Put Care And Sustainability At The Heart Of All You Do
For an authentic, luxurious escape, travellers now want to feel good about the environment they choose to visit. According to a Sustainable Travel Report from Booking.com, 87% of people today want to travel more sustainably.1 Furthermore, 68% of travellers are seeking eco-friendly hotels, with even the most fervent luxury seekers wanting to offset any potential damage caused to their destination2 and the wider world.
Young travellers, in particular Millennials and Generation Z, are leading this demand for change. They are deeply informed about environmental issues and now want to see accountability from the hotels and companies they use.3 However, these guests are not shunning the trappings of traditional luxury. They want the high-end experience, delivered in a manner which reflects their personal values and care for the wider world.
In this context, it makes sense that we are seeing prestigious hoteliers and their partner brands throughout the market stepping up their game in the quest to be more sustainable.
True sustainability must permeate every aspect of the hotel experience and delivering it relies as much on the efforts of the brands themselves as it does the hoteliers. Sustainable goals need to be ingrained in every aspect of a brand's DNA and production process.
Our commitments to the planet
For brands, this work to meet consumers' demands must begin at home and success will require a willingness to evolve and improve. In some cases, it will also mean challenging processes which have been in place for many years.
Our Global Vice President Marketing Beatrice Descorps explains: "Treasuring the world has been at the heart of Molton Brown since we began in 1971, so we understand what it means to put sustainability at the centre of all we do. We stand by and believe in the ideal that development must meet "the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.4
"Our founders hand-mixed their first collections in their exclusive Mayfair salon, using only the finest materials, and they never tested on animals – a ground-breaking concept at the time. As our co-founder Caroline Burstein describes: 'There was this feeling of care. That's really been the essence of what Molton Brown stood for and why the products were developed.'"
"Today, that journey continues as we deliver positive luxury to our customers and hotel partners who share our values and care for the world around us. We are proud to be a vegetarian brand and will be 100% vegan5 by 2022, with 97% of our collections already achieving this. We've also been cruelty free since 1971 and approved by the Leaping Bunny programme since 2012. All our products are paraben-free and microbead-free, using more planet-friendly, natural alternatives like olive stones, black peppercorn and volcanic sand to exfoliate the skin."
"To ensure we always maintain our luxury and sustainability credentials, our hotel amenities share the same exceptional formulas as our bestselling and award-winning retail collections. We don't believe in diluting or changing our hotel products in any way."
The power of honesty
The modern guest and consumer will not accept brands which only pay lip service to ethical production. As a result, all supply chains and production practices must be transparent and fully accountable.
Beatrice says: "At Molton Brown, our products have been Made in England since the very beginning, and we have committed to this for our future. This means we can uphold the highest quality standards on our doorstep while promoting local and greener manufacturing. Our facility in Elsenham is 100% powered by renewable energy, while 97% of its waste is recycled, with an ambition to reach zero landfill waste by 2025. We also control all our own sourcing, carbon emissions and waste, so we can carry out more ambitious actions that are kinder to the environment."
Tackling a shared plastic problem
She continues: "Demand for sustainability does not just come from guests. Our hotel partners want brands to help resolve key issues such as packaging waste and single-use plastic."
This requires a complete change of mentality, from small scale fixes to innovations and changes which eliminate single-use plastics and virgin resources from the production loop. It is imperative that brands take the initiative here to support the efforts of hotel partners and lead the way with new innovations.
"At Molton Brown, we are dedicated to constantly improving our packaging," Beatrice states. "Our packaging is 100% FSC certified and we have participated in the EU's Green Dot Programme since 2006 for the recovery and recycling of packaging waste. On top of this, in February 2020, we upgraded our Hotel Accessories collection to feature fully recyclable outer packaging."
Big challenges require game-changing solutions which offer direct support to our partners. For the last 20 years, the Molton Brown Dispensing Programme has helped reduce waste, while delivering a key focus on hygiene and safety - paramount to both hoteliers and guests in the current environment.
Beatrice adds: "Our wide assortment of dispensers caters to all needs, with different sizes and styles. They can all be replenished with five litre refills, helping to eliminate the need for single-use plastic bottles. Continuing our purpose to deliver sustainable solutions, we just launched our new Signature Dispenser. Installing one unit prevents more than 18,250 bottles and 137kg of plastic being sent to landfill every year6."
In today's market, brands must be responsible for every step of the path products take, from conception to delivery.
Beatrice concludes: "As pioneers in positive luxury, we at Molton Brown are always working on new ways to nurture our planet, so our hotel partners and their guests can feel good while using our collections and services."
To discover more about how we can work with you, contact Simon James, General Manager EMEA for Molton Brown [email protected]
For more information and images, please contact the Molton Brown press office team [email protected]
1 Booking.com, 2018
2 Art of Luxury Hospitality, Walpole, Sept 2020
3 Stylus, 2020
4 UNESCO, 1987
5 No ingredient of animal origin
6 Based on Molton Brown data of 30ml bottles used annually in a typical 100-room luxury hotel
Chris Madden
Account Manager
