Sustainability

The more crises we experience the more important it is to be resilient as a business or destination. And the best way to be resilient is to be sustainable ecologically, socially and economically. Ecological sustainability means energy independence and maintenance of the very assets that tourism relies on.

We are in the middle of various interrelated crises that affect tourism, but most people tend to forget that tourism has been intregal in causing these very crises. Tourism is ten percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Oil and gas have been sourced from the worst places, cheap beating responsible.

One of EarthCheck's favourite sayings is you can't manage what you don't measure. Investing in a system that enables understanding of pressure points and consequently overspend, drives performance and value. Data-driven decision-making turns tactical implementations into savings that are good for business and good for the planet.

Personal Carbon Allowances I am fundamentally against these proposals for a number of reasons It keeps making the Climate Crisis an individual problem and lets the 100 companies worldwide who are responsible for 71% of all emissions off the hook – blame the individual, make us all feel guilty.

Whilst on the surface the concept has merits – it assigns personal responsibility to impact and forces individuals to shift behaviour based on their actions – but in reality, who would manage, ensure compliance and cover the costs associated with such a significant program?

It is becoming more and more difficult to reach the goal of the Paris Agreement and keep global warming well below 2 degree C. It is therefore understandable that PAC is back on the table. In my vision of sustainability, developed with George Curiel back in 2012 and entrusted to the 'Three Levels of Sustainability' book recently published in a second edition, we argue that responsibility should be taken not only at the level of societies and organisations, but also at the individual level.

The failure of circularity so far has a lot to do with the perceived bennefits for companies, and the hospitality industry is no different. The purpose of circularity is not clear for managers if it is not connected to key performance indicators at corporate level.

Circularity as a concept faces restraints in hospitality companies. One explanation could be that hospitality managers hardly ever control the entire product or resource cycle from cradle to grave/ cradle. That being said, efforts for 1) improved recycling, 2) waste reduction and 3) utilization of used and recycling materials and resources has become a reality in most companies.

Embedding circular economy principles into hospitality is not a myth, but a necessary ambition. It is crucial that the industry transitions away from a linear and extractive business model to a circular model with regenerative environmental impacts.

Yes, we need hospitality development to both cater to growing demand and to ensure conservation of biodiversity. It is not sustainable to rely exclusively on tax or donor funded conservation. We need the business community to be a part of it, and to make it financially viable.

The central question posed to the panel is: should the hotel industry refrain or not from developing in remote or rich natural areas? Although I may be accused to have imbibed too much of the Dutch directedness, my immediate answer would be that it should!

I believe the answer to these questions lies in the desired reason for a new project build, and the intrinsic ethos of the decision makers. If the anticipated outcome for development is purely economic, then the planned tourist accommodation build should not take place.

In order to grasp a vision for a preferable future, it might be useful to rewind to our past. According to Prof. Em. Conrad Lashley, the origins of tourism and hospitality lie in "hospitableness", or the human faculty to welcome and host strangers.

Of course, the question is a false dichotomy. We must do both - Think and act locally; think and act globally.Global standards, like the GSTC criteria, provide comprehensive frameworks designed to ensure holistic approaches to sustainability.

Certifications that I am familiar with that have the most flexibility are EarthCheck and ISO 14001. As management systems, they are not points-based checklists that many times allow a property to be doing well in one area, without a focus on other areas.

For the technical stuff, a GSTC accredited certification organization. For sustainability leadership insights, stories, advice (e.g. how to get started, how to succeed, pitfalls to avoid,..) the Sustainability Leaders Project, Sustainability-leaders.com.

I was finding it hard to explain the difference between net zero and carbon neutral in an easy way that everyone would understand. Everything I found online was too long, too complicated or just not succinct enough until I found a fantastic blog by Ecologi that puts it into simple and understandable terms.

I don't have go-to websites for sustainability matters but we launched last year the Hospitality of the Future Think Tank, focusing on providing information and actionable tools and ideas around sustainability and following the UN SDGs.

