Sustainability is now a major consideration for businesses worldwide, fuelled by consumer demand as well as regulatory requirements.

Hospitality groups, both large and small, have announced policies to address environmental concerns, and real estate investors are increasingly considering it in their decision making.

However, there is no consensus on what makes a hotel environmentally sustainable, and what criteria to use.

In response, the International Hospitality Investment Forum has launch the Sustainability Council to identify the key areas in which the hospitality real estate sector needs to address sustainability concerns and to provide guidelines on how investors, developers, operators and all key stakeholders can commit to more sustainable practices.

Led by a council of experts, the Sustainability Council will meet at IHIF 2020 for a working session to look at sustainability within four areas of hospitality real estate: construction; asset management; operations; architecture and engineering.

The following have already confirmed their participating in the IHIF Sustainability Council:

• Xenia zu Hohenlohe, managing partner, Considerate Group
• Rosa Brand, principal, real estate, KKR
• Vanessa Butani, director of sustainable business, Scandic Hotels
• Luc Boschmans, director, asset management, Archer Hotel Capital
• Hans-Peter Hermann, senior director asset management, hotels, Invesco Real Estate

Xenia zu Hohenlohe, managing partner, Considerate Group said: “Climate change is the single biggest threat to the growth of the tourism sector: between 1998-2018 the
direct losses coming from environmental crisis and extreme weather was over US$3trillion, a rise of 151 per cent.

“It simply also makes good business sense to act now – according to the latest research released by the Arabesque University of Oxford for the UN Global Compact, good ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) performance results in 90 per cent lower cost of capital, 88 per cent better operational performance and seven per cent higher return of equity.

“I am extremely pleased that Questex has decided to take a lead and rise to this challenge by establishing a sustainable programme and delighted to be able to contribute to the working group with our experience of best practice cases.”

The Sustainability Council session at IHIF 2020 will take place on Tuesday, March 3rd at 16.30-18.00, part of the exceptional conference programme that creates IHIF - a unique platform for hospitality investment leaders to meet, talk, exchange ideas, share knowledge and shape the future of the industry.