Meliá Hotels International (Meliá) has extended its global partnership with EarthCheck, the world’s leading sustainable tourism brand, to reinforce its commitment to delivering the highest level of sustainable operations and community engagement.

Ranked as the 16th largest hotel group in the world, Meliá is the market leader in Spain, operating 350 hotels in 35 countries and employing over 35,000 people. 

Meliá has embedded sustainability into their core values, and is dedicated to year–on–year positive improvements. Over the past decade, EarthCheck has assisted them to track over USD$1.7 million in energy savings and reduced nearly half a billion litres of potable water consumption.

Gabriel Escarrer Jaume, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO of Meliá, is committed to bringing about positive change and views the EarthCheck program to be a powerful platform to assist them in putting their sustainability vision into action.

“The partnership between EarthCheck and Meliá was the logical step after more than 10 years of collaboration. Since 2001, when we certified our first hotel, the Meliá Bali, this management system has proven itself in the positive results shown by the hotels holding it. So when we had to choose the appropriate partners to be included in our certification policy, EarthCheck was a must. As one of the leaders in responsible tourism management systems, EarthCheck is aligned with our sustainability strategy,” said Mr Escarrer

Meliá Bali is one of EarthCheck’s star performers at reducing its water, energy and waste consumption and assisting the local community. In 2011, the hotel sourced 90% of its consumable goods from within Bali, employed only local contractors, educated their staff on sustainability and has now dedicated 54% of its property to habitat conservation.

Stewart Moore, CEO of EC3 Global, congratulated Meliá on its commitment to sustainability and the group’s achievements.

“Meliá is one of EarthCheck’s standout sustainability heroes in the Asian region. We are proud to extend our partnership globally and have more of their properties certified”.

Our aim is to provide Meliá hotels with quantifiable metrics to address their risks, deliver bottom line efficiencies, maximise guest experiences and minimise their environmental footprint.

We strive to reduce our members’ consumption levels and have identified over $100 million dollars in savings. Moreover, the benefits achieved from being a member means the EarthCheck logo is highly regarded, and proudly displayed, by its community who are operating across more than 70 countries across the world.

Our members rely on and trust EarthCheck’s ability to correctly manage their environmental reporting data. This high level of confidence in our system’s capabilities means we annually measure over 16 billion kWh of energy, 34 billion litres of potable water, 1 million cubic metres of waste and 2.5 million tonnes of CO2e,” said Mr Moore.

Being an EarthCheck member means Meliá also benefits from accessing one of the world’s largest tourism research databases, the EarthCheck Research Institute (ERI). The ERI has been associated with supporting over a quarter of a billion dollars’ worth of tourism and travel research.

“ERI research shows that sustainability is no longer a choice, but rather a global movement that all tourism and travel industries must take seriously,” says Moore

“We have found that there is a solid business case for implementing sustainable operations and CSR initiatives. The emerging green economy presents a positive opportunity for the industry, especially for pro-active players like Meliá.”