Eco-friendly hotel Banyan Tree Samui has added another achievement to its nest of sustainability initiatives with confirmation that it now serves only cage-free eggs to guests at the beachfront resort in southern Thailand.
The transition to using 100% cage-free eggs in all menu items is another step in the luxury hotel's commitment to environmentally-friendly and animal welfare-focused business practices.
"When guests stay at a 5-star resort they expect nothing but the best in culinary terms," said Banyan Tree Samui's Director of Food & Beverage and Cuisine Rainer Roersch. "However nowadays we also cater to a new generation of travellers who demand assurance that what they are eating is ethically produced."
By choosing cage-free eggs, the hotel ensures better living conditions for hens, which are no longer confined to cramped cages, resulting in higher-quality eggs, said Boonyanuch Kemmonta, the communication manager at Catalyst, an international organisation dedicated to the advancement of farm animal welfare, and the provider of Banyan Tree Samui's cage-free egg certification.
"Conventional methods of egg production often involve confining hens in battery cages, which is inhumane and prevents the animals from expressing natural behaviours," she said. "This poses significant health risks to consumers. For example, the use of antibiotics in treating stress-related diseases in hens kept in battery cages contributes toward a growing global health crisis called antibiotic resistance. Not only that, but confined animal operations also increase the potential for pandemics such as avian flu. Businesses and individuals who support cage-free eggs, therefore, not only provide an incentive to improve the living conditions of animals and safeguard public health from pandemics, but also contribute toward more sustainable food."
In January 2024, just 2.75 percent of all eggs purchased by Banyan Tree Samui were classified as "cage-free". That figure increased to 92 percent of all 20,000+ eggs purchased in July, with the hotel confident that it will meet the 100% goal from August onwards.
Cage-free eggs is just one of several sustainability policies initiated this year by the Banyan Tree Samui team, who also introduced sustainable seafood and coffee capsule upcycling programmes earlier in 2024.
In addition to ongoing "plastic-free" initiatives ? phasing out the use of plastic bottles, straws, cutlery and garbage bags, for example ? and providing its food waste to a local pig farm, this environmentally-conscious hotel is also involved in a plethora of local community projects on Koh Samui. It has provided scholarships to local children; funded the reconstruction of a nearby school damaged by a storm; and held annual blood drives. Much of the finance for these benevolent programmes comes from the Banyan Global Foundation.
The Banyan Group has a longstanding commitment to sustainable practices, including numerous projects around the world concerning: waste management; water conservation; biodiversity; and a Climate Change project focused on green energy and waste-to-energy projects.
For more information about sustainable practices at Banyan Tree Samui, go to: https://www.banyantree.com/thailand/samui/sustainability