Kempinski is thrilled to have launched its first Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report 2021 in recognition of the tourism industry’s need to intensify efforts to decrease its role to climate change.

Kempinski was able to examine, take action, and publish this ESG report by taking the time to reflect on what makes the company sustainable, what successes have been accomplished, and where innovation and improvement opportunities exist. Delivering a road plan outlining how the organisation will handle each of the three ESG pillars with a fully unified approach throughout the group. Kempinski has collaborated with professional consultancies and third-party providers for many years on sustainable initiatives, but has long desired a more robust and unified approach to ESG across the organisation.

Under the direction of Bernold Schroeder, Chairman of the Management Board of Kempinski AG and Chief Executive Officer of Kempinski Group, the Sustainability Committee was established in 2021 with the mission of redoubling efforts and implementing a comprehensive sustainability policy across all Group subsidiaries. Having established the governance structure for Kempinski’s sustainability efforts and adopted the reporting standards identified by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) at COP26, the initial objectives were to map internal and external stakeholders, define the metrics used to evaluate internal ESG performance over time, strengthen existing data collection processes, and implement new processes where necessary to report on material ESG impacts.

Hadrian Beltrametti Walker, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Interim Company Secretary of Kempinski Hotels S.A., and Founder and Team Leader of the Sustainability Committee, states, “Striving for greater environmental efficiencies, greater social responsibility, and greater governance is essential.”

Now that the report has been published, the Committee’s next objective for the upcoming months is to continue the positive trendline in the direction of concrete ESG goals and targets. By the end of 2022, ESG objectives will be included into the larger business plan, following comprehensive consultation with supply chain stakeholders.

Beltrametti Walker states that a well-defined and goal-driven approach to enhancing ESG impacts results in a plethora of benefits. “Our objectives are to identify concrete goals and targets pertaining to ESG impacts across the Kempinski constellation and to measure 100% of Kempinski corporate and property emissions for 2023. At the same time, we must ensure that all Kempinski stakeholders, from hotel owners and employees to suppliers and other parties, are fully onboard and understand the environmental, financial and reputational benefits of these targets,” says Beltrametti Walker.

Kempinski will continue to collaborate with important professional partners to monitor, assess, and manage ESG risks and increase ESG potential, such as its successful cooperation with environmental benchmarking organisation EarthCheck and indigenous charity project BE Health. Kempinski also collaborates with a variety of third-party providers and supply chain partners on global health projects. Diversey, a supplier of long-term, sustainable cleaning and hygiene products, has undertaken various programmes since the pandemic’s outbreak in 2020, including the Linens for Life Face Mask programme, which creates life-saving face masks from discarded bed linen. Kempinski has also joined with Clean the World, an organisation that repurposes spent hotel soap and amenity bottles into new soap bars and bottles that may be delivered to underprivileged communities, shelters, and refugee camps.

In addition to our community engagement programmes, the hotel has rules and processes in place that assist us deliver the most diverse and inclusive workplace possible. “At Kempinski, the importance of a diverse, inclusive, and safe work environment cannot be overstated,” says Beltrametti Walker. “In 2021, Kempinski was ranked number one in the travel and leisure industry in the Forbes World’s Best Employers List 2021, and that’s an enormous testimony to our people-first approach to being an employer. Ultimately, we want to see full commitment throughout the portfolio,” he explains. “As we know, people tend to associate luxury with excess and with waste, but that is a very old-fashioned view of luxury. Certainly now and even more in the future, luxury is moving towards sustainable luxury. We have to. Not only for the sake of business but for the sake of the planet.”