Enterprise Sustainability Strategy
Situation:
An international hospitality company approached Blu Skye to get help defining their corporate sustainability strategy. They were struggling to understand the business case for sustainability, the macro/micro trends, what sustainability initiatives already existed throughout the company, and how to integrate sustainability across their global organization.
Our Role:
We helped the leadership team understand how having a strategic approach to sustainability would benefit the bottom line through internal and external interviews, site visits, competitive analysis, and conducting a high-level environmental footprint. We designed a step-by-step approach to focus company-wide efforts, starting by declaring big goals in energy, water, waste and carbon as well as focus areas around renewable energy and building and operations. We found the opportunities that would generate the most sustainable value (value for the business and the environment). Through identifying several opportunities that uncovered substantial cost saving and environmental benefit, we helped them to leverage the best practices of company properties that had already demonstrated sustainability leadership and explore new and best practice technologies and behaviors.
Results:
- Blu Skye’s work helped our client validate the economic value of an integrated data-driven approach to sustainability.
- In 2008, our client committed to significant reductions in energy consumption, CO2 emissions, waste output and water consumption over the next 5 years. In addition, to these measurable targets, they committed to focusing on some high-impact areas that offer potential for long-term benefits, including:
- Sustainable buildings & operations.
- Advancing renewable energy as a viable, cost effective source of power for their hotels globally.
- In 2009, our client launched a proprietary system of measurement for sustainability performance that helps improve the guest experience and drive economic returns. This made our client the first major hospitality company to make sustainability measurement a brand standard.