The Circular Prerequisite: Why Regeneration Without Circularity Is Just Greenwashing
Manuel Maqueda argues that “regenerative” hospitality is meaningless – and often pure greenwashing – if it is built on a linear “take–make–waste” model. He outlines a three-step journey from efficiency (doing things right) to circularity (designing out waste and toxicity) to true regeneration (actively restoring ecosystems and communities), warning that you cannot skip the circular step and still claim to heal.
In the high-stakes arena of global hospitality, we are navigating a semantic storm. “Regenerative” has arrived like a hurricane, threatening to displace “sustainable” as the industry’s buzzword du jour. We see it everywhere: regenerative tourism, regenerative resorts, regenerative travel.
Alas, even if the people I advise don't want to hear this, regeneration is not a feature to add to an existing portfolio, nor a new “app” to patch a buggy interface.
The Hotel Yearbook 2026 - Sustainability Edition
The HYB 2026 The Regenerative Question: What Hospitality Must Become tackles regenerative hospitality's fundamental tensions. Moving beyond sustainability buzzwords, contributors will explore three perspectives: purists advocating holistic living-systems approaches; realists demanding measurable frameworks for accountability and scalability; and strategists seeking pragmatic balance between transformation and implementation. This edition serves as a critical forum to interrogate the divides, identify synergies, and define actionable pathways forward. By convening industry experts, researchers, and entrepreneurs, we transform contested concepts into constructive dialogue and, ultimately, clarifying what regenerative hospitality authentically is and isn't.