Sustainability Stories: Balancing People, Planet and Profits

Dr. Aurora Dawn Benton is the Founder of Astrapto, which offers courses, coaching, and consulting to advance sustainability in hospitality, events, travel, and other service industries.  Her passion is to make sustainability practical and positive for anyone passionate about driving positive impact through their organizations and supply change. A few of the questions we discuss in the episode...

Adrienne Doolan is passionate about protecting the planet and has been a key pillar of the UN Global Compact Network, raising her voice to open people's minds. In the episode, I casually chat with Adrienne about linkages between cleaning and air quality. She shares her knowledge on the subject, demystifying the terminology for us, and the results of the pilot study they have recently conducted at...

Etihad Airways has been pushing boundaries on sustainability initiatives, with a pledge to go carbon neutral by 2050. Carbon Neutral is balancing carbon emissions vs absorbing carbon from the atmosphere. The target for Eithad airlines is 2050; that's 28 years to balance the equation. They are developing Eithad green liner and working in partnership with Boeing and GE to constantly test new green t...

I hang on to every word Aradhana Khowala mentions here, as she is well informed and ferocious when it comes to Gender Equality and #BreaktheBias. I learned from her the appalling statistics that it will take an average of 136 years for women and men to reach parity worldwide instead of the 99 years; the gap to close increased by 36 years in the space of just 12 months! Look up the World Economic F...

EcoHotels.com , recently reached a milestone to showcase more than 20.000 eco-certified hotels in over 160 countries! Great milestone, and great timing to interview Patricia Plesner on this occasion as they cross the milestone and look forward to 24-36 months journey for EcoHotels.com.  EcoHotels was founded in 2020, as a responsible and sustainable alternative to the large and dominant onlin...

In the episode, we speak to Samuel Njoroge , Cluster Quality Assurance Manager from JA Resorts and Hotels . This is a home grown brand which continues to make great progress in their sustainable journey. Jebel Ali Golf Resort, United Arab Emirates started in 1981, is now rebranded or known as JA The Resort, Jebel Ali Beach, Dubai with three unique hotels. They were awarded by Dubai Tourism and Com...

We have all heard of Carbon Offsets, i.e, Planting trees (act of carbon removal) to reverse for carbon we release to the environment. So, what is Waste offsets, and how can we reverse the waste generated into the environment? To demystify this for us, we have Natasha Viitasaari co-founder of Nu Cycle joining us as the guest. Nu Cycle's purpose is to be a solutions-based waste offset service for an...

Claire Whitley , Head of Environment at Sustainable Hospitality Alliance shares insights on free resources/tools available for Hospitality.  Sustainable Hospitality Alliance brings together engaged hospitality companies, and uses the collective power of the industry to deliver impact at scale. They assist with measurement and benchmarking for Carbon, Water consumption, Guidance for Human Righ...

We speak to James Hewitson , General Manager and Mohamed Abdelwahab , Area Director of Engineering, Middle East from Anantara The Palm, Dubai Resort, UAE. The hotel is owned by Seven Tides International and managed by Anantara part of MINOR Hotels group. All hotels under MINOR group have energy, water, and waste management as mandatory key performance indicators (KPI’s) and receive consultation su...

In this episode, we talk to Clinton Farley , the General manager of The Hotel Britomart , New Zealand first five-star green hotel and his other role as non-executive director of Soap Aid, Australia, and New Zealand. Some of the key questions we cover in the episode are: 1) New build vs retrofit buildings, and the advantages with new-build hotels. 2) Examples of feasible partnerships with local fir...

If you are a hospitality colleague, then check your awareness on food waste by answering these three simple questions: 1. Do you know how much food is wasted in your hotel / restaurant? 2. Do you get an answer when you ask this question? 3. Is food waste in your restaurant benchmarked? If you are doubtful about your answers on any one of these questions, then do listen to the podcast episode with...

A great interview with Eric Schaffner founder of ZeLoop ; on his journey from corporate world to launching ZeLoop - an app that rewards goodness. As Eric aptly says, "The issue is not plastic as a material, but the ways in which we use it and most importantly, how we dispose of it".  Within one year of launch, the app has quickly grown from UAE with a reach to 146 countries, across member bas...

