Earlier this week, Travelodge, one of the UK’s largest hotel chain’s that operates over 590 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain, has appointed Disability Positive to advise on policy and training programmes to support customers with lived experience of disability and long term health conditions, and their families.
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.
Like other destination marketing organizations (DMOs) impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, VisitScotland has launched marketing efforts to keep Scotland front of mind as potential visitors make future travel plans. At the same time, the organization wants to be sure that Scottish tourism builds back sustainably, in a way that supports the destination in the long term. In this post, we discuss how VisitScotland partnered with us at Expedia Group Media Solutions to deliver a series of marketing campaigns that promote both recovery and responsibility, and committed itself to these ideals by signing the UNESCO Sustainable Travel Pledge.
The Covid-19 pandemic has been ruthless and unwavering in its destruction over the past two years. In the UK, many lives have unfortunately been taken; pressure on the NHS reached new heights and the economy has suffered considerably. Businesses across the country were forced to close or operate at limited capacity with significant losses, and the health of businesses in the hospitality sector have been in jeopardy ever since. However, as we look ahead to a post-pandemic world, we have an opportunity to rebuild our economy in a greener, fairer and more resilient way; the key to doing so, is through innovation.
Bringing a whole new sense of green living to the hospitality industry, new hometel, room2 Chiswick steps away from polished neat interiors and instead offers a relaxed setting that feels real to the touch with genuine connection to craftsmanship and community. Inspired by the spirit of Chiswick’s 19th century arts and crafts heritage and recognising the climate situation, room2 Chiswick, the world’s first whole life net zero hotel, combines handcrafted local design with much reduced environmental impact, proving that style doesn't come at the expense of the environment.
The renovation of the future Gran Meliá hotel on the island of Menorca and the transformation of the Meliá Tamarindos in Gran Canaria into the future Paradisus Gran Canaria Resort have been named winners of the Rethink Hotel Award. The award is presented by the Habitat Futura Group at the FITUR International Tourism Trade Fair in recognition of the most sustainable hotel refurbishment projects based on criteria including energy efficiency, renewable energy use and production, waste management and water use.
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.
The pandemic, Brexit and ongoing supply issues have prompted key changes in the UK’s hotel sector, many of which are long-term, if not permanent.
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.
Spotta Smart Pest Systems has partnered with Stainbusters Cleaning & Hygiene Services as part of a strategic programme to bring full-service smart bed bug detection and treatment to accommodation-based businesses.
The BTA is taking the initiative for the business travel industry to fulfil the United Nation’s (UN) COP26 goals with a trailblazing 3-step environmental, social and governance (ESG) campaign, launching in January 2022.
The challenges faced by the wine industry globally are echoed in the Swiss wine industry too. Setting aside the challenges brought by the global pandemic, we took a look through the lenses of sustainability, innovation and global warming to analyse the current developments taking place in the Swiss wine regions.
Tourism leaders from around the world will once again come together for the UNWTO, WTTC & WTM Ministers’ Summit at WTM London this November, to commit to investing in the sector’s sustainable future.
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.
room2, the hometel brand, announces that it will open the world’s first whole life net zero carbon hotel in Chiswick, West London, in December. Expected to be 89% more energy efficient than the typical UK hotel per sqm, room2 Chiswick has been built with pioneering technologies to achieve net zero throughout both the design and construction stages and throughout its whole life, which, in a hotel industry first, includes both embodied and operational emissions.
Strong partners have come together to assist with an integrative education programme entitled “Football meets Culture”. In Frankfurt am Main, local supporters of the initiative introduced themselves and described their work with socially disadvantaged children.
Non-profit organisation Ecamir has been awarded a Hilton Effect Grant to introduce interactive lessons on environmental sustainability to more than 250,000 schoolchildren of all ages across Russia.
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.
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.
Conserving resources for future generations requires a pro-active approach. The Steigenberger Grandhotel Belvédère Davos in the Swiss Alps has become one of the first active participants in the Davos Climate Fund, which was instigated today by the Destination Davos Klosters Tourism Office and the not-for-profit organisation myclimate. The goal is for the town to become carbon neutral by 2030. The financial resources made available via the fund will be used for purposes such as the establishment of renewable energies, investment in electromobility equipment including e-bikes, e-cars and charging stations or special measures to raise awareness amongst guests and the local population.