Restoration and regeneration are seen by many as the next frontier of sustainability in general and sustainability in hospitality and tourism in particular. NHL Stenden Hotel Management School (Leeuwarden, the Netherlands) has joined forces with Smart Travel Lab and the Ryerson University Hotel Management School to launch a challenge for hospitality management students: "The Regeneration Collection".

Hospitality businesses should develop detailed plans that enable them to eliminate their carbon emissions in the next one to two decades. The plans should include the achievement of periodic milestones. There are three steps to eliminating carbon emissions, and they don't need to be completed in order.

Tackling climate change and biodiversity loss can seem like a huge challenge and getting started is often the hardest part. I believe concrete action number one starts with you, the business owner. The process of integrating more sustainable practices that help tackle climate change and biodiversity loss into a business does not have a start and a finish.

COP26 is important, because if we ALL don't finally take action against climate change, things will get tight. But what is even more important is the COP15. Am I too late or did I get the numbers mixed up? No, from October 11 - 15 the COP15 of the Convention on Biological Diversity (the CBD) will take place - and there, unlike with climate change, it is not about the question "how will we live in the future?" but about the question "will we live in the future?"

The hospitality industry has tried hard for long to live in its own bubble, feeling that until recently, the pressure (from customers and other stakeholders) to become genuinely sustainable was not high enough. Times have changed dramatically, alongside the realization that changing mindsets, processes and technologies to drastically reduce negative operational impacts was no longer a question of IF, but of WHEN.

The COP26 website defines its importance in one line: “The world's best last chance to get runaway climate change under control.” The hospitality industry cannot afford not to care about what is discussed and decided in Glasgow.

It is exciting to see first attempts of hospitality procurement moving away from a mere risk-driven CYA approach to more holistic, impact-driven initiatives. Procurement strategies should be aligned with company sustainability strategies.

Buyers of hotel space and land transport services, whether for corporate travel or leisure travel, seeking sustainable suppliers can either conduct massive analysis of the self-made claims of individual suppliers or they can turn to external verification programs of sustainability claims.

Supply chain management allows a hotel to have a much wider impact than through its operations alone, since it links to many other key topics such as waste management, human rights or carbon emissions. Furthermore, hotels can address many of the SDG's through responsible purchasing.

Many businesses continue to consider sustainability as something that is costly and necessary, rather than to get certified, to engage in additional measures on a voluntary basis and to then communicate all of these efforts pro-actively.

How should the industry communicate the added value of sustainability (rather than added cost) that resonates with guests that espouse similar values? There should be no added cost – in 2 decades of working with hotels on environmental sustainability I have never found a hotel that spent more than they saved – even with large capital investment projects as the savings paid for the investment.

Rather than focus on sustainability, communication should center on more fulfilling experiences that guests will enjoy and the higher quality which such measures often mean. This combined with sharing stories of people and communities who are part of it or benefit.

The value of being outdoors has been thrust into the spotlight by the pandemic and is now prized more than ever before. This is a perfect moment for urban hotel owners to leverage this demand by increasing access to, and encouraging use of, green areas.

When I took note of the topic of this new viewpoint, I felt compelled to step out of my office to go immerse myself in nature to ponder on it. As I was walking mindfully along the banks of the nearby swamp on a sunny spring day, surrounded with blossoming fragrant trees and lulled by the birds' warbling, a delightful sense of serenity and bliss took hold of me.

Climate change is about "how do we live in the future?"; biodiversity loss is about "do we live in the future?" So the question "should we act?" does not arise. Hotels in the urban settings should design their facilities to be biodiversity-friendly and take the issue fully into account in procurement.

The UN IPCC states that to avoid climate catastrophe, the world needs to cut its carbon emissions by almost half by 2030 (from the 2018 level) and close to 100% by 2050. That's quite imaginable for new hotels, but much more challenging for existing ones.

