A SAGE ONCE SAID, "IT'S NOT EASY
BEING GREEN." How right he was. Jeffrey
Tang seeks clarification of the pundit's comment:
"What does that mean? Being green, having
green buildings? We all have to do our part -
we have a responsibility for the well-being of the
planet, but further to do that, it's also important
to understand that it's also the people who inhabit
the planet. So when you go green, you will
have to consider the people as well."
Backtrack about 15 years.
Jeffrey and his older brother Keith were
following up a business opportunity to establish
hotels in New Zealand. The business,
Heritage Hotels, has now developed into an
award-winning chain of 10 properties through-out
both islands in the Land of the Long White
Cloud.
One of the things that impressed
them during their time in New Zealand was how the
Kiwis enjoyed the great outdoors - and that got the
brothers thinking. Jeffrey says, "People talk
about "Pure New Zealand." We started to wonder
if that was true, so we tested the air quality."
The results were interesting, although not
surprising. The highest reading they took was
in Auckland, but according to their measurements,
even in Auckland the air was around three to four
times cleaner in Singapore, 10 times cleaner than
Shanghai and 12 times cleaner than New York!
"If you go around the world, New Zealand does offer
very clean air. So Pure New Zealand is not
just talk, it's real."
That triggered something in their
minds. "Keith said to me 'surely there must be
a way we can do better in Singapore,' because we
spend more time here. We feel less sickly when
we are in New Zealand."
Keith adds, "It's the feeling of
being happy and we all have the right to breath
better." Breathing - pretty basic stuff, but
an issue that's also close to their hearts - or
lungs in Jeffrey's case - he's an asthmatic.
So the Tang brothers worked at
becoming environmentally responsible corporate
citizens. Jeffrey says, "When we were running
the hotels, Keith asked "there must be a way to
monitor how we are doing against the environment."
Heritage Hotels have been
recognised by Green Globe, the worldwide
benchmarking and certification programme, which
facilitates sustainable travel and tourism.
Jeffrey believes it helps the
company minimise its costs, "But at the same time the
flow on effect is quite good, from us to the
employees. And then you realise that Kiwis are
passionate about New Zealand and they say, 'I'm so
happy that our company is involved in this.
Let me do my part.' "Not everyone is like
that, but people are very positive."
Their corporate partners support the initiatives. "They look for
people who are of like-mindedness. In a way we
reckon ourselves to be like Toyota's hybrid car the Prius. Ten years ago nobody gave it any
credit, but today they're doing very well out of
it."
It's the passion, commitment and
"top-down" management that comes through constantly.
So from New Zealand to Singapore and the new venture
IEQ Global. Unfortunately, you can't bottle
that pure New Zealand air and ship it to this part
of the world. But talking to these three,
don't be surprised that if they're working on it.
The Tang brothers gained real insights from their
hotels. As Jeffrey says, "What we learnt from
New Zealand is fabulous. A lot of things
jolted in our mind, where we do from here? I
am an asthmatic, [IEQ global executive
director] Wei Ping's a germaphobe."
Speaking of germs, the
conversation briefly turned to hotel cleanliness or
lack thereof. Apparently the most polluted,
germ infested part of a hotel room is the TV remote.
It's quiet hard to clean effectively. Don't
even talk about some hotel door handles. Wei
Ping says, "Door handles in some five- and six-star
hotels contain human fecal matter, food, salmonella,
E.coil and even semen samples." That's
disgusting. "So you start to think, these guys
should be cleaning the door handles. We do,"
adds Wei Ping
Wei Ping explains the philosophy
of IEQ Global: "We've all know each other for more
than two decades. It's our belief that if you
take care of the earth, it will take care of you.
In all that we do to create a safe, healthy
environment indoors for everyone in Singapore, we do
it as far as possible using environmentally friendly
means." Jeffrey delves a bit deeper, he sees
themselves as "stewards" of their family resources.
"Our faith teaches us to be a good stewards, from
young we've been taught that. Not everything
is ours, we've got to keep it for the next
generation.
Okay, so what does IEQ do?
What does the name mean? IEQ stands for
"Indoor Environment Quality" and yes, the indoor
environment is just as, if not more important than
the outdoor environment - especially the air
conditioning.
Jeffrey explains, "The air
conditioning is actually the respiration system of
the building. What isn't really talked about
is how you take care of the people. Part of
IEQ Global is to create awareness. While we
can continue to support the green movement, while we
can do our part to refine the energy efficiency,
don't forget we can also create an environment that
is well suited and in line with all these
initiatives to create a healthy environment for all
of us. It's the flow on the effect of a person
not being at the best of health." Less sick
days equal healthier business bottom line.
Some of the things they have
discovered in and around air-conditioning systems
are the stuff of horror films. Insects, large
and small, alive, dead, skeletal dust blowing
around, decomposing rodents, rats - including one
"huge, juicy one" in the air conditioning system of
a large financial institution. So the
customers are breathing dead rat. Forget the
haze. Wei Ping says, they once found a fully
operational bird's nest with feathers. "The
customers said, 'We eat bird's nest all the time."
But as Wei Ping explains, "You might want to eat it,
you don't want to inhale it!"
As illustrated by the likes of
bird's nest building owner, it's educating these
people that they have a problem, it's not healthy to
have the decomposing cargo of Noah's Ark in your
air-conditioning system.
As its corporate brochure says,
IEQ Global provides solutions to address indoor
environmental quality requirements.... from air
quality, making surfaces more hygienic, right
through to energy efficient lighting, and they do
this in a calculated and scientific manner.
One example given was that you
have mould growing in your wardrobe that's spread to
your walls and your believe it's coming from the air
conditioning system. IEQ will find out where
it's coming from, what it actually is, how to kill
it and how to stop it growing again. As part of
the investigations, there's an air sampling, air
particle sampling, air content sampling, physical
inspection of air ducts, all surfaces, then they'll
decide what (environmentally friendly)
products to use. It's all very CSI Singapore
(Crime Scene Investigation, commonly referred to as
the television series CSI).
This is opposed to the possible
advice of one of those fly-by-night outfits, "Just
get your maid to wipe it down, open the windows and
put the air purifier on."
Those so- called air purifiers -
the lovely plastic spheres with the murky water
swishing around, pumping out some interesting
fragrance that Uncle Cabby swears by. In
comparison, IEQ's ultra high-tech versions are a
much better proposition.
In a relatively short time, IEQ
Global has racked up an impressive client base -
five- and six- star hotels (that do clean their
remotes and door handles), multinational
corporations and homes - right across the board.
They're also working in partnership with government
agencies and constantly pushing the envelope with
new technology.
The three men are passionate
about what they do, and excited about some of the
new solutions they are working on. They also
realise it will take time to change the mindset of a
lot of people. As Keith says, "We are in the
business of persuasion in a good sense. We go
one step further - Return On Investment.
People don't move unless they can see the benefits.
Our solutions can be quantified and at the end of
the day, what we save will help the company bottom
line."
With stewards like these at the
helm, our indoor and outdoor environment is in good
hands.
