Corporate Social Responsibility

In today’s world, full of conflicts and every day more natural disasters, it is very likely that people wonders: what is going on? What are we doing to the planet? Is really the actual situation our fault? What can we do to make it a better place?

This kind of concern arrives also to the enterprises, not only individuals. And during the last years there has been arising a new concept that refers to their way of acting. It is called Corporate Social Responsibility. But, what is that exactly? Well, it has to do with the ethical actions and all the activities non related to the commercial ones, that have an impact on the overall society.

Knowing that, we can get into deeper questions to know more about it.

- To what extent tourism and CSR aspects are compatible? Give examples to argue your case either way.

The tourism industry if one of the most, if not the first, that we could consider that has all the values opposite to the CSR understanding. That is why a lot of natural resources are involved and we could even say wasted to develop it. All the forests that are gone to make hotels in beautiful locations, the incredible use of water that they require… And regarding persons, since is a very demanding profession, in highly occupied by tourist areas, such as Mallorca in the Mediterranean on any Caribbean island, much people is forced to work in very poor labor conditions. They are demanded to work a lot of hours for very low salaries. Another issue of vital importance and about which hotel companies are increasing awareness about is the sexual exploitation of minors. This problem is of big importance mostly in some Asian destinations such as Thailand and some of the hospitality business companies that have presence there decided to make something about it. Those negative aspects themselves could also be an opportunity to create CSR programs to diminish the negative impacts they cause, and at the same time they would be giving a better image to the World. The CSR in tourism businesses could imply the reduction of pollution, the fair treatment for the workers, the people who stay at the hotel and all the enterprises that provide goods or services to them, preservation of landscapes, natural environment, biodiversity… Let’s see what the real companies are doing, because thankfully, it is currently happening that some companies do care about CSR.

Example 1: Melià Hotels International

This hotel company born in the Balearic Islands, in Mallorca, is a great example of developing of a good CSR program. One of the mechanisms they have is the Sustainability Report, that every year shares non-financial information about the development of the company and also is based on recommendations by the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative or the WTO indicators. They have their own statements about their CSR:

TOWARDS OUR CUSTOMERS

Offer our guests the best personalized accommodation experience, exceeding their expectations with the excellence of our best service.

TOWARDS SOCIETY

Actively seek to generate prosperity and sustainable development in the communities where we are present, respecting and promoting their culture, traditions and values, and paying particular attention to children and the most vulnerable groups.

TOWARDS THE ENVIRONMENT

Contribute to preserving the environment and landscape, monitoring the impact of our business and promoting awareness about sustainability among our stakeholders.

TOWARDS OUR SUPPLIERS

Use our size and professionalism to build lasting relationships based on trust, respect and mutual benefit.

TOWARDS OUR EMPLOYEES

Offer the best opportunities for professional development, based on the stability of a family company and the strength of a leading international player which knows how to recognize commitment, talent and achievements fairly.

TOWARDS OUR SHAREHOLDERS AND INVESTORS

Manage the company according to criteria for transparency, and ensure strict and proper governance to achieve profitability and increase value in the medium and long term.

TOWARDS OUR OWNERS AND PARTNERS

Offer the best comprehensive services to capitalize on its investment, managing with the professionalism, integrity and confidence of a large internationally-renowned brand.

It is also nice to highlight their collaborations with organizations aimed to help people who really need it. In the following link we can see a real case: http://www.fundacionseres.org/Paginas/Campus/Noticias.aspx?IDn=1373. What it is mentioned here is that they donate 1€ per each collaboration of the people uploading a picture with a specific hashtag. The organization they are helping is aimed to achieve the dreams of the children with grave illnesses.

Example 2: Shangri-la

They have been recognized as the only hotel company in the Asia/Pacific region included in the standards byth Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (worldwide reference of sustainability since 1999).

They are taking actions to care both about the environment and the children, among others. Periodically they publish their ‘Communication on Progress’ documents, that details all the action they carry out that meet the principles of the United Nations Global Compact. They also have their own Sustainability report.

A very remarkable project that they launched in 2009 is the one that is detailed in the following link: http://www.shangri-la.com/corporate/about-us/corporate-social-responsibility/csr-projects/embrace/ and that is called ‘Embrace, Shangri-La's Care for People Project’. What they have done is commit each of their hotels in a 10/15 years partnership with different chosen beneficiary that works on children’s health and education programs.

- Describe the sustainability of the hospitality industry in China, especially hotels (see article in the BC folder for answers).

The development of the hotelier sector in China is rising at a very high speed. The number of hotel rooms is predicted to be three times bigger by 2039. And it is very tricky to get those figures without leaving behind some important aspects. The experts agree that the CSR in China is lacking. The extremely waste of water is the main issue that should be covered in the hospitality industry in China. When making the comparison with other countries, the figures of water and energy expenditure in China are way larger than the same type of expense in other big countries. Despite still there is a lot of work left to do, some companies started to make some adjustments to the situation, such as Accor, that committed to zero carbon properties for the future buildings and to apply when making reformations to the already existing hotels.

- Explain why is it critical for an organization to work with CSR principles.

It is an essential decision, basically, because what really want the organizations is earn money. And investing in CSR could be a tool to achieve it. Even though in the first moment it could seem a greater investment, in the long term can be the best investment ever. Coming back to my point at the beginning of the conversation, since it seems that the society is more concerned about the health of the earth, companies can create a very good image of themselves by developing good CSR principles. At the same time that they are helping the environment and the society, they are gaining trust in people and it is demonstrated that those companies that care about the CSR have potentially (an effectively in most cases) more customers that the ones that do not have it.

- Explain the importance of control aspects in the context of CSR guidelines.

For a correct development of the all proposed CSR programs by the enterprises, it is necessary some mechanism to guarantee that the promised actions will be carried out. It would be very easy for a company to say that they are going to develop ‘a program’, and then make the adjustments necessary to fake the results and pretend that they are doing something that is really not happening. To avoid this type of behavior, exist a lot of international companies, which are third parties in the issue and make reports and analysis with the aim to corroborate the sustainability of the companies. One that has reliability at a worldwide level in the Tourism Industry (to give an example) is: Travelife (http://www.travelife.org/Hotels/landing_page.asp). They give awards to the companies that follow sustainable rules. This is a way to demonstrate that real actions are taking place.

Sources:

‘Corporate Social Responsibility in the Hospitality Industry’, Garric, Arlene. 17 April 2015. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/corporate-social-responsibility-hospitality-industry-arlene

‘Corporate Social Responsibility and Tourism’, http://www.europeancitiesmarketing.com/corporate-social-responsibility-and-tourism/

Melià Hotels International Website, http://www.meliahotelsinternational.com/en/corporate-responsibility/csr

Shagri-la company Website, http://www.shangri-la.com/corporate/about-us/corporate-social-responsibility/sustainability/

‘Hotels in China must be more sustainable’, Filed under: Asia Pacific,Energy & Carbon,Industry News. http://www.greenhotelier.org/our-themes/energy/hotels-in-china-must-be-more-sustainable-says-report/