Hotelbeds has today announced its new Environmental, Social and Governance strategy, which aims, as Hotelbeds’ CEO Nicolas Huss describes, “to take Hotelbeds’ position on ESG to the next level and galvanise our commitment to making travel a force for good”.

This commitment is not a new one for Hotelbeds, with a range of ESG related initiatives already under its belt, including:

• Signing up to The Climate Pledge – the first B2B travel company to do so;
• Achieving carbon neutral status for over four years consecutively;
• Its Green Hotels programme and
• Its on-going support for Ukraine through its Make Room 4 Ukraine programme.

It also reacted quickly during the pandemic, moving its volunteering activities for employees online to support a wide range of NGOs and groups supporting vulnerable communities around the world.

Nicolas Huss explains that “as one of the world’s leading travel technology companies, we have the opportunity to make tourism a force for good and contribute to creating a sustainable future. We are committed to supporting and developing green tourism and to continue to reduce the environmental impact of our daily operations and offices, while also supporting our partners to achieve their own ESG goals.

“Another important part of our strategy is to make sure we lead our ESG agenda from the front, ensuring our employees can contribute themselves to creating a stronger and healthier society as well as supporting local communities to thrive and progress. Furthermore, our wellbeing programme, which is embedded in our culture, is one of our key tools to support our people on their journey towards happiness and work-life balance.”

“From a governance perspective, although we know we have more work to do, we have achieved 50% of our executive team being women, reflecting our determination to have an inclusive and diverse workplace.”

Among the initiatives Hotelbeds plans to launch in the coming year, working with a range of NGOs, is a global reforestation project and a mentoring scheme for small scale or startup businesses, especially those with a focus on sustainable travel.

It also plans to harness the commitment of its hotel partners to sustainability issues, with booking filters identifying hotels that avoid single use plastics, for example, or who offer electric charging points for vehicles – tapping into the knowledge that these requirements are becoming increasingly important to the travellers of today.

And as part of its wider strategy launch, the company also announced to its employees this week an increase in the number of volunteer hours it will match, demonstrating its belief that the teams at Hotelbeds are passionate about making a difference in the communities where they live and work.