How to be a better traveller: 9 lessons from architect and hotelier Bill Bensley

Now more than ever we are striving to make sure our travel choices are careful and considered – to travel more slowly, purposefully and consciously by spending in local economies and connecting with communities. But how?

In our new How to be a Better Traveller series, our editors sit down for a Zoom chat with some of the industry’s heroes, visionaries and change-makers to discuss everything from the climate crisis to cultural conservation, zero-waste innovations to economic nutrition, and learn how even small changes can make a big difference in ensuring our travel choices are a force for good.

‘While none of us can predict the future, together we are the ones who can shape it,’ says Condé Nast Traveller sustainability editor Juliet Kinsman. ‘It’s not enough to just talk about travel as a power for positive change, we need to share inspiring stories that show how and explain why. The truth is, sustainability is complicated, nuanced and ever-evolving, but by speaking to those leading the way, we can all travel better – better for us and better for the world.’

9 LESSONS FROM ARCHITECT AND HOTELIER BILL BENSLEY

Sustainability editor Juliet Kinsman speaks to Bill Bensley

‘A humble gardener’ is how Bangkok-based architect, hotelier, landscape designer and passionate environmentalist Bill Bensley describes himself, dramatically downplaying his role in defining a generation of Asian hotels, creating more than 200 of the world’s best-loved properties, most in the continent, from Four Seasons Tented Camp Golden Triangle in Chiang Rai to Bangkok’s The Siam; Capella Ubud to Rosewood Luang Prabang. But it’s on the subject of sustainability rather than design that he’s most passionate. In 2004, his business partner Sokoun Chanpreda founded the Shinta Mani Foundation, which Bensley is closely involved in, investing in community outreach, education and healthcare projects throughout Cambodia. In 2019, they opened Shinta Mani Wild deep in the Cardamom jungle, buying up a huge tract of land to save it from being auctioned off to loggers and creating a hotel as conservation project, with profits going directly to pay rangers who help protect the forest against illegal poaching. And most recently, Bensley’s Sensible Sustainability Solutions open-source white paper shares his 30 years of experience on the best eco-friendly design practices. In this interview with Condé Nast Traveller’s sustainability editor Juliet Kinsman, Bensley talks about how storytelling is at the heart of everything he does, how the backstories of the people you meet on your travels are the most important things you can take away and why he thinks ‘greenwashing should carry a mandatory prison sentence’.

RONALD AKILI, CO-FOUNDER OF DESA POTATO HEAD HOTEL IN BALI, ON HIS WAKE-UP CALL TO PLASTIC WASTE

Sustainability editor Juliet Kinsman speaks to Ronald Akili

Indonesian entrepreneur Ronald Akili never set out to run a hospitality business that championed sustainability, but after going out for a surf session with his son one day in Bali and ending up ‘swimming in a trash bowl’ his eyes were opened to the human damage being done. Now he’s not just passionate about environmental conservation, but cultural preservation too. He revitalised a traditional Balinese brick-making village by ordering 1.5 million bricks, as well as using other locally produced materials, to create his first hotel, Katamama. That project is now called Potato Head Suites, and is part of a hybrid hotel, venue, creative community and sustainability incubator on Seminyak’s shores. In this interview with Condé Nast Traveller’s sustainability editor Juliet Kinsman, Akili talks about turning his passion for art and design into eco-friendly products, as well as Bali’s role in encouraging more ‘light-footed’ travel.

Aim to LIVE A MORE LOW-WASTE LIFE

Acting digital editor Sonya Barber talks to Douglas McMaster

Douglas McMaster is on a mission to transform the food industry. With his restaurant Silo – which first appeared as pop-ups in Sydney and Melbourne, then as a bricks-and-mortar site for five years in Brighton and now in a warehouse in Hackney – he’s tested and innovated, refined and ripped up the rulebook to create his blueprint for how to run a restaurant where absolutely nothing is thrown away. And it’s not easy: from persuading suppliers not to use packaging and milling all your own flour and culturing cream to turning carrot peelings into delicious syrups and repurposing empty wine bottles into beautiful plates and wall lights. In this interview with Condé Nast Traveller, McMaster discusses his bold, inspirational and often incredibly difficult quest to run the world’s first truly zero-waste restaurant and why we should see everything we do as a vote for the kind of world we want to live in.

Read about Silo in our round-up of the best restaurants in London right now

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