Don’t believe in global warming? It would be a lot cooler if you did!

With the theme for Earth Day this year being ‘Invest in our planet’, I couldn’t imagine a more important message for my first Earth Day as part of the Hotelbeds team.

Here we take our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) commitments seriously, and for me, being tasked with heading up the ESG Team is a real honour and one that I am excited to take forward in the organisation.

World Earth Day is an opportunity for us to shout loudly about the important, and mandatory, role that sustainability plays in both our business, and the industry as a whole. We have a privileged position as a company in that we do not have a very high direct environmental impact, but we do have a strong capacity to influence and work with our sector to reduce its impact in terms of pollution.

Our ESG commitments, efforts and purpose as a leader in the TravelTech space mean that we intend to continue to collaborate with our partners to improve the impact of tourism on the environment and local communities, and create a sustainable future.

With 81% of travellers surveyed by Statista confirming that sustainable travel is important, we want to take advantage of being at the heart of relationships with hotels, and travel agencies to really influence their commitments to this cause.

There is no doubt in my mind that you can’t commit well to a role like mine without the subject being important to you personally. I started out professionally in the world of communications, but my true passion lies within the world of sustainability. Communications goes hand in hand with raising awareness and delivering the message of the importance of committing to sustainable growth so it’s a great match really.

From the early stages of my career at a Spanish refreshments company, doors were opened for me into a world of corporate social responsibility and sustainability, and then open innovation and digital logic.

I went on to another couple of companies where I was able to develop further. I worked with incredible teams who I learned from every day and I had the opportunity to see sustainability from a more technical and scientific perspective and also how to measure the impact of our social and environmental actions.

Now, at Hotelbeds, I can honestly say it is incredible to be able to work in sustainability for a company that mixes three of my passions; sustainability, travel and technology. We are focusing our strategy on three key areas, environmental, social and governance.

• Protecting our planet today to make it possible for future generations to enjoy travel tomorrow.
• Creating a diverse, engaged and healthy work force that contributes to developing a healthy society and supporting local communities in key destinations to thrive and progress.
• Ensuring compliance with laws and regulations in every market, conducting our business with integrity and respect and championing human rights with all of our partners.
• Using our strategic position in the TravelTech space to influence, create alliances and support our stakeholders in their own ESG path.

I enjoy creating projects that can help to improve society and our environment, as our challenges in this area have not changed, but how we approach them must evolve. At the heart of it lies the need to invest in our planet, to #MakeADifference and to make travel a force for good.