Not just a new year, but a new decade has begun – and it is going to be ‘THE’ defining decade for addressing climate change and finally reducing those Co2 emissions.
I was hoping we could start this year on a positive note, as within our team and indeed the sustainability sector there has been a huge surge in uptake of sustainable practices, which is hugely exciting. ESG is the new buzz word in all the financial markets (see my latest blog on this in the HOTELS Magazine newsletter), and is also affecting the hotel market as many of the big asset funds holding hotel properties are keen for their properties to be shifting to more sustainable operations.
However, with COP25 in Madrid not having reached positive conclusions, mainly due to the government of Australia blocking some key issues around Carbon trading, it is very sad to see that this country should now be the showcase of the tragedies that increased temperatures are gradually bringing to humankind.
As we are all watching in horror how millions of animals have been killed due to the blazing wildfires and thousands of people have lost their homes, the anger on the streets is growing towards governments reluctant to confront the serious issues around policy making, to finally leave fossil fuels in the ground where they belong.
As with last year’s winter newsletter – I am writing this at the same time as world leaders are all gathering in Davos for the annual World Economic Forum and their founder, Klaus Schwab, has declared that this year’s conference to be all about the ‘stakeholder’ and not the shareholders. Climate was right at the top of the agenda .In an article published earlier this week, Huw van Steenis, the chair of the sustainable finance committee at UBS reflected on how ‘Climate change and its financial impact dominated conversations this year. Beneath the noise, I came away with even higher conviction that climate risk analysis of companies and portfolios is moving out of a specialised niche and into the mainstream.’
For us at Considerate and for you as hotels or hospitality businesses, all of the above just means, nothing is ‘business as usual’ but – ‘all hands need to be on deck’ now.
We are therefore delighted to be introducing all our team members to you in this newsletter who will be there to help you in this new decade of action. As we have grown as a company, we are proud to have so many talented, dedicated, experienced and passionate sustainability advisors helping us deliver change in our industry.
We are also delighted to announce that we have started working for Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) to help drive sustainability practices for them as a global company
January is also the month for renewed efforts around reducing food waste – so you will be able to read all the latest news around WRAPs efforts on this front.
A brand new campaign called “The Global Tourism Plastics Initiative’ has just been launched at FITUR in Madrid, as a collaboration between UNEP/ UNWTO and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, for which we have been asked to be on the Advisory Committee, which is enormously exciting too!
And last but not least we will also be heading the brand new Sustainability Council, created by QUESTEX for this year’s IHIF in Berlin during the first week of March. Please do join in on the session should you be planning on attending the conference.
Plus, there are plenty of case studies on best practice examples, new solutions provided by some suppliers as well as some of our new partners- we very much hope you enjoy the read!
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