Inside a 5-Star Sustainable Hotel with Abu Dhabi's First Vegan Room Experience

[water falling]

In five star luxury hotels

there typically is a good amount of waste.

At the Emirates Palace, we want to make our purpose

to not add to the waste.

The date palms are an integral part of our resort ecosystem.

We've got more than 500 of them

and six types of distinct different dates.

We pollinate, they grow, we harvest.

All dates harvested in our hotel are incorporated

in the one or the other food experiences.

We do a date jam that accompanies our scones

for afternoon tea.

We use date syrup to produce sweetness

to various our desserts and we share them

with our staff doing Ramadan breaking fast.

Dates are an invaluable source for this region.

Harvested since millennia in Islam breaking the fast

with a date is the one thing everybody does.

The key efforts of Mandarin Oriental are to act

with responsibility wherever we can,

in the local communities, globally

whatever we can do to improve the environment.

[acoustic guitar music]

[chill piano music]

Welcome to the Emirates Palace, Mandarin Oriental Abu Dhabi.

We are a unique five star luxury hotel in Abu Dhabi,

the capital of the United Arab Emirates

and also the first hotel in region

that offers a vegan room experience.

[chill electric piano music]

Veganism has nothing to do with simplicity.

We realize that the vegan lifestyle is not limited

to food and beverage alone and this is

what we wanted to give to our guests

in a complete different but elevated luxury way.

These rooms are composition of many individual items

and all leading to making sure veganism chain is not broken.

So everything we do for mini byproducts, the sheets

the bathroom, manatees, everything is completely vegan.

Even our colleagues who are cleaning the rooms,

we never go in with leather shoes, so we go to an extent

that I believe we can be proud of.

While veganism is absolutely growing

and the lifestyle choice by so many,

it is currently mostly anchored

in the food and beverage industry.

Sourcing vegan linen, sourcing companies

that produce these guaranteed qualities

at this incredible high standard level has been

a real challenge, and it took us quite a while

to source the right manufacturer.

If we don't take care of the product that we have procured

we will disrupt the entire value chain.

Our cleaning cycle, the detergents we use are

all chemical-free and are all aligned

in the full veganism style.

The beauty about the bedsheets and the bed linen

is that they're incredibly, incredibly comfortable.

This is a small company that produces a very small quantity

of totally organic material, 100% organic byproduct.

So it is made of cupro, it is made of viscose.

And it's biodegradable, it feels good.

It's sensational. The guests absolutely love it.

They approach and say, Where can we buy the linen?

It became a real trend and we have made this part

of our retail line and we landed a hit.

As we started researching

about vegan lifestyle and vegan rooms in general

we realized there's so much more than just the bed sheet.

So we needed to start by eliminating the woolen carpet

which normally hotels are proud of.

There is no leather application, no leather trim.

Everything is exchanged by full leather.

Everything is exchanged by fabric and even the fabric,

everything is non-chemically treated.

One of the major objectives, of course

is to make sure all our products we offer and we have

in place in the room are cruelty-free, non-animal tested

and completely compliant to the vegan lifestyle.

Whether it is the form pillows that substitute either down

or feather pillows or the skincare products that we deploy,

everything is really, really taken care of,

individually and hand selected.

And therefore, the growing demand

the growing need, we serve it really, really well.

Whilst we consider it self-explanatory that

within the confines of our vegan rooms

you will only have a vegan room service menu.

Across the entire hotel, all our food offering

is specialized for vegan, but in a very smart way.

A vegan knows what to eat and what not to eat

so we don't indicate on the buffet this is the vegan area.

The major factor that assists us to be truly vegan

is the abundance of vegan food that we have

in this Middle Eastern region.

Mediterranean diets, Arabic food is all around hummus.

It's all about mutabal.

We've got these wonderful products that are plant-based

that are olive oil enriched, and that give us already

an organic variety of choices.

With our UAE partner Green Hearts,

everything is pesticide free.

It would not be advantageous for us if we build a greenhouse

and we artificially cool it or warm it.

So highly seasonal, organic.

It's just a natural continuation

of our environmental engagement

but particularly, focused for our Italian fine dining.

[jazzy music]

In the kitchen, when you see your ingredient growing,

you take care a bit more.

Almost like your baby, you know?

I think I'm really lucky because when

you have your garden, your place, you can go there

you can pick every day, you can discover

and you can do some different thing.

With one ingredient you can do really nice unique dish.

In our hotel, we grow this date.

We know there's so many variety, but this one I really love.

I use for the affogato on top of ice cream.

I cook with a big cream.

I make this gem I will put on top of the ice cream.

I mean, I'm also lucky because since when I'm in Abu Dhabi,

I start to use it in Italy, you cannot find a lot.

It's really nice.

My most popular vegan dish is bistecca mushroom.

Bistecca di fungo Italian

is four different contents of mushroom.

[chill music] [spoon banging]

I will use a vegan juice for the mushroom,

and same dish I use also hazelnut.

The local ingredient is really important for the chef.

I think it's something really unique.

You can say, Luca, this ingredient this morning

we just take from our garden.

It's super fresh. It's super...

I think give something a bit more, not for the experience.

[midtempo acoustic guitar music]

Overall, the hotel has 400 rooms and suites.

Our initial phase, which started two years ago,

we allocated six rooms in the hotel as it was a startup.

I believe the need for vegan suites is absolutely critical

because luxury is limitless

and vegan lifestyle is limitless too.

So, I think the expansion into larger accommodation

into better and more luxurious stay is just waiting for us.

We are confident that we have set a trend,

we are pioneering.

It's a little bit the wild west of what we are doing here.

We at the Emirates Palace have abolished

single-use plastic two years ago.

We are recycling whatever we can and I can only encourage

other people to follow suit and to help us

to create a better world, a more plant-based food chain,

and more awareness about a healthy lifestyle.

To define luxury at the Emirates Palace

is a real interesting task.

18 years ago when the hotel was built, luxury was defined

with gold, with granite, with marble, with opulence.

18 years later, it is defined by humility,

it is defined by experiences.

So our mission today is to satisfy customers

from all walks of life and introduce them to experiences

and to moments of delight that without us,

they probably couldn't have had.

[piano music and guitar music]

It was a pleasure having you

at the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental,

and we hope to welcome you soon again.

[electric piano music]