World Environment Day 2021, on 5 June, gave hoteliers the opportunity to demonstrate their ambitions in terms of sustainable development. While Hilton announced last week that it would be rolling out its carbon-neutral meetings in Europe by offsetting their footprint, IHG took advantage of this opportunity to highlight the initiatives taken by its hotels. For example, the Crowne Plaza Copenhagen Towers is highlighting its façade covered in solar panels and its system based on groundwater to reduce its carbon footprint. keep the building cool in summer and warm during the winter months. For its part, the InterContinental New York Barclay has six beehives on its roof and a vegetable garden enriched by its EnviroPure Digestor system, which uses enzymes to separate food waste into compost and brown water for cultivating the garden.
So many things in line with the expectations of travellers, who are more concerned than ever to travel responsibly in the wake of the pandemic. At the same time as announcing a whole series of sustainable and responsible initiatives grouped together under the 'Journey for Tomorrow' programme, the IHG Group demonstrated this last February with a global survey of 9,000 adults. The results showed that 60 % of them said that they wanted to be more sustainable and responsible. greater environmental and social awareness when they travel.
On the strength of this generally shared observation, Melia unveiled its "The planet we lovethe Spanish hotel operator has been working on over the past few months with Climatetrade, a Spain's leading fintech in carbon credit management. Members of the MeliáRewards loyalty programme can now exchange points for carbon credits certified by the United Nations.
Customers loyal to the hotel operator can support one of the two projects selected by Melia. The first, in Brazil, aims to reduce methane emissions and transform this gas into non-polluting energy for thousands of at-risk households. The second, approved by AENOR and developed by Acciona, aims to promote the use of renewable energy. new sustainable infrastructures in the water and energy sectors, benefiting more than 700,000 households in Mexico. And this with a process based on blockchain technologyThis guarantees transparency and traceability.
" By using blockchain technology, we can achieve a greater impact and also certify the destination of the funds.said Francisco Benedito, CEO of Climatetrade. Offsetting our travel is a game-changer for the sector, as we neutralise the pollution caused by travel." . " The planet demands commitments from companies and consumers to move to a low-carbon economy, the major change we need to support in the 21st century" said Gabriel Escarrer, Executive Vice President and CEO of Meliá Hotels International. His group, already recognised as one of the world's top five travel companies in the fight against climate change by the Carbon Disclosure Project, aims to reduce its emissions by 51% by 2035.
