All hotels under the project are located in either previously owned buildings/lands or purchased land through willing buyer-willing seller transactions. Therefore, no expropriation of land or physical or economic displacement is expected to be caused by the company’s activities. Consequently, IFC PS 5 (Land Acquisition and Involuntary Resettlement) is not applicable.

This is a Category B project according to IFC’s Policy on Environmental and Social Sustainability because a limited number of specific environmental and social impacts may result which can be avoided or mitigated by adhering to generally recognized performance standards, guidelines or design criteria. 

Identification of E&S Risks and Impacts:

The company identifies and manages E&S risks and impacts associated with its operations and constructions through compliance with applicable national standards and E&S regulatory permits and requirements. EIAs and public consultations are conducted as required by local regulatory requirements.

The proposed greenfield hotels are larger than the regulatory threshold level of 80 rooms beyond which the company is required to undertake an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) study. EIA for Innside Bangkok Sukhumvit has been approved by Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning in 2017. The company will complete the required EIA study considering IFC’s Performance Standards’ (PS) requirements and obtain the required permit for JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Asiatique Bangkok.

Renovation and refurbishment of the existing building normally does not require an EIA as the changes are within renovation/refurbishment scope in compliance with authority regulations; but if required, the company will obtain the required permit for the building as per specific local requirements.

E&S policy and management programs:

AWC has a set of EHS policies and an ESMS (Environmental and Social Management System) at the corporate level applied to all business sectors. The corporate ESMS has been certified with ISO 9001 (quality management), ISO 14001 (environment management) and ISO 45001 (Occupational health and safety management).

The corporate management system includes the following manuals, policies and procedures: Quality, Environmental and Occupational, Health and Safety (OHS) Risk Identification, Assessment and Control; Emergency preparedness and response; Monitoring, Analysis and Improvement; and internal audit mechanism etc.

In addition to the corporate ESMS, each hotel follows the respective brand’s EHS policies and ESMS. The policies and management systems are fully functional and adequately implemented by experienced professionals across all the properties. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company has prepared COVID-19 infection prevention and control policies.

Organizational capacity and competency:

The company has a Property Development and Property Management Group Division (Group Division) (around 130 employees) in charge of corporate EHS risk management and quality control. Its role includes assessing and ensuring that the new asset developments and acquired facilities develop and implement their site specific ESMS in line with corporate policy requirements.

The Group Division also oversees the impacts of its refurbishment and construction related activities performed by the contractors. The corporate Property Development team is responsible for reviewing design and managing the development of new/existing assets with support from external agencies (architects, consultants and construction companies). External quality management and oversight services are provided by an international consultant in the past years.

EHS officers at each hotel cooperate with the Group Division to implement continual quality improvement programs and monitors quality performance of each hotel. EHS meetings are organized periodically at every hotel, and the performance is reviewed every month by the Group Division.

Emergency Preparedness and Response:

As part of corporate EHS risk management, AWC has developed response plans for different emergency scenarios based on the location of the assets including fire, flooding and earthquake describing processes and decisions on evacuation. The roles and responsibilities for various teams responsible for evacuation, rescue, firefighting, first-aid etc. are clearly defined.

Fire drills and safety training are conducted as required per regulations implemented every project site in operation and in construction. The company has also prepared a business continuity plan in relation to COVID-19 pandemic.

Monitoring & Reporting:

The company monitors all assets by number of key performance indicators (KPIs) such as accidents, labor compliance (working hours, overtime payment, grievances), energy and water efficiency, waste management etc. covering construction and operation.

All incidents are summarized and discussed in the monthly quality control meeting and the Group Division analyses the root causes and implements corrective actions.

Under the corporate quality assurance strategy, the company monitors the service quality performance of the staff and contractors including daily inspection, monthly internal audits, quarterly external audit as well as ISO audits. The company also prepares annual audit plan for operating properties and construction sites every year.

The company has about 6,000 employees across all the properties. The gender split of staff is roughly 50% male and 50% female. All the workers in AWC are directly employed by the company and there are no third-party workers. Only small number of employees are outsourced mainly for the security services at each hotel.

HR Policies and Procedures, Working Conditions and Terms of Employment:

AWC has a set of corporate HR policies and a code of conduct. The polices, objectives and procedures are further customized at the hotel level incorporating the policies by each operating brand. The HR policies include employee benefits, payment and overtime, grievance mechanism, separation, etc. Non-discrimination and equal opportunity are described in the corporate code of conduct. However, it is noted that anti-sexual harassment is not described in those documents.

No instances of child or forced labor were observed. All employees are given permanent position after the probation period, with written appointment letters which explain their employment terms and conditions. No pregnancy tests required when hiring employee.

The company did not conduct nor plan lay-off any workers during the lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, only made temporary salary adjustments in accordance with the local legislation. All the construction workers and contractors were paid as agreed and there was no reduction in workforce.

As part of the ESAP 1, the company will update the corporate HR policy/code of conduct including policies on prevention of sexual harassment in line with IFC’s Performance Standard 2.

Freedom of Association & Grievance Mechanism:

Thai national laws allow formation and registration of trade unions. Although AWC does not restrict freedom of association or formation of unions, currently there are no employee unions at any of the hotels. Corporate level welfare committee with more than 50 members from representative of the department has been set up and will be reelected, which mainly focuses on staff welfare and recreational activities.

The company has a documented grievance handling procedure at corporate level as part corporate HR policies, anonymous grievance mechanism is available through corporate website. As per the procedure, all employees are expected to first direct their grievances either to their supervisor, a person assigned to each department or HR department. All hotels maintain own grievance mechanisms based on each brand policy and procedures. No significant grievances, disputes, court cases were noted.

