motels has created its personal zero-mile water model referred to as SunyaAqua to cut back single-use plastic bottles throughout its 140 motels. “Each guilt-free sip is bottled in-house, eliminating the necessity for transportation,” Maurya, of ITC New Delhi, posted on Fb in July.

Hospitality firms are the principle marketplace for the Swiss sustainable water model Be WTR. It operates in motels – with a facility opening quickly in Rosewood Abu Dhabi – and thru centralized amenities.

Within the latter case, Be WTR founder and CEO Mike Hecker mentioned the water would possibly journey barely additional than the ITC Lodge’s “zero mile” water, however not by a lot.

“We do not wish to transport greater than 10 kilometers round our bottling facility, as a result of, as you properly know, the carbon footprint… is closely impacted by transportation,” he advised CNBC. “We attempt to be localized as a lot as doable on the place of consumption.”

The corporate’s most important operations are within the United Arab Emirates, however water is bought in 12 international locations, together with current expansions in Canada and China, Hecker mentioned. The corporate closed a $44 million Sequence C funding spherical in October.

Be WTR has signed a world settlement with Accor to change into the popular companion of luxurious resort manufacturers within the French resort business.

“We’re the primary firm to have concluded a world water settlement concentrating on [Accor’s] five-star manufacturers, like Raffles, Pullman [and] Sofitel,” he mentioned.

Corporations that offer the tourism and meals industries with filtered water with little or no transportation say they’re avoiding using thousands and thousands of plastic bottles every year. However they’ve one other promoting level: they’ll additionally generate earnings for his or her clients.

Be WTR’s Hecker mentioned its first bottling plant on the Westin Dubai Mina Seyahi saved “greater than 1,000,000 imported bottles per 12 months. And that is an enormous achievement, each when it comes to carbon footprint, but in addition when it comes to creating optimistic advantages for our shopper.”

Hecker declined to say how a lot a bottle of Be WTR would promote for, however mentioned it was “competitively priced” with glass mineral water imported from Europe.

Mattsson of Nordaq says it prices between 11 cents and 21 cents to supply every bottle of his water. However water is way more costly. The Providore Singapore sells free-flow Nordaq nonetheless and glowing water for $2 per particular person, however some luxurious motels cost 4 occasions that value for a single bottle.

Purezza estimates that every of its bottles prices about 30 cents to supply, a couple of fifth of the value of normal bottled water, in accordance with one firm. commercial brochure. However each might be bought for a similar value, in accordance with the brochure, which estimates that 1,000 bottles of Purezza water bought at $5 a bottle might generate $13,200 in annual revenue for the vendor.