Where sustainability meets luxury- Six Senses Zighy Bay
Oman has been known as a hidden gem just across the border from the UAE. As if it had been trapped in time, there is a sense of modesty and preservation, just opposite of what we find in the UAE. Yet, one of the most luxurious resorts, Six Senses Zighy Bay is located in Oman, on the Musandam Peninsula.
The village-inspired resort in Oman offers a range of villas, suites, and beachfront retreats, each with a private pool, traditional summer house and the time and space to relax and indulge. But not only that, it’s a place where luxury meets sustainability, and this makes Six Senses Zighy Bay even more special. Driven by the passion of its staff, every single corner in the resort is personalized and focuses on sustainability.
Six Senses Zighy Bay’s social responsibility: Building up the local community
“Our projects offer financial aid for women’s associations, medical aid for villagers, and sponsorship for the local sports club of Dibba. The resort supported the local hospital in Dibba by building a new radiology unit. In addition to that, we provide basic medical necessities for villagers; we help fund costly equipment such as hearing aids and we also offer financial support for particular medical cases. The resort also contributed to the funding of a Marine running track.” said Armand Thieblemont, Sustainability Director.
Six Senses Zighy Bay is supporting local economy: Capacity building through the local supply chain
Tourism is a development-oriented, employment generating, self-sustaining industry with significant positive impacts on the economy of the country. However, it also may create negative impacts on the environment, cultural heritage, habitat, and its inhabitants when not properly managed. This is what Six Senses Zighy Bay test proves positive actions and impacts on the local community and the local economy.
The biggest challenge has been procurement and supply chain, given its remote and isolated location.
“Where possible, the resort sources as locally as possible so you will often see our chefs down at the Dibba fish market at dawn, providing a living to locals and unparalleled freshness to what’s on your plate.” said Armand Thieblemont, Sustainability Director.
Six Senses Zighy Bay’s environmental impacts: In harmony with nature
“Our logo originates from the blessing marks made by the fingerprints of Buddhist monks on auspicious occasions in Thailand. It represents six blessings: The bottom of the pyramid represents our three primary senses: sight, sound and touch. The middle tier represents our higher senses of taste and smell.”
Starting with a commitment to the local environment and reducing waste, Six Senses Zighy Bay adopted Zero Plastic policy, advanced key performance indicators (KPIs), and waste reduction strategy in place. The waste has been segregated, recycled on site (such as glass), and upcycled where possible. Resort is segregating and recycling 100% of glass, metals, food, organic waste, cooking oil, furniture, e-waste, hazardous waste, cupboards, soap, coffee, and candles.
Reducing Food Waste in the hotel’s staff canteens
Food waste has been tackled in the resort since 2018 by composting the organic waste. The interventions in the staff canteens are introduced. As the result of this initiative the food waste has been reduced.
The resort runs on osmosis desalination system. “We produce our own bottled water via reverse osmosis and the salt water, which is filtered out during the process, is used in our saltwater pool, the largest in the Middle East!”.
Six Senses Zighy Bay is surrounded by a variety of trees and plants that create an oasis among the desert mountains. To date, there is more than 5,000 trees including date palms, fruit trees, native and ornamental trees, irrigated entirely with recycled grey water from the resort.
Being in the remote location, Six Senses Zighy Bay had to build the infrastructure making sure that it’s not harming the nature.
“The resort also has an on-site organic garden and showcases some of the best organic farming practices on our Dibba farm. There are 3.5 tonnes of fresh produce in the resort and there are 22 goats that provide 1 ton of milk per year. Goat milk is processed to make fresh goat cheese on-site. This means fresh farm-to-fork vegetables and fruits, organic cheese and organic eggs. We hope that you can taste the difference!”.
Preserving oceans has been one of the key missions. Diving hosts at Six Senses Zighy Bay are trained to remove ghost nets left by fishermen and rescue sea creatures that have been caught in them thanks to an initiative that had first been introduced and inspired by the Oliver Ridley Project in the Indian Ocean.
“In a recent partnership with the Ministry of the Environment and others, our team has successfully removed 3.7 tons of ghost nets removed from the ocean in 2022. Not satisfied with cleaning up the ocean bed, the resort team also organizes beach clean-ups on a monthly basis. These are made more fun by arranging sand art days, with guests being invited to attend during Earth Day. Clean-up activities are continuously organized on special days such as World Environment Day and International Coastal Clean-up Day.”
The resort also engages with the local community in order to educate fisherman how to preserve oceans.