Occupational, Health and Safety (OHS):

AWC has conducted enterprise risk assessment, hazard identification and risk assessment on occupational health and safety identifying specific safety risks in their operations. The procedures cover fire safety, emergency response for various types of emergencies, safety during construction/renovation etc.

Regular training programs and all induction trainings were noted to be conducted at the visited facilities on various safety related topics.  Employees undergo annual health checks.

OHS statistics (fatalities, incidents records) are monitored at least monthly including construction sites and no major injuries informed so far in the past years.

The company has implemented several COVID-19 response measures for its operations including: social distancing, ensuring employee and visitors health, cleaning and disinfecting in line with governmental requirements. There has been no significant health impact due to the pandemic and no COVID-19 cases were found in the company’s workforce.

Construction Safety and Management:

AWC typically hires a construction company (CC) when developing new assets in greenfield site or renovating existing buildings. AWC oversees the projects through the CC and corporate property development and technical support departments monitor and report on safety performance and legal compliance including COVID-19 response measures.

AWC also requires the CC to have its own safety officer on-site. Safety guidelines for the projects have been documented and cover key areas of EHS at construction sites. The payments and benefits to the workers are managed by the CC and reviewed by the company’s corporate Project Development and Procurement Management departments.

Workers engaged by third parties:

Apart from the construction workers, a small number of third-party contract workers are employed at the hotels mainly for housekeeping, and security who are not armed. Due to the temporary closure of hotels due to the pandemic contract s of these workers are temporarily discontinued, but the company considers to re-employ these workers, when hotels are reopened.

The corporate HR and property development departments review compliance of the contractors with respect to labor laws for their workers internally as well as through monthly compliance audits. 

Resource Efficiency:

The company is considering to design, construct and operate its hotels following internationally accepted green building standards as part of IFC’s EDGE certification. Some of the resource efficiency initiatives implemented at AWC hotels include installation of LED lighting. To further improve the resource efficiency for existing hotels, the company plans to install rooftop solar panels and heat pumps for hot-water etc. as part of the project. The properties covered in the proposed project are aspiring to receive the IFC’s EDGE certification, at least 20% savings in the energy and water consumption compared with the base case is expected. The expected GHG emissions from the project are expected to be 18,880 tons CO2 eq/annum.

Energy Supply and Air Emissions:

Electricity is sourced from the national public grid for all assets. As standard back-up systems for grid failure, diesel generator sets are installed but not commonly used. All visited hotels and construction site were noted to conduct annual air emissions testing and results were noted to be compliant with the national standards.

Water and Wastewater:

Water for the hotels is sourced from local public water supply system such as Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, used mainly for non-potable use such as cleaning, gardening and laundry services. The engineering and technical support department inspects water quality and potable water for staff consumption is sourced from local bottled water supplies.

Each hotel has an on-site wastewater treatment plant with secondary biological treatment before discharging to public drainage. Wastewater quality is checked every month. All visited hotels and the construction site were noted to conduct monthly testing of the wastewater quality and the results were found to be compliant with applicable permit conditions.

Waste Management:

AWC has waste management procedures including the system of appropriate sorting, labeling, handling, storage and disposal and is consistent with the applicable legal requirements. Visited hotels including construction sites were noted to have a segregated waste storage area. From the storage area, all the waste is collected for disposal by authorized external agency (government and private sector) specialized in each type of the waste. Moreover, some hotels started food waste reduction initiatives as part of their sustainability program in line with Sustainable Development Goals.

 Life and Fire Safety Management:

AWC has a set of fire safety procedures describing actions to be taken in the event of fire, mechanisms for fire detection and prevention, evacuation procedures, roles and responsibilities of the various staff and are reviewed regularly through pro-active measures.

Each hotel undertakes fire drills over-all hotel premises at least defined as per government regulation. Each drill is followed by an assessment of observed gaps with corrective actions to be sent to corporate Group Division and discussed.

Visited hotels were noted to be provided with LFS infrastructure and systems including different types of fire extinguishers, smoke detectors and fire alarms, manual call points, sprinklers, fire hoses at every floor.

The projects team of AWC and external specialists prepare LFS designs for the new hotels based on LFS master plan in compliance with local fire safety regulations as well as the specific requirements / standards from each brand. The designs are reviewed by each hotel in line with own brand’s international LFS standard. Once the hotel is constructed, the implementation of the LFS systems is monitored by the corporate Group Division. The same is also reviewed by local fire safety authorities for their compliance and the company obtained the certificate in advance to the operation.  Any new building will follow the requirements of the local and international hotel brand LFS standard as such.

As per ESAP 2, once the new hotel has built, a competent LFS professional shall provide a certification confirming that the hotel has been designed and built as per the master plan and in compliance with the local as well as one international fire safety code such as NFPA, as per the requirements of the LFS Section of the WBG General EHS Guidelines.

Security Personnel:

All assets including hotels are guarded with unarmed security guards from licensed private security agencies. Regular training programs are conducted for the security workers on the standard operating procedures for their job including life and fire safety trainings.

As per the environmental permitting process, the draft EIA will be circulated for public consultation and each stakeholder including public/local community can raise concerns during the process. Prior communications with local people close to the construction sites are conducted before construction activities start.

AWC will publish its annual Corporate Sustainability report within the first quarter of next year. The company also provides monetary supports, medical equipment to frontline healthcare personnel in hospitals across Thailand during COVID-19 pandemic, charitable foundation for children and schools and awareness rising events to local community. However, there is no documented community grievance handling procedure. Therefore, AWC will develop and implement a documented process of community engagement and grievance mechanism as part of ESAP 3.

 Contact Person: Dr. Karn Prativedwannakij

Company Name: Asset World Corp Public Company Limited

Email: karn.p@assetworldcorp-th.com

Phone: +66 2 180 9999