Circular economy

Measurement

Certain metrics allow us to track progress towards our time-bound quantitative goals, for example the kg of waste we are sending to landfill or the total Greenhouse Gas (GHG) of our Scope 3 emissions. A subset of metrics affiliated with our objectives in a circular economy are detailed here. These metrics are reported directly to Iberostar’s executive committee for tracking.

In order to make procedural or operational changes to achieve our global goals, we have a suite of metrics that allow us to optimize our decision making process to achieve a circular economy. For example, this includes suites of sensors that determine energy consumption within sections of our hotel, or AI assisted technology to categorize and quantify the types of food waste produced during our food service. 

Finally, we have a set of metrics that allow us to track the costs and benefits of these changes throughout the organization. 

Education

Education and awareness are core components of our roadmap across all aspects of Wave of Change. We consider these five key audiences: our employees, our clients, our providers, the general public, and the NGO/IGO/Academic community that provides guidance. For circular economy, our employees receive specialized training to enable procedural changes (for example, reducing energy consumption or segregating residuals correctly) and serve as ambassadors for our clients. Our clients experience the ways in which we believe circular economy makes a better product (quality and durable services) and learn ways to adopt a circular economy in their own daily lives which we hope turn into behaviors they bring home with them. Our providers learn and adapt alongside us to rethink the life cycles of products, energy and water for our operations. The general public engage with our educational resources about why a circular economy is important for tourism and for the planet. And our NGO, intergovernmental, and academic partners help synthesize best practices of a circular economy for the sector from the case examples at Iberostar. 

Reform

Achieving a circular economy is impossible without changes throughout our entire supply chain and at the scale of our destinations. While we work first to implement changes within our own operations, we also aim to engage with our suppliers, other tourism industry players, and the broader global community to make consistent and incremental progress towards a circular economy. For example, Iberostar serves on the advisory board of the Global Tourism Plastics Initiative or helped to develop the platform for metrics for circularity in hotels with Impulsa. 

In addition to advising external roadmaps or commitments, we aspire to provide case examples and roadmaps for other tourism groups to adopt similar practices. This is realized through our reporting on progress towards goals, the creation and sharing of roadmaps, advisory on global commitments, as well as creating platforms for collective action for reform in the industry. This knowledge sharing and collective reform is critical to shift models across the supply chain and at the scale of destinations to achieve global goals of the sector.

Transparency

We commit to reporting our annual progress towards our quantitative objectives and strategy to address gaps. We will continue to inform our guests of the ways in which a circular economy evolves their client experience. We also call openly to any questions regarding our strategy to be directed towards our team in our contact page. 

Built environment

Our commitment to a circular economy extends to the nature in which our operations depend. Work in this area will be further detailed in our roadmap for coastal health. Yet we use this section of the roadmap to ensure highest standards for any new investments or constructions. Here, we apply principles of circular economy from the very design of the facility to make major improvements on the sourcing, use and end use of the water, energy and products per our new constructions.