By Joanna Kapatou, Business Development Manager at Considerate
To reiterate Xenia’s comments in our recent Summer News Bulletin, the second quarter of 2019 was one of our busiest quarters in a long time, and the Considerate team was part of a plethora of key industry and climate events. As the Business Development Manager at Considerate, an important part of my work is participating in and attending a number of key hospitality and sustainability events. The theme at almost all events so far this year, has been that the momentum and demand for sustainability to become an integral part of business strategy and operations is growing exponentially, and will only continue to become more prominent.
Benedetta, one of our managing partners, and I, co-hosted a joint presentation with the Carbon Trust, for a Peer Review on the leading hotel companies in carbon effective and environmental measures early in May. This also highlighted how much needs to happen in our specific sector as tourism is still seen as one of main laggards when it comes to climate mitigation. Across the board organisations have a tendency to be further ahead with social initiatives, and supply chain matters, but there is still a lot of room for mid-cap, private businesses to protect and grow margins and asset values through good environmental performance.
Shortly after our in-house collaboration and Peer Review, I attended the Behind the Scenes @Twickenham, Arena Network event. Sustainability in stadiums was an important theme of the day, as the amount of plastic and disposables at events can be immense. I was also very proud to present some best practice examples from our clients at the ‘Sustainability and Managing Your Energy’ event, on May 14th, hosted by HOSPA. Participants on the day were presented with London & the UK’s climate strategy and took away top tips for making energy savings.
This was followed by London’s inaugural Climate Action Week during the 1st week of July. This series of events emphasised the city’s unique role as the leading international hub for businesses working globally to tackle climate change and encompassed more than 120 events. London Climate Action Week helped mobilise organisations and local communities as well as companies to work towards London’s Net Zero goal and stimulate new conversations and partnerships. I was also honoured to be part of London & Partners, and the London Convention Bureau’s Day on Sustainability in Tourism. My presentation centred around sustainability initiatives that hospitality businesses can integrate into their operations as well as highlighting best practice in the industry.
Finally, I am very excited to share that last Monday we delivered a bespoke Resource Efficiency Workshop to hotel participants in the Air Quality Project, in partnership with the PaddingtonNow Business Improvement District. We had a great, half-day strategic session and are on track to complete our project in January 2020, delivering one of London’s most innovative borough-level air quality projects.
As sustainability takes top priority on the business agenda, if you’d like to explore how it could take shape within your company’s own operations, please get in touch.
