Six Senses, one of the world’s most environmentally conscious resort groups,
knows how to pamper guests in style BY MIA LJUNGBERG
EvA MALMSTROM SHIvdASANI,
a Swedish former model, and Sonu Shivdasani, with an Indian/ British background that includes a grandfather who was a friend of Gandhi, built their first resort, Soneva Fushi, in the Maldives following the concept of “intelligent luxury”—respect for both nature and people. Today their string of Six Senses resorts has placed them among the most famous hoteliers in the world and garnered them a multitude of awards and prizes for their environmental programs.
The Six Senses group of luxury resorts now encompasses a number of different brands: Soneva by Six Senses, Six Senses Hideaway, Six Senses Latitude, Evason, Six Senses Spa and Six Senses Destination Spa (rates range from $250 to $1,500 and up per night for two).
When I spoke with Eva, she was in Sweden visiting her family—she spends the summers in the north, and winters in the sun. Eva prefers to stay in the Maldives, but also spends a lot of time at the Six Senses headquarters in Bangkok, where she functions as the creative director of the group. In
PARADISE FOUND: the presidential suite at Hideaway Samui (above); Sonu and Eva Shivdasani (left).
conversation she emphasizes a commitment to “sustainable and eco-friendly” resorts as a secret of the company’s success. She is tough about using the right materials. The resorts are built whenever possible of locally sourced wood, bamboo, and natural products. Trees and native vegetation are built around rather than cut down.
Here are a number of other steps the Shivdasanis are taking to make their resorts as eco-conscious as possible:
• Each resort has its own organic
vegetable garden. Only locally
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