German national Martin Bäuerle has been in Doha since 2012, at the time moving to Qatar with the Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group. In 2014, he left the hotelier world to become a “specialist”, focusing on sustainability for hotels.

Bäuerle reveals where it all began: “In 2008, I became a responsible business trainer with Carlson Rezidor, working with the staff within the hotel on sustainability issues. I worked in Switzerland for five years which is very advanced when it comes to sustainability.”

Bäuerle continues: “I reached a point where working only in hotels did not fulfil me. So I moved out of hospitality and took a break for two months. But I was not finished with Doha, so I came back and started MB Hospitality.”

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And while he was already a part of the Green Hotel Interest Group (GHIG) in Qatar, which is a part of the Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC), he soon took over as chairman of GHIG, and now works closely with hotel operators, owners, authorities and other institutions to increase the level of sustainability within Qatar’s hospitality sector.

“Since then we have grown. Until 2014, we had three to four hotels who met on a regular basis. Right now, we are more than 15,” he adds.

Since 2015, he has been working with the Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) on sustainability issues. A year ago, a survey was conducted with QGBC and QTA among hotels to find out what level of activity was already ongoing on a sustainable level. Bäuerle reveals that when the results came back, approximately 40% said they are currently carrying out training or education sessions with their staff on this front.

Following that, some of the criteria included in the survey now form part of the new hotel classification system from QTA. “I am working with the QTA right now for the classification system; we have been involved with the planning phase of the classification system for the environmental criteria. And I’m also working closely with the hotels right now for implementing them,” adds Bäuerle.

The new hotel grading and classification system was announced in January 2016, which was first piloted on Katara Hospitality projects last year.