The Spanish hotel group is also ranked second in the world by S&P Global, the sustainable investment agency that evaluates companies in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
Meliá Hotels International has once again been recognised as a leader in sustainability in the hotel industry, announced by The S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA). Despite the profound impact of the pandemic on the travel industry, Spain’s largest hotel company has continued to strengthen its commitment to help combat climate change and preserve the future of travel destinations.
CSA is the most comprehensive assessment in the world of the performance in the sustainability of more than 10,000 companies across all industries. In 2019 and 2020, Meliá ranked first in the global hotel industry, and in 2021 the hotel group maintains its leadership in Europe and Spain. The hotel group specifically is amongst the leading companies in the world in the Governance and Economic dimension, once again achieving the top score in terms of Climate Strategy.
“With a global presence on four continents, we are committed to working towards a new sustainable and responsible hospitality model, increasing the contribution of the industry to society and helping protect the planet. We are very proud that Meliá is the brand that is leading this transformation and that we are seen as a benchmark for sustainability in the world, given that this will be key to the tourism of the future”, said Gabriel Escarrer, Vice Chairman and CEO of Meliá Hotels International.
Leader in the Environmental dimension
As part of its environmental commitment, Meliá is making steady progress towards decarbonising hotels as a strategic priority. In 2015 the hotel group signed up to the commitments defined at the COP21 in Paris, updating them after the Katowice summit to limit the average increase in global temperature to less than 1.5º. Meliá is working at many levels to help achieve this, such as designing and constructing more efficient and sustainable hotels, as well as carrying out several projects to reduce its carbon footprint.
Over the last five years, Meliá invested €25million to implement sustainable criteria, including the development of the CO2PERATE project to improve energy and water management in hotels, through the use of artificial intelligence, as well as increasing its purchases of clean energy. Currently, 61% of the Meliá’s properties use renewable energy sources – 100% in Spain, France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Meliá is also involved in waste management – in 2018 it created a roadmap to eliminate single-use plastics, and it is currently participating in a pilot project to create a circular hotel economy in Mallorca, which transforms organic waste into compost, to then be donated to local farmers and later buy produce from them. To reduce food waste, Meliá is using technologies such as Leanpath, which allows the registration and monitoring of organic waste, and adopts measures to reduce food waste by up to 30%.
Positioning in the Social and Governance dimensions
The S&P Global assessment also includes other criteria which evaluate Meliá’s performance in the social dimension and governance and economic dimension. The economic dimension has made the most progress thanks to greater transparency and rigour in good governance, and the ESG risk management – amongst others – is becoming one of the companies with the best practices in this area.
Meliá also performs well in human capital management, where it has continued to promote diversity, equality, and inclusion. One of the highlights in this area is its participation in Closingap, a cluster of Spanish companies formed in 2018 to provide greater visibility for the contribution of economic and social value made by women. Equally notable is its recent partnership with the “CEO for diversity” project, supported by the CEOE Foundation and the Adecco Foundation. This campaign, #CEOPorLaDiversidad, calls for further diversity, equality and inclusion strategies in all Spanish companies, starting with the CEO. The CEOs involved aim to champion these causes and create visible change within their companies, becoming ambassadors for the business sector in Spain.
