To track the property’s energy use, resource conservation, recycling, pollution reduction, waste elimination, transportation, education efforts and building design

With more than a decade of experience in F&B departments, hospitality professional Vu Ngoc Linh has joined the 580-room Alma Resort on Vietnam’s south central coast as its first sustainability officer. Linh will track the property’s energy use, resource conservation, recycling, pollution reduction, waste elimination, transportation, education efforts and building design.

The role also involves creating sustainability programmes, budgets and schedules, evaluating the success of sustainability initiatives, and managing three staff committees focussed on ‘green products’, ‘innovation and solutions’ and ‘people and partnerships’.  The 30-hectare resort requires 46,720 kWH of power and 900 m3 of water per day. “We’d like to think we can continue to make meaningful reductions in that consumption. Dedicating one person to this task is key to making that happen,” said Alma’s managing director Herbert Laubichler-Pichler.

One of Linh’s new projects, under the umbrella of the Innovation and Solutions Committee, is implementation of what Alma believes is Vietnam’s most ambitious hotel solar power project yet. Alma will this year install 5,634 solar panels totalling 12,500 square metres. With a capacity of 2,480 kilowatts peak, the solar power system will fuel between a quarter to almost half of Alma’s energy needs depending on occupancy. In addition to the resort’s 325sqm water treatment plant deploying a reverse osmosis system to provide 70,000L weekly of drinkable water and ice for all of the resort’s kitchens, Linh will also help determine other ways to offset the resort’s water usage.

Linh started his hospitality career in 2011 as a waiter at Six Senses Ninh Van Bay, before he became a restaurant supervisor at Dessole Beach Resort Nha Trang, a team leader at Vinpearl Land Amusement Park and an assistant outlet manager at Golden Peak Resort & Spa and Duyen Ha Resort. Linh then became a food and beverage manager at Xavia Hotel and Florida Nha Trang Hotel, and the assistant restaurant manager at Eastin Grand Hotel Nha Trang.