"Everyone Hates Single-use Plastic… …But it’s hard to avoid. Especially when you’re travelling.  No one likes to see litter on holiday, least of all on the beach, or floating around in the sea, and since David Attenborough opened our collective eyes to the effects of discarded plastic on wildlife, we like it even less. Despite this, it’s estimated that the equivalent of one whole garbage truc...

Today my guest is leading global tourism consultant specializing in responsible animal tourism. Daniel Turner , co-founder and Director of ANIMONDIAL provides impartial advice to guide travel businesses, improve animal protection and deliver meaningful change. So my question to Daniel Turner is, "What can I do as an individual, or as a hotelier do to control biodiversity loss; when biodiversity is...

John Arnold and Amish Choksey set up GreenGood , 11 years ago to provide sustainable packing solutions; and composters to convert organic waste into compost residue within 24 hours. It is my great honor to have John on the show, and hear perspectives / insights from his 50 years of career into providing sustainable solutions.  In the episode, we discuss the multiple benefits of compostin...

foodpanda , is one of the leading food delivery platform in Asia operating in 16 countries, and is on schedule to become a carbon neutral company by the end of 2021. Woody Chan is the CSR & Sustainability Manager for foodpanda Hong Kong, enabling implementation and adoption of sustainability measures with restaurant partners. In this episode of Sustainability Stories Podcast, Woody explai...

As a carbon neutral tour company offering 500 tours across 120 countries, Explore is uniquely placed to offer perspectives on responsible travel. In today's episode with Prue Stone , Head of Sustainability at Explore shares her perspectives on four key topics and here is the summary snippet: (1) To promote Biodiversity and animal welfare, the need is to bring nature to the table; right next to cli...

It is refreshing to hear Raquel Noboa share success of hotel's commercial and operational metrics she witnessed from starting a Green Hospitality Program at Hotel Doolin in Ireland. Raquel Noboa has worked in hospitality for over 23 years, and her own Green Journey began at Hotel Doolin in 2012. She was working there as the Sales & Marketing manager, when the Hotel decided to start a Green Hos...

Have you wondered if there was a Sustainability Benchmarking report of your hotel (like the STR)?  Yes, it exists and is called CHSB (Cornell Hotel Sustainability Benchmarking Index) . Also, free tools like Hotel foot printing tool allows you to calculate the carbon footprint of your hotel stay or meeting anywhere in the world.  Listen in to hear Olivia Ruggles-Brise educate listeners on...

OLIO  food sharing app, connects neighbours with each other and with local businesses so surplus food can be shared, not thrown away. Georgie Cella passionately shares the journey of OLIO, which started with a whatsapp community and is now over 3 million users in 59 countries.  With the Volunteer Ambassadors and Food Waste Hero program, they work with restaurants, supermarkets to save su...

The Indian-British hotelier Sonu Shivdasani (Founder of Six Senses Resorts) and his Swedish wife, Eva, rewrote the rules of hospitality in 1995 when they introduced the barefoot luxury resort Soneva Fushi in the Maldives and launched Six Senses , a pioneering brand in sustainability and wellness.  Their thoughtful innovations range from producing their own drinking water, to a commitment to e...

Rishabh Kasliwal is passionate about energy efficiency in buildings, and strongly believes; with advancement in technology; energy efficiencies is now feasible and affordable for all building types (existing, new, small, medium and large). Also the pay-back into energy efficiency is now shorter compared to yesteryears. As Managing Director of Kamal Cogent Energy Pvt L td, he has championed many pr...

This episode is for everyone in hospitality, to get a 30 minute easy-going sustainability 101 lesson with Prof. Dr. Willy Legrand , professor of hospitality management at IUBH International university, Germany. He is also the lead author of Sustainability in the Hospitality Industry: Principles of Sustainable Operations, a leading textbook with a 4th edition coming out in 2021. In the episode, we...

What do you do with food waste? Reducing the volume of food waste is certainly the first step to food waste hierarchy. However, for the food that can’t be saved, are you curious to learn how food waste can be repurposed to encourage circularity? Then, let’s hear from William Ward and Green Eco Technologies , who are pursuing to convert bio-degradable waste for soil enhancement, fish food or e...

Previously as Hotel Manager of Crowne Plaza, Oman, Paul Schenk has introduced 50+ initiatives to eliminate plastic usage at the hotel.  It has been a journey for him building awareness, challenging the status quo and implementing change.  Paul's initiatives; documented on youtube included delivering profits, along with reducing plastic which is the highlight for the episode. It is the st...