It is now official! Our new ‘baby’, the Considerate app – the latest addition to our set of sustainability solutions – has a name and look. We are delighted to be introducing ‘fluttr’ to you! Small acts create one movement of change. Click here for more details and do contact us if you want to be part of the exciting testing phase!
Having just returned from the WTTC’s (World Travel and Tourism Council’s) annual summit, where Barack Obama was welcomed as the key-note speaker, we were heartened to find sustainable travel and hospitality at the top of the agenda, along with climate change.
About 40% of all panel sessions covered either one or both of these topics; a huge increase from only five years ago when it was probably no more than 5%. Back then the Tourism for Tomorrow Awards were also held as a separate event, rather than being an integral part of the conference as they now are (please visit the WTTC website to view all the winners of this year’s Awards)
The highlight of the event was of course the hour-long interview which the CEO of Hilton Hotels, Christopher Nassetta, conducted with President Barack Obama. The 47th President of the USA highlighted how important travel -or rather the ability to move between different cultures and experiences -had been to his personal development and understanding of the world’s varied peoples, fostering tolerance as well as furthering international dialogue.
The fact that he is the only President of the USA to have ever lived in various countries, such as Indonesia, as well as spend much of his up-bringing in far flung Hawaii, have certainly marked his personality as a more open-minded politician, seeking international consensus and dialogue rather than putting up border walls.
“Be kind – be considerate” are the two key pieces of advice Mr Obama gives his daughters, confirming our name as The Considerate Group is an appropriate one!!
The WTTC’s slogan ‘Tourism – a force for good’ is of course one all of us working in this industry strongly believe in too. Under this motto, this year’s event was certified by Bureau Veritas as a sustainable event, recognising that it had been designed, organized and planned to minimize its negative environmental impact, while also providing “a beneficial legacy for the local community and for all the people and institutions that are involved in its celebration. ”
However this also means we have to be even more aware of some of the negative impacts this sector can have environmentally, as well as socially (such as through over-tourism)
To find out more about the main trends discussed during the summit- here is a brilliant short video summing it all up: https://www.wttc.org/about/media-centre/videos/
Overall the repeated message was that sustainability and measures around Climate Change need to be a business case, which has always been at the core of our approach with our data monitoring platform Con-Serve™, as we strive to help hotels save money while improving their resource efficiency.
The other key take away for those businesses embracing sustainability was that the clients expect your initiatives to be told in a fun and entertaining way- it’s back to our #50ShadesofGreen- as per the interview featuring us in the Financial Times.
A great example of a beautiful and new, visual story telling on CSR can also be found on the Oetker Collection’s brand new CSR webpage which we are immensely proud of, having played an instrumental part in its building. For those who have been following us on our Social Media Channels (Twitter, Instagram & Facebook) we have started telling some of our clients successes through visual infographics, and giving fun facts on how to reduce your impact through our #FridayFacts – so please do follow us – as we hope to give you creative ideas on how to communicate your own ‘journey to sustainability’.
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