THE PUNCH PEOPLE
Meet Simon Pestridge:
CXO of Desa Potato Head
Guided by the belief that sustainability can lead us to a far better experience for the consumer, Desa Potato Head is a creative village by the ocean where music, art, design, food and wellness play together.
AS ONE OF THE LEADERS OF SUSTAINABLE HOSPITALITY IN BALI, HOW DOES POTATO HEAD INSPIRE CREATIVITY, BALANCE AND PROGRESS FOR THE FUTURE?
“The role of a brand is really simple. A brand has to create the world that you want to live in. If you don’t create the world you want to live in, then how is the consumer ever going to feel your passion?
This Desa (Potato Head) was the vision of our founder twelve years ago and it’s finally come to life. Our job is to inspire each other, find solutions and do things that nobody else would do. We’re an hospitality brand that wants to take sustainability and regeneration really seriously. We’re not a sustainability brand that wants to take hospitality seriously.
So our job is to inspire people, to give them the best possible experience and then find solutions to things that maybe other people aren’t even thinking about. And as we do that, we believe the guest experience will be better, our employees will learn every single day and we will keep moving forward.”
HOW ARE YOU OFFERING A BETTER EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS?
“I think there are so many ways you can look at that for us. People don’t want to choose sustainable products if they impact their experience, right? People want amazing experiences in life and our job is to find out what is the amazing experience and then how do we make it as best as possible for the planet.
One of the triggers we’ve had recently is if the definition of sustainability is something you can do forever and ever and ever, you can turn that to regeneration, which is an experience that gets better and better and better forever. Building and working with communities, making sure your impact on the planet is positive, all those little things add up to something that can be super special.
When you check into our hotel, you get a zero waste kit because we don’t need people bringing plastic to Bali. So you get a water bottle, your sunscreen, your insect repellent and your aloe vera. If we can stop what is coming in, it may not feel like a massive difference but it’s the little small steps that people can do and take home with them and say ah, I’m actually more sustainable every day.”
WHAT ROLE DOES A CREATIVE VILLAGE HAS IN RAISING AWARENESS ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY TO BOTH GUESTS & LOCAL COMMUNITIES?
“We had a vision to create a space where people could come and be themselves, get inspired to work, act and think differently. So tonight is a great example. I mean, what an amazing group of people to have in a room. And I’m sure there are conversations that will spur things that will happen tomorrow, in a year, and in five years. And that’s what a creative village is.
It’s getting amazing people together that are inspired to make the world a better place.
Let’s be honest, not to be down, but we’ve all screwed up the planet for the next generation. And so we have a responsibility for our kids and their kids and their kids to actually flip it. And that only comes from individuals making a difference every single day and inspiring new thinking. That’s what we hope to happen in a creative village but if a creative village isn’t fun and relaxing with great food, great drinks, great music, then I guess it’s a library and maybe not so much happens there.”
"If you don’t have the community in Bali, you have nothing."
WHAT ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO IN THE NEAR FUTURE FOR POTATO HEAD?
“Obviously, we’ve all had a black hole of two years in our lives. We built this place and then we had to shut it for 15 months and we never really saw the true vision come to life. So over the next year, we’re really hoping to bring everything that we wanted to do to the consumer, to the community in Bali. If you don’t have the community in Bali, you have nothing.
There’s one thing that we’re really galvanised around, and that is when we made the decision, with help of many people in this room, to try to get as close to zero waste to landfill as possible. We found that the most important thing you can do is actually separate your waste at source so you know where to take it.
We found a location in Seminyak to create a big waste facility, and we want Seminyak to become zero waste by partnering with hotels next door, other people, other businesses to actually be able to take the waste, separate it and do something with it. So we minimize the amount that goes to landfill.
If we can do that for Seminyak with partners, then maybe we can then do it for Bali and actually change the complete landscape of how waste is being managed right now, which is not acceptable. So that’s what we’re most looking forward to, and you’ll be hearing more about that from us in the very near future, with hopefully some wallets coming out.”