Earlier this year, UK-based Village Hotel Club launched its evolved Village Green ESG & Sustainability Strategy, which focuses on ‘Stay Green’, ‘People’, and ‘Community’. The Stay Green element strategy focuses on Village’s impact on the environment and planned reduction in consumption and carbon emissions. The People pillar focuses on the wellbeing of guests, members, and teams to maintain an inclusive culture. The ‘Community’ pillar defines Village’s role as a hub that supports the community it operates within through charity partnerships and local events. Sustainable Hotel News caught up with Kelli Turner, general counsel and director of ESG at Village Hotel Club. We talked about ESG data collection, how engagement and community are so important to success, EV chargers, sustainability fatigue, bereavement rooms and if ESG has had its crisis moment.
The group released its ESG strategy this year and will release its ESG report next year so you’re collecting all that data at the moment. How has that been?
KT: We had our steering group set up to take place on March 23rd, 2020 and that was the day lockdown happened. So we had been interested in this for a long time and we did a lot of it anyway around energy management and the social side. We have spent the last three or four years getting our data in order. And it’s only when you start getting the data in order that you realise how difficult that is – [for example] you find out you’ve got metres that don’t work, etc.
It’s really important to get your data because you can’t make progress unless you’ve got reliable data. So we’re not really nervous about that side of it because I think we’re in a really good place. And we’re 33 hotels, we’re not 1,500 hotels, so it is manageable from where we are right now.
And you own all the hotels?
KT: Yes, so that makes it a little bit easier. We are completely in control of everything we’ve got.
There’s a difference between the hard governance that comes with massive corporates, and the soft governance. Where do you think Village Hotel Club sits within that?
KT: I think we’re in a really good place. I was with two Plcs before I came here, so very quickly I set up the governance structure because I was thinking I’m accountable for these things if they go wrong. The first thing I did was an accountability matrix. And that has lasted and has evolved. So we have got a very clear governance structure and a very clear risk structure. It emulates a Plc but on a softer level.
Every risk in our business, including ESG risks, has got a mitigation plan and that gives you the structure of where the rest of the governance sits. As far as I’m concerned, it’s all about doing the right thing and having the right structures and not shying away from it. The risk is out there every day. I say that all the time. It’s out there every day. How do we manage it? And how are we doing it properly?
Is it harder when you’re an SME or a smaller group?
KT: Not necessarily, but it’s harder for a smaller company to understand the implications. They might think ‘it’s not really about us, it’s about those big companies’. But obviously, we’ve got CSRD coming this year, and people are shoehorning their environmental frameworks into financial frameworks.
And you’re starting that process, so have you got your frameworks in place?
Yes, we’ve got everything set up. I did a course as well, which really helped (at King’s College London). It was so enlightening, because it was almost like the academic world, featuring the “why” we’re doing it. And once you understand why we’re doing it, and that we’re not just doing the reporting for reporting sake, it makes a lot more sense. So I’m not nervous about any of that, and you’ve got to start somewhere.
How about the S in ESG – how is Village Hotel Club focusing on that and how diverse is Village Hotel Club?
KT: I always think the S is part of Village DNA. The village DNA is about the community, and it’s about being part of the community – not giving a token nod. We partnered with two charities this year. Sense and Sue Ryder. Sue Ryder is all about grief, trust and bereavement, because bereavement affects all of us. So when we look at the S, in this particular light, we’ve set up grief spaces in the hotels, so people can come in and it’s been a real lifeline for some people. It’s no cost to them, we give them a cup of tea, and it’s open all the time on a weekly basis, like a drop in bereavement centre. Sue Ryder provides the volunteers.
The big thing for me this year, with the S, is the shift on measuring. It’s great to say we do all of this, but how do we measure it? So we put a tracker out every month, and we ask everybody in every single hotel, what they have given – in time, in food, in everything – and it’s been really enlightening. That has been fantastic. People are doing so much more. If your working conditions are not right, and you’re not getting it right for your staff, and you haven’t got high engagement, then asking them to then donate to charity or donate some of their time won’t work.
What are your thoughts on sustainable certifications?
KT: We have Green Tourism and EcoSmart. The difficulty with these is there’s just so many of them at the minute. We would want someone to come along and say, “you’re doing really well here.” And we would look at what do we need to do better. If somebody comes along and says, “but you don’t do this” we’re willing to face that, because you can’t do everything at once.
We wrote about the EV chargers being installed at all Village Hotel Club properties – has that been a success?
KT: It’s going to be completed at the end of next year. It would have been really easy just to put something in but we had to get it right because this is a long term commitment. I set a really strong tender process and we went with IONITY. It’s really well funded, and we’ve set up a longer term arrangement with them. The most important thing for us is they’ve got their own power supply so they’re not coming off the hotel’s power, which means EV charging is only going to get better. The technology is getting better.
What do you think is going to change in the next couple of years in your role? Is technology going to come into play?
KT: What I see is almost like when the financial crashes happened, all the legislation came in and the disclosure legislation came in as a result of that. That’s where we are now. I think we’re on the precipice of something bad happening to the planet and the future will be legal, financial. I think that’s where it will stay, legal and financial and, ultimately, compliance. It’s all about compliance, and it’s about accurate reporting.
Some people have said they’re seeing less engagement in sustainability because they’re getting a bit of fatigue.
KT: That is interesting. I’m seeing more and more from corporate clients asking about it in the RFPs – although there’s a slight frustration in the inconsistency in terms of how wide ranging the questions can be from recycling to GDPR, to everything to all bundled together.
Is there a danger of sustainability becoming a less human experience with all the compliance and frameworks and box ticking?
KT: I think a decent brand will always pick up the people experience; it has to otherwise you’ll lose people, and retention is absolutely key for staff. It’s such a cost to the business as well. People like going to places where people are happy, especially in hospitality. And you can sense that when you come through the door. ESG I absolutely believe it’s a data issue. And I think we have to push the data to make the changes that are needed for the climate to be effective. That is the heart of ESG.
What advice would you give to those who are just starting?
KT: Two pieces of advice I would give anybody starting on ESG, is 1: Start! Because there is a real element of overwhelm with ESG because it covers so much. Are you talking about compliance? Are you talking about reporting? Are you talking about CSR, doing the right thing? It can be really overwhelming. So I would say just start. And 2: There’s no silver bullets here. It’s not health and safety, which came in in 1974. Now health and safety is so ingrained, you’re doing it right, you’re not doing it right. There’s a measure for it. We’re almost, I think, at that stage with ESG.