Hilton Worldwide’s Ras Al Khaimah properties held a beach and ocean clean-up during the group’s annual Global Week of Service. Hotelier speaks to the team to find out more about the Travel with Purpose programme, and what sustainability means for them
Hilton Worldwide developed its corporate social responsibility programme, Travel with Purpose, in 2011 to focus on creating a cohesive yet flexible framework to guide the activities of the group across its various brands and properties around the world.
As part of its corporate sustainability programme, Hilton Worldwide hosts a week-long event called Global Week of Service at its properties around the world.
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While nearly all properties participate in community and sustainability-related events globally, the group also hosts 12 signature events, one of which was organised by Hilton’s Ras Al Khaimah properties.
Explaining the concept, Hilton Worldwide Europe, Middle East & Africa corporate responsibility manager Caroline Meledo, who participated in the Ras Al Khaimah event, says: “A signature event is an one where you get the attendance of our leaders, where you get the support from our public relations team, and the support of my time and experience across the world to really elevate an approach.”
The signature event in Ras Al Khaimah featured a beach and sea clean up, where more than 100 volunteers — including hotel staff from Hilton Worldwide properties in the emirate, high school students, professional divers from PADI, and members of the local community — took to the emirate’s beaches and ocean to clear rubbish and debris.
Following on from the ocean clean up, Hilton has partnered with PADI’s Project Aware campaign to make sense of where the rubbish came from, and ways to combat the problem of waste.
Meledo explains: “We are looking at issues that are way bigger than who we are. However big Hilton is, we are not going to solve the problem of the oceans by ourselves.
“So in everything we do, we try and establish partnerships with the experts; they bring the expertise, and we bring the platform and the manpower.
“For instance, in Asia we have a partnership with WWF for sustainable fish, and here we are exploring the opportunity to work with PADI a bit more closely, looking at the concepts of sustainability and conservation, and preservation of the seas where we welcome our guests.”
Meledo also illustrates how the partnership with PADI will help the group understand how the rubbish gets into the ocean in the first place, and how Hilton can help curtail littering.
“With PADI’s Project Aware campaign, the point is to raise awareness of where the rubbish comes from, and ultimately to prevent it from getting into the sea in the first place. We shouldn’t have to clean it out of the ocean, we should be preventing it from getting in there.
“What we can do is raise awareness among our team, our guests, and within our local community on why it’s important to protect the sea. We have a stake in doing that, because who wants to come to our hotels, however beautiful they are, if the beach is full of trash? So when we talk about living sustainably in the communities where we live, work, and travel, this is it; this is what we are talking about.”
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