At Millennium Hotels & Resorts, one man’s mission to reimagine hotel sustainability

Saurabh Prakash opens the door to a hotel room at Grand Copthorne Waterfront in Singapore and gestures towards what isn’t there. No plastic water bottle sits on the bedside table. Instead, tucked discretely in the corner, stands an in-room filtered drinking water dispenser. It’s a rare find at hotels in Singapore for such a feature to be found right in the living space and not hidden away in the bathroom.

“We keep sustainability as a natural part of the journey, not as an add-on,” Prakash explains, his voice carrying the conviction of someone who has spent years thinking about how small changes can create profound impact. “It’s not in your face saying ‘Hey, do this to be sustainable.’ There’s no big sign saying ‘Oh, we are doing this for sustainability.’ It’s just right there as part of your journey — you have a glass, you take the water from the dispenser, and that’s it.”

This understated philosophy has become Prakash’s signature approach as Interim Chief Operating Officer and Chief Commercial Officer at Millennium Hotels and Resorts (MHR). Under his guidance, the company has woven sustainability so seamlessly into operations that guests barely notice they’re participating in an environmental revolution — yet millions of plastic bottles have been saved at this single property alone.

The psychology of gentle persuasion

Prakash’s journey into hospitality sustainability began with a simple realisation: people resist being told what to do, even for good causes. So he developed a different strategy entirely.

“We don’t have a mandate, but across our hotels you’ll find we’ve particularly eliminated plastic from, let’s say, meetings,” he explains. “So it is an initiative, but it’s a natural way of doing it. Rather than saying we’re doing this as a mandate that plastic is not allowed, we’re encouraging the customer to be part of it.”

Walk into any Millennium meeting room today and plastic bottles have vanished, replaced by glass alternatives. The transition happened gradually, almost invisibly. Prakash credits this success to understanding human psychology better than environmental science.

His most ingenious innovation might be the door knob system introduced across UK properties — green, blue, and red knobs that guests can display to signal their housekeeping preferences. Green indicates a desire for a sustainable stay, opting out of daily cleaning. Blue signals alternate-day service. Red means full service.

“Green is not ‘do not enter’ — green is actually to say you’re being sustainable,” Prakash explains with evident pride. “So it’s a change of philosophy, or change of mindset, of actually helping hotels and customers to see that if my choice is I want it cleaned today, no problem, we will do it. But if you’re feeling good about making it a green stay, then you put a green knob.”

The system empowers choice whilst gently nudging towards environmental consciousness. 

Behind the scenes, Prakash has championed technological solutions that guests never see but that deliver measurable results. Across MHR’s Singapore properties, sophisticated Room Control Units automatically manage temperature based on actual occupancy, not just key card presence.

The impact stuns even him: electricity consumption dropped from 450 million kilowatt hours in 2016 to 244 million kilowatt hours by 2024 — achieved across just six hotels.

“By ensuring that we’ve put in automated RCU units that control temperature whether the key card is in or not, we’ve significantly reduced our electricity consumption,” he explains. The technology represents his philosophy perfectly: sustainability that works invisibly, requiring no sacrifice from guests.

Creative disruption

Perhaps Prakash’s most delightful innovation emerged in 2024, when guests at Singapore properties began receiving an unexpected check-in gift: a pen that could transform into a plant.

“The pen is actually a plant,” he says, unable to suppress a grin. “So after you’re done writing with the pen, if you actually plant the pen into soil, it will grow into a plant. To me, that was one of the most innovative gifts we’ve done.”

The pen exemplifies his approach — practical, surprising, and meaningful. It challenges the traditional relationship between consumption and waste, turning a disposable item into something that grows.

Food waste presented another challenge Prakash embraced creatively. The hotels now employ food-based digesters that convert nearly 100,000 kilograms of waste into safe grey water. Digital systems track usage patterns, helping chefs produce appropriate quantities whilst monitoring waste KPIs.

Even the herb gardens adorning restaurant spaces serve practical purposes. When Prakash questioned a London chef about their utility, the response was immediate: “He took out the plants from the garden in front of me, went into the kitchen, and used them for dressing on top of a salad.”

At MHR, initiatives often tap into local emotions and identities. In New Zealand, the group developed a partnership with Save the Kiwi that resonates deeply with national pride. When guests opt out of housekeeping by hanging a special door hanger, a meal gets donated to endangered kiwi birds at a Napier crèche.

“I think it resonates very emotionally with the New Zealand community because it’s about protecting the indigenous wildlife there,” he observes. In less than a year, guests have helped donate over 10,000 meals. This local approach reflects Prakash’s understanding that sustainability must feel personal and meaningful, not imposed from corporate headquarters.

The long view

Still, Prakash acknowledges the complexity of implementing change across MHR’s global portfolio, which spans from Anchorage, Alaska to Auckland, New Zealand. The company has committed to eliminating single-use plastics by 2050 — a timeline some might consider unambitious, but Prakash sees as realistic.

“When you have this wide of a portfolio, it does take time,” he says pragmatically. “But is our intention there? Absolutely, and we are going across every hotel as they open up.”

The certification process validating these efforts proves rigorous. Singapore’s Global Sustainable Tourism Council certification involved over 650 staff members in workshops and operational audits. “The certification exercise is very rigorous,” Prakash explains. “In Singapore, it’s GSTC — the Global Sustainable Tourism Council — and they have a very rigorous certification exercise, which is great because that avoids what they call greenwashing.”

For Prakash, sustainability connects to something deeper than environmental compliance. It reflects his core belief about hospitality’s role in the community.

“Our vision is to be the preferred choice for our customers, our employees, our owners. And the community angle is where sustainability really comes in,” he explains. “I always say doing business is as important as the way we do business.”

Customer resistance, initially a concern, has also largely evaporated as industry norms evolve. “In the beginning, yes, when it was new. But as the industry graduates to these norms, and as the overall industry starts to do the same thing — it becomes a natural journey for customers,” Prakash reflects.

The feedback now skews overwhelmingly positive. “Honestly, we’re receiving good feedback on that because a lot of customers like yourselves understand why we’re doing it.”

Sitting in his Singapore office, Prakash embodies the quiet revolutionary — someone who has discovered that the most profound changes often happen almost invisibly, one water dispenser and one plantable pen at a time. His approach suggests that the future of sustainable hospitality lies not in grand gestures or moral mandates, but in making environmental consciousness feel natural, empowering, and even delightful.

The revolution he’s leading may be quiet, but its impact resonates far beyond hotel walls — proving that sometimes the most effective way to change the world is to make people forget they’re changing it at all.