As #cop26 starts today, we are taking the time to revisit the informative podcast with Prof. Dr. Willy Legrand; on:

  • What is Sustainability 101 in Hospitality?
  • What are the Current Challenges facing hospitality operators when it comes to the implementation of sustainable practices
  • What are the Short- and Medium-term Goals that Hoteliers could focus on looking forward in 2021 and beyond?

1. Sustainability 101 in the hospitality:

Prof Dr Willy Legrand describes sustainability within the hospitality industry essentially as exploring ideas, solutions, strategies on how to manage current operations and developing future hotels in a way which is kind to the environment, healthy and inclusive to the workers, pleasing to the guest, whilst having a positive effect on, and within a community yet being profitable to the operators and in turn the owners. The recipe for which falls within a complex combination of environmental responsibility and social and economic obligations, that are quite complex when it comes to implementation.

2. Current challenges implementing sustainable practices:

Activating large-scale change is made difficult and challenging due to the way in which hotels operate. The complexity surrounding ownership, brands and operators hinders the ability to make large scale changes and make them quickly. Larger organisations, parties often include investment businesses that are not the same as the one operating the property, which in turn may be running their own brand, so getting all parties on board with a common goal and a method in which to implement and streamline goals and targets can be very time-consuming. In smaller operations mangers/owners can make the decisions quickly and adapt to change more readily.

Overall, Sustainability in the Hospitality industry has been progressing very slowly to date;
announcements of Big Bold Goals such as those made at the Paris agreement are seemingly overwhelming to achieve because of the complex structure of the industry. To achieve the goals outlined in the Paris agreement, the industry MUST commit to mitigating emissions, to keep the temperature increase within 2 Degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels. To do this, we as an industry, need to activate decarbonization on a large grand scale in-order to achieve carbon neutrality. Aggressive energy efficiency measures must be implemented along with the implementation of renewable energy to make an impact.

3. The focus for short- and medium-term goals:

Those hotels truly committed to sustainability will be able to bounce forward, those that use it for marketing, may just bounce back post pandemic. Those that are committed need to focus on energy, energy reduction, bio-diversity loss, increasing green spaces and green space ratios. Hospitality operations need to gather data, without data change cannot be measured and goals/targets cannot be met. The metrics are imperative. Operators need to begin now, monitor energy, water consumption and plan for green spaces; and not wait until the hotel is busy to begin setting goals. From large hotels to independent restaurants, there needs to be a focus on energy usage, food waste and water consumption, so that together as an industry we may see results in decarbonising the industry.

It's important to also know the SDG’s. Being familiar with the UN’s 17 Sustainability Development Goals, provides a framework to work towards; a common goal that outlines the roadmap that each of us can work together to achieve.

In the words of Prof. Dr. Willy Legrand: “A good decarbonization plan that comes too late is a bad decarbonization plan.”

With special thanks to @Tiffany McGrath for providing the article summary.

Radhika Arapally
Sustainability Stories - By Radhika Arapally

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