Behind the Clean: How Kep West Is Raising Its Sustainability Standards

In early August, the Kep West and Knai Bang Chatt teams took part in a hands-on sustainability training led by longtime partner Ecolab, focused on eco-responsible housekeeping and F&B operations.

The KBC and Kep West team gathered for the Ecolab sustainability training in early August, hosted on-site at one of the group's properties overlooking Kep's coastline

Sustainability has long been part of the DNA at Knai Bang Chatt (KBC) and across the Kep West brands — from the hotel's low-impact architecture on Kep's waterfront to the ongoing partnership with Marine Conservation Cambodia protecting the seahorse populations just offshore. In early August, that commitment took a practical turn, as the KBC and Kep West team gathered for a dedicated training session delivered by Ecolab, the global leader in water, hygiene, and infection-prevention solutions — and a partner Kep West has worked alongside for many years — focused on sustainable practices for food & beverage operations and housekeeping.

A hands-on approach to greener hospitality

The training walked staff through the everyday choices that add up to a lighter environmental footprint: smarter dosing and dilution of cleaning products to cut chemical waste, safer handling and storage protocols, and — central to the session — a close look at biodegradability. Housekeeping teams were introduced to product formulations designed to break down safely without harming Kep's coastal waters and marine life, reinforcing a principle KBC has held since its founding: what happens on land here doesn't stay on land, it flows straight into the sea that defines this stretch of coastline.

Rather than a straight lecture, the session was run as an interactive workshop, with the group gathered around shared tables and a bilingual Khmer/English quiz projected live to keep the format engaging and accessible to every member of the team. Questions like "why is proper cleaning in guest rooms essential?" turned core hygiene and sustainability principles into a shared, hands-on discussion rather than a one-way briefing — a format that made the material stick for a housekeeping team spanning a range of roles and experience levels.

The live quiz, projected in both Khmer and English, kept every member of the team engaged and answering in real time

The session also served as a reminder of a standard already in place across the group. As Kep West founder Jef Moons points out, every cleaning product used across the resort is biodegradable, a policy that predates this year's training and underpins the group's broader environmental approach.

For a property with 18 rooms built around intimacy and a strong sense of place, housekeeping is never just back-of-house logistics — it's part of the guest experience and part of the promise Kep West makes to the surrounding community and ecosystem. Staff left the session with clearer standards for product use, waste reduction, and everyday habits that reduce the property's environmental impact without compromising the standard of care guests expect.

A longstanding partnership, and a broader sustainability story

Ecolab's involvement with Kep West is not a one-off: the relationship spans several years, giving this training the weight of an ongoing collaboration rather than a single workshop. In Cambodia, Ecolab operates through its local partner, PHS Asia, which supplies and supports its cleaning, sanitizing, and hospitality product range across the country. The August session drew on Ecolab's Housekeeping Program for Hospitality, a framework the company runs for hotels worldwide to simplify cleaning processes and pair easy-to-use products with hands-on staff training, built around the same sustainability and efficiency goals at the heart of the Kep training. It's a small local expression of a very large operation: Ecolab works with close to three million customer sites in more than 170 countries, and its housekeeping and hygiene programs are used by hotel groups across the globe — grounding for a set of practices that are then adapted to the specifics of a small, 18-room property on Cambodia's south coast.

It adds another layer to sustainability efforts already underway across the group. Green Season initiatives have highlighted the rhythms of Kep's rainy months and encouraged more mindful, low-impact travel. Kep West Wellness continues to champion practices — from sunrise yoga on the pier to treatments — rooted in a light-touch philosophy. And Art for Kep, the artist residency programme, regularly draws on themes of coastline, materials, and place, echoing the same respect for the local environment that now extends formally into daily housekeeping protocols.

By investing in training like this, KBC and Kep West are treating sustainability not as a marketing line but as an operational discipline — one measured in the products chosen, the water used, and the waste avoided, day after day. It's a quiet kind of commitment, but in a place like Kep, where the health of the sea is inseparable from the health of the community, it's exactly the kind of work that matters most.

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Curious what a stay at Knai Bang Chatt looks like, sustainability included? Book your stay or explore more of what Kep West is doing across the coast.