More than 30 years dedicated to this Spanish hotel chain that is present in nearly fifty countries. Beach, mountain or urban hotels such as the one where Lourdes Ripoll receives us. Only one Meliá Hotels International company appears on his curriculum vitae. She started her career in the finance and audit department, now she is deputy to the CEO and vice president of Meliá Hotels International and vice president of CSR. Under her direction are all aspects related to the sustainability of the company and the more than 350 hotels in the chain. A “work that has to be everyone’s job to achieve the agreed objectives”, he answers
-Have you spent your entire professional life dedicated to this group? How has interest in sustainability evolved within the company?
-We were pioneers in the tourism sector. We started with sustainability in 2010, although it was a little earlier, but on this date we began to conceptualize within the strategic vision of the company, always a pillar associated with sustainability. It is true that knowledge is not the same as now. At that time, it was an ambition much more focused on environmental issues, because the company, when managing hotels and buildings, the energy part was already part of the control and management of energy efficiency. Then we continue to give a little weight to what would be governance. We wanted, in some way, to lay the foundations, starting with the policies associated with the ESG field and we also began to work on a code of ethics for all stakeholders. If I compare 2010 to 2022, the journey has been very important. We have been gaining in maturity, in more solid knowledge and in perspective. We conceive sustainability integrated into the business model, but we cannot forget that any business of any company has to be profitable, sustainable.
-On the part of the clients, do you observe this concern for sustainability? Do they demand that they be sustainable as a company?
-This question is difficult to answer.
-Because?
-In my offer of hotels I do not distinguish if they are more or less sustainable. Initially, if the client can make some selection criteria, what he will look at is whether a company is responsible and sustainable. It is difficult for us to know if the client is sustainable, consciously or unconsciously, with her way of acting or her commitments. It is difficult, because I need technology and information to know how your behavior has been during your stay, since you can shower for 5, 10 or 30 minutes. We have close to 350 hotels, imagine the technology necessary to know that. We are worried and busy on this, but it is still difficult to know what the customer’s behavior is. Yes, we could do some analysis that would take us some time to cross-check a lot of information to see if there are certain behaviors based on nationality, but, in the end, each client is different. You can try things, manage and intuit that some are more responsible or more committed, but, so far, it’s more of a desire.
-But you can know what they tell you, right? That is to say, the change of gel cans, towels…
Let’s see, I would tell you that the concept of sustainability in people I would like to know what it is, because there can be as many as there are millions of inhabitants in the world. When we removed, for example, the bathroom amenities, because it was a huge amount of waste packaging, we put larger-volume bottles, so there were all kinds of reactions there. Yes, it is true that you have to explain it to them, say what is the reason and the reason for what you are doing, because possibly many do not perceive it. The understanding of society is diverse and there will be people who receive it well and others who do not.
-It means that there is a lack of pedagogy in society, right?
-And visibility, because they think that I have a hotel that is almost carbon neutral, the client does not see it. In other words, you will have to explain and give visibility to the fact that this really is a hotel that has zero emissions and that is what we have to do. You can have green energy, all you want, but the client does not see it and you have to tell them and make it visible.
-It is a complicated task, because the client ultimately goes to the hotel to enjoy his vacation and the rest may not care…
-I would tell you that in an urban it is perhaps more difficult for the client to capture that information, because on a vacation there are seven days and there are activities and contact points that will help you work on that and give visibility. We in the Dominican Republic and Mexico, for example, carry out activities associated with the protection of biodiversity, turtles and beach cleaning.
-How does the company work on sustainability?
-In 2018 we presented ourselves for the first time to a ranking index in terms of sustainability that measures somewhat the sustainable and responsible management of organizations at the macro level, that is, at the level of the entire perimeter of the company, that is, of all affected areas. That was a substantial change. We were groping a bit, because we did not know what reality we were going to find in the questionnaire and if we were capable of having a certain positive answer.
-What criteria were they?
-It is about taking the entire organization and, through a questionnaire, working on the responsible, sustainable and social management of the company. That was a very important lever to make the organization understand that they had to assume within their own functions, be responsible and how to move forward.
-And business, how do you understand a sustainable hotel?
-First, that it be economically viable, because that ensures the viability not only of the business unit, but also the viability of the wealth-generating environment and that it has an increasingly smaller impact on its environmental footprint. I can have a hotel that is very efficient in the management of energy and water resources, hotels, energy that has self-generation of renewable energy, etc., but not socially. For us, environmental, social, governance is so important.
-You are present in more than forty countries, how does being sustainable combine in each of the venues and with different cultures?
There is a part of the business that is highly supported by sustainable criteria and principles and what you have to do is adapt it to the realities of the destinations and imagine that a hotel in Asia is not the same as that in the Pacific, as in Indonesia or in Madrid. You have to adapt the message to the needs of that destination. Not all hotels have to have everything exactly the same, but there is a part that is central and supports the entire organization, so to speak, and then there are others that are more dedicated to reinforcing certain opportunities because in some destinations the S (for social) or the environment.
-Are we more sustainable than five years ago?
-The client has to contribute to this commitment and has to be an active part of this commitment too and for this reason we also have to make it visible. In other words, if the client does not also play an active role during their stay, it would be difficult for us to fulfill our commitments. Strategies must be sought to ensure that they are involved. Either we all unite or we do not reach the 2050 commitments, it is impossible.
#customer #play #active #role #difficult #meet #sustainability #goals