Sustainability-driven legislation should not be only falling on the governments, but also be a responsibility for hospitality operators and investors, using the various legal documents they have at their disposal: design standards, lease/management/franchise agreements, operating guidelines.

I see the biggest potential of legislation in bringing down green premiums for hospitality businesses. Especially in the fields of green energy supply and circular economy solutions, those premiums are still very high and likely to discourage investments into a sustainable future.

Let customers review how sustainable a hotel is by having up to 5 green stars (on top of the existing star rating). Booking.com and TripAdvisor and other such platforms could adopt such a feature not just for hotels but other hospitality businesses too (If they do feature other types).

The perception of sustainable business practice is intrinsically linked to the way it is communicated. Acceptable actions and solutions are framed through language choice and messaging approach. The unexpressed concern that “green” is interpreted as cost-cutting and reduced quality must be eliminated.

Presently travelers have a hard time identifying which hotel goes well in line which what the “green guest” is actually looking for. Two problems arise: First, most tourism operators know too little about their impact on the environment and tools for how to measure and reduce it.

The temptation to type the word People 5 times was too great. But I think People X 5 is still not good enough. So I shall say People in the power of 5! Prior to COVID-19, we were talking about the great need for more hospitality people and how we entice more young people and talent in the industry.

Sustainability is often - and unconsciously - translated as dispense of things we'd like to do or goods we'd like to have. Abandon flying, stop eating meat… But what if we changed not only the narrative but also our attitude? What if we'd rather focused on everything we gained from changing the way we do business, we consume, and we travel?

All stakeholders are becoming more environmentally aware and looking for quantifiable actions, carbon reduction strategies, and clear messages from the businesses they interact with – no more so than the hospitality sector which has a substantial environmental footprint.

The problem is far wider than some may estimate. Hospitality is not just any business. It's the type of business that provides an escape from day to day troubles, it's essential to wellbeing and a vital medicine to society's ills.

Part of the mental balance brought by our professional activities is based on our feelings of contribution and progression, which seem to be two axes that companies can continue to foster. A time of low (no) activity can be an opportunity to organize special theme committees to contribute to the company's improvement and resilience.

The COVID-19 winding road: Personal experience & Importance of CommunityRunning out of energy is exactly where I find myself. I went from an active interpersonal schedule with 200-300 people a day to forced isolation, alone, in Miami, Florida.

Whether hoteliers will do what they can to use the current crisis as an opportunity to be (better) prepared and (more) resilient when the next crisis hits - and the climate emergency for many destinations will be a question of survival - probably depends on their own values and purpose of doing business.

We continue to have a culture and structure problem that blocks a "green recovery". I frequently hear students who work for chains say they read about sustainability initiatives on the corporate website (not a job requirement; it's a class assignment), but then do not see evidence of those commitments at their property.

Readiness and willingness are only two aspects to a “build back better” turnaround to sound eco-friendly and sustainable hospitality industry. Even if both exist, we'll often see a lack of expertise on how to deal with biodiversity and ecosystem services in a manner that makes the difference between greenwashing and responsible business development.

Micro-certification - while certainly useful for hospitality businesses in that they could pick what they need and thus experience a lower entrance barrier to sustainability assessment - would complicate things as customers have no idea what kind of factors contribute to a specific badge or label.

We can learn from how other sectors are grappling with this. After I read the question, I went to my pantry for a selection of items with various certifications - an average of 4 per product. Some labels I always look for (Certified Organic or Humane), others I try to find (B Corp), and others aren't necessary but serve as a trust-building bonus (labels related to allergens or a hodgepodge of ingredient specific ones).

Yes, there is a role for micro-certifications companies who can prove to properly apply international protocols covering specific issues, which are at the top list of the hospitality industry and the international demand. Beyond that particular role, there is also an open space to be full-filled by these organizations adding value through close collaboration and advisory services, helping companies improve their performance in different aspects such as climate neutrality.Micro-certifications are growing in number and outreach and so far, experience shows that there are here to stay.