Walking the Sustainability Talk

The World Panel of Hospitality experts addressed the topic: “Sustainability-driven Legislation: providing the right conditions for hospitality”. As part of the discussion, our CEO Marloes Knippenberg argues that the triple bottom line for businesses, the community and the whole Ecosystem ultimately relies on economic performance powered by a strong drive for innovation. No legislation or tax exemption can build more impactful and outcome-focused initiatives than public-private efforts that prioritise a sustainability agenda and help ensure each entity is “walking the talk” with the implementation of innovative projects that deliver value. A policy is only as strong and meaningful as its implementation across the whole value chain and the hospitality is a good example of how this could be implemented: collaboratively, on all Locality levels and through overarching social inclusion and a forward-thinking leadership engagement and a firm ‘push’

What is mission critical is to apply the understanding that sustainability is not all about green planet. It is about the focus on the local community and the supply chain, enforcing agility through responsible investment and going beyond CSR and more towards people-centric communities. Equally important are sustainable corporate behaviour and governments that embrace the need to employ sustainability on multiple layers. Transparency, long-term view deployment and having a committed fiscal support to implement regulations on SME and large corporate levels is critical. It is not enough to be vocal about dumping in the Sea and have put forward legislation that protects the marine and coastal environment. It is all about raising awareness, implementation and going beyond rhetoric on the topic.

Read all panelists opinions here: https://www.hospitalitynet.org/panel/125000094.html