The World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance has a mission to accelerate the path to net positive hospitality through strategic industry leadership and collaboration. It aims to share resources and education opportunities and to bring together the industry “in a harmonisation of metrics and regenerative solutions.”
The Alliance and its hospitality members represent more than 7 million rooms and include 32 global hotel companies with a reach of more than 55,000 properties. Its members include large and small hotel companies with both international and regional portfolios.
Felicity Cousins caught up with CEO Glenn Mandziuk to talk about what the sector needs to do to keep up the sustainability momentum.
GM: Harmonisation is a key thing for us to accomplish if we’re truly to see action. That’s one of our biggest challenges – the fragmentation that we always talk about. But we can no longer kick the can down the road. We have to take responsibility, get alignment, get focused, tell our story and be accountable. I think that changes the way we actually make an impact, but also the way people see our industry being a contributor.
I see the Alliance making a lot of partnerships around the world – can you explain a bit more about how new relationships and conversations help move things forward and how you keep up with what is agreed?
GM: To give some context the Alliance started in 1992 coming out of the Rio Conference [United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) also known as Earth Summit]. Post-pandemic our evolution as an independent global charity has spring boarded us in terms of the voices at the table. We wanted to ensure we had a much broader voice of the hospitality industry at the table. So the expansion of the voice was critical in order to ensure catalysing change. We need to have the voices from every part of the world in that effort otherwise you’re missing an important area because you could fix all the problems here in the UK, but if we’re not actually addressing it outside the UK it’s not going to make a big difference. It really has to make a difference everywhere in the world. And everybody is at a different stage of their evolution in this conversation.
Would you say Europe is quite far ahead with the conversations and action?
GM: I would say in many ways Europe is and in some ways other areas are more advanced. India, on many topics in our space, is very advanced. So we can learn from each other in order to catalyse. One of the things I’ve been very pleased about and impressed with the members and our partners, is the open sharing of IP and as a pre-competitive collaboration. And that is key. If we’re not doing a pre-competitive collaboration, this is never going to get anywhere. Somebody might be really good on waste management, and somebody’s really good on human rights or some other element, and all of a sudden you can learn from each other.
The Alliance has grown a lot since the pandemic. What are the numbers now and how do you choose who to work with…?
GM: We have more than 110 members and partners. We’ve grown 400 per cent in terms of membership in these two and a half years or so. One of the things we also wanted to do is ensure we had alignment with all those other organisations, whether it be UN Tourism, WTTC, GBTA, GSTC, Travalyst – acronym soup, yes, but all very important organisations doing important work.
If we’re all doing something different or not in alignment or not communicating, we’re just wasting time. And so in this way, we’re not wasting time, now we’re actually building on each other’s strengths to achieve ends.
A prime example from an NGO relationship is our work on nature positive with UN Tourism and WTTC. We announced that at COP 15, and then we were back there at COP16 in Cali, Columbia showing the progress, which was, quite frankly enormous. Part of it is building trust with those leading conservation organisations out there that are managing this whole biodiversity space globally, and a global strategy – that we as an industry can be aligned.
It’s great to see results like that as a lot of the time we see people talking – how can we keep these results coming?
GM: We’re now looking at how we form a framework of communication between the leading conservation organisations and industry to better align industry investment in the actual action of regenerative solutions in biodiversity, because right now, that doesn’t connect. And again, it comes from clarity, transparency and trust. You always have relationships before partnerships, and the way we look at the building out of our work as an organisation, we look at that and how we keep people engaged.
There’s always going to be that overlap of ideas, but if you start communicating it, then there won’t be wasted energy?
GM: Exactly. So it’s really about bringing those folks together to take concrete action, which is very specific actions, and then move forward. Two years ago, we formalised our five year strategy. That was the first five year strategy in the history of the Alliance, and that had to be signed off by all the members, and be very clear on how we’re moving net positive hospitality into the mainstream through collective works together on specific actions.
Our programmes and activities revolve around projects and initiatives that each of the companies can’t do themselves. This is about how we do collective work together to make effective action.
We also host two summits a year where only the members and partners come, and we talk about sharing best practice, but also networking. People need to talk and connect. We are, as we move forward, really looking at systems change and we are getting everybody engaged in systems change on topics like energy transition, food systems, from procurement to waste, and to nature positive. So they’ll be moving the evolution of those connections. And again, all our members and partners are invited to engage in this.
And what sort of time frame do you have to change these systems? Surely it will take years?
GM: Yes in some cases, it will. In some cases we can make rapid action. If we make the right investments together we can move things faster together than we can alone. And so this is where the Alliance, I think has great promise, because if we didn’t do it this way companies will be doing great things individually, and they are, but it won’t have the [optimum] impact.
The Alliance has its carbon footprint measurement tool and its water measurement tool but then other companies bring out their own carbon calculators?
GM: We have a major announcement for COP29 around this topic of measurement (see our news story here). And so the industry, over the last six months has been working very hard on a common set of frameworks, a common understanding of how to measure, what tools we use to measure. And how we ensure we have third party verification and transparency and and the cadence of of sharing the data.
Our first wave of key measures will be in the E category. I think it’s a major move forward for the industry because we do have to use common language and common methodologies in order to effectively showcase progress. If you can’t measure it, they won’t do it. So we need to ensure that we’re measuring it the same way. Part of the issue has been they’ve been asked the same question 10 different ways from all these different frameworks, and so we’re trying to harmonise that.
Are updating your carbon measurement tool?
GM: Yes, our carbon tool is updating substantially to ensure that it’s GHG Protocol and that it has more elements of Scope 3, and has third party verification built in to ensure that we’re future-proofing the industry. So that process will begin right after COP29.
