Betting on environmental sustainability is no longer an option, but an obligatory path towards which countries must head.
Contributing to the expansion of life on the planet is a task in which the business sector must play a preponderant role, something that the Iberostar hotel chain has long done as part of its daily operations, with various initiatives, but with the main objective of achieving reduce its carbon emissions to zero by 2030, through a decarbonization path.
Working for responsible tourism is the day in Punta Cana Iberostar. Single-use plastic no longer exists here, food is recycled and work is being done to restore mangroves and reefs.
And it is that the hotel group has proposed five pillars to work on: circular economy; responsible fish and shellfish; coastal health, customers and the tourism sector, with which it seeks to comply with its environmental commitment supported by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)as explained to journalists Luz Valentina Lantigua, Sustainability Manager in the Dominican Republic for Iberostar.
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“All our hotels are now free of single-use plastic. By the year 2025 we will no longer send waste to a landfill and by the year 2030 we will already be carbon neutral”, he explained.
The hotel chain will reduce its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 85% by 2030 and, in addition, it commits to reduce scope 3 emissions by 50% in the same period, which means reducing its total intensity of annual emissions by 594 thousand tons of CO2 per year.
In all Iberostar hotels, Lantigua added, 70% of the fish and shellfish consumed come from responsible sources, since “we have” the obligation to care for our oceans.
mangroves and corals
In what has to do with mangroves and reefs, Iberostar has chosen to restore them. Within the complex it has several hectares planted with mangroves, while for the reefs it has a team, led by the Biologist Macarena Blancowho investigate these marine species in a laboratory.
“We want to find the coral that resists the increase in temperature due to climate change,” he said.
Last year the chain launched a mangrove restoration initiative, starting with 300 mangroves as part of its efforts to achieve carbon neutrality in its operations.
food and technology
Technology has been another ally with which Iberostar has implemented methods to avoid food waste, since it has the Winnow system, which has saved some 200,000 meals in a year.
With this tool, the aim is not to throw away food and to have an average amount of food that is required per day in the hotel.
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The system, through a scale, analyzes the food that is left on the customers’ plates, classifies them and offers a daily report.