How long will it take to roll that out?
GM: It will take six months.
That’s fast.
GM: Yes, that is to update them but there has been a lot of groundwork already. We’re in discussions with the EU and others to make sure that the process and methodology we deploy, given the legal frameworks, we understand. We’re future-proofing the industry for that as best we can.
The whole industry is having to adapt, and people are having to find new solutions. Who are the thought leaders?
GM: We’d like to think in hospitality we’re leading the conversation on net positive hospitality. I’m very proud to see with all our partners net positive is part of the language, and that wasn’t there two years ago. We announced Net Positive Hospitality at COP26 and it was a side event and now we’ve moved from side events into the Blue Zone [the official negotiating rooms]. We were the number one topic during the main event on November the 20th in front of the presidency of COP. That’s the evolution of staying on course and being true to that message, and being a trusted partner.
UN tourism is obviously a real inspiration as well as thought leadership and WTTC is a thought leader, without question. The GBTA was in Brussels having active conversations with the EU on putting forward the issues around business travel. I would say as a collective, all these folks are now becoming thought leaders on this area, but in a different way – we’re doing it together.
How important is education in this process?
GM: It’s central. It goes back to language. We need to be saying the same thing and not muddling this up with so many acronyms. My family used to own hotels in Western Canada, and I used to think would my dad do some of the things we’re asking them to do? And I’d say no, because we’ve made it very complicated. We’ve got to streamline our message and show the ROI on it.
Of course, ROI is always a center piece of these things. Yes, saving the planet and the community is an important ROI, but you have to obviously extend that much further. We are not in the philanthropic industry. We’re in the industry to make money as a sector, but it could be making money for more than ourselves, and making investments for more than ourselves.
At our summit we officially launched our World Academy for sustainable hospitality, which provides certified training by department for sustainability across 16 categories. It’s a very holistic look at it from energy to water waste, all the way to human rights issues and diversity and inclusion. So, as a front desk officer, I have a much deeper understanding on how I individually can contribute to the overall sustainability of the hotel. It didn’t exist before and so as we continue to build that in the coming years we will be able to effect change to millions of employees across not only our membership, but worldwide.
And this is accessible to all?
GM: Yes accessible to all because we’re a global charity. It’s not just about our members. It is about the overall sector.
What’s your view on certifications for the hotel sector?
GM: Certification is critical in many ways, because people want to aspire to something and if you want to get your team, within the hotel, to get involved, certification is a great win. It’s really important that certification is part of a continuous improvement exercise, because you don’t want companies to feel once they’ve achieved the certification they’ve achieved it, there’s no need for improvement. So that’s an important element that I know the certification bodies that we work with certainly are embedded, and it is important that we as an industry continue to reflect where legislation is going and what the expectation is around greenwashing. And we have to ensure that the certifications out there live up to that standard.
But it’s just so hard for a hotel to choose with over 200 bodies to choose from…
GM: I was going to add what we have to do is reduce the confusion, because you’re right, 200 is a lot. And some sectors might have one or two or three, as opposed to 200, but it was interesting to note Booking.com did research around how many hotels actually have some form of certification, and it was under 10,000. So there’s a lot of meat on the bone, for hotels on this topic, because there’s a lot more hotels. Just in our membership alone, there’s 60,000.
It’s expensive and confusing.
GM: I would say that is part of it, for sure, but we work very closely with WTTC now on Basics and we’re working on the next version of Basics Plus, and that’s a great start towards some level of certification down the road. We see that as the stepping stones for people to move down the pathway to Net Positive. So certifications play an important role, I’d be very clear on that – but the evolution of it will change dramatically as legislation changes, which I believe will see a rationalisation in some of that.
How do we measure the social side of what’s going on in ESG?
GM: That’s a very complicated one and we’re working through that. We’ve agreed on the E, so now phase two is going to be about the S, and we’ve had some preliminary discussions about what that could look like.
A real focus around human rights will be where we need to really concentrate on – really tackling modern slavery head on, tackling issues around that is really important and the rights of individuals that are working in our sector.
Accessibility is without question the greatest inclusion opportunity here. We have to make people feel less scared quite frankly to travel because they are not sure what their experience is going to be when they get on their journey. And we have to have consistency of the room – if you are are saying you have an accessible room it has to hit a certain standard. It has to feel inclusive when you come in the front door and when you approach the counter for the first time. It has to feel that and it has to be supportive.
When we look at web pages for hotels that same information has to be in the exact same place on every website for everyone to have consistency.
What we do is define what we think it means right now – and maybe it’s mobility – and then obviously there are a whole lot of other elements to accessible travel but let’s take take one at a time as oppose to try to solve it all. If you do that you will probably get there. We have some great partners from accessibility partners, to LGBTQ partners, and we want to make sure they are at the table now.
What next?
GM: We have identified the big three: it’s about standards, academy and training, and it is about establishing a global impact fund to invest in the transition. And those transition items will revolve around energy transition, food systems, both from the procurement side to waste, and nature positive. So when we look at those investments that an impact fund can really support, from the industry into the transition as a collective, then you can see some powerful things.
What could the industry have done better this year?
GM: One of the biggest challenges we still face is who pays for the transition – whether that be the asset management company or the owner – those conversations still need to happen to have that clarity because everyone benefits from that transition so we need to help make that happen. We have to move faster but everyone is trying their best. I speak to lots of large organisations and if I look at sustainability teams they are very small –but they are doing great things.
Felicity Cousins spoke to Glen Mandziuk mid November 2024.
The Alliance announced, during COP29, the launch of its Universal Sustainability KPIs. See more below